Nine Years Later: Disney buys Muppets and Bear

[dwayne1115]

Well I would like to see what Disney would do with The Muppet Babies.

 

[Duke Remington]

I remember reading in a recent Muppet Mindset article that a "reliable source" told Ryan Dosier that Season 4 will be released when the next movie comes out.

I also remember OpenVaultDisney's post that stated that Disney still wants to release the remaining Muppet Show seasons, but still haven't gotten all the music rights cleared yet.

However, this clearly isn't the first we had to wait several long years for a DVD line to resume. For example: Sesame Street's Old School sets took a five-year siesta between the release of Volume 2 (2007) and the release of Volume 3 (in 2012). If Sesame can revive it's Old School DVD line, the Muppet Show seasons can continue too.

 

[Duke Remington]

Well I would like to see what Disney would do with The Muppet Babies.

I think one of the reasons why Disney has been sitting on Muppet Babies is because they're focusing mainly on re-introducing the classic adult versions of the Muppet characters and trying to return them to their "created for adults, but can still be enjoyed by people of all ages" roots and keep them from being dismissed as a "kiddie" property as they had been for a number of years both before and after Jim's death.

 

[minor muppetz]

I think one of the reasons why Disney has been sitting on Muppet Babies is because they're focusing mainly on re-introducing the classic adult versions of the Muppet characters and trying to return them to their "created for adults, but can still be enjoyed by people of all ages" roots and keep them from being dismissed as a "kiddie" property as they had been for a number of years both before and after Jim's death.

I wonder if that's also why Disney hasn't rereleased the Play-Along or Sing-Along videos. With the possible exception of the "It's Not Easy Being Green" sing-along video (which has clips from a few productions Henson has retained the rights to), those have all-original music that wouldn't need to be cleared, but are aimed at younger kids.

 

[Muppet fan 123]

The worst thing Disney can do now is to make a Disney Junior show out of the Muppets, I don't think they will, but I still can't believe Jim signed on to make Muppet Babies. It could still possibly happen with Disney.

I don't think anyone was expecting Muppet Babies to be made. They finally convinced the world that Muppets/Puppets can be for adults too. By making Muppet Babies they went straight back to Square One.

I'm just saying, Disney, stay far away from the kiddie stuff for now. Bad idea to touch any of the Muppet Babies episodes right now.

 

[Squigiman]

Hey Folks,
Just catching up on this thread. Based on others echoing my own sentiments, I must again plug this page: http://www.facebook.com/MoreClassicMuppetHomeVideo . 134 likes is next to nothing, in the scheme of social media making things happen. Like this, and spread the word, too. Let's show them that we want this stuff with NUMBERS. Those numbers will then translate to DOLLARS. That's what works for big corporations.

Also, on side-notes, Palisades sadly went under, leading to the Muppet line ending, as well as the Sesame line not getting started. I wish another company could pick up where they left off, because they were great at good representations of the characters in a fairly consistent style and scale, with great sculpts, paint, articulation and accessories. Even beyond just my Muppet fandom, for what it was, it was a wonderful action figure line.

Also, Muppet Babies was GREAT! Yeah, it might have made people view Muppets as more for kids, but there was plenty of other stuff out there that countered that limited view. If they could release a complete series, I'd buy it. It was a fun show all about imagination. Sure, that led to a ton of use of clips from all over pop-culture, making it likely harder to clear everything than TMS, but if they'd make it happen, I'd be in.


-Zach

 

[BobThePizzaBoy]

Here's what I don't get about the whole Muppet Babies situation: A quick check of Muppet Wiki clearly indicates plenty of episodes from the show's run have been released commercially. If use of copyrighted film footage from different companies was the problem getting the show on DVD, how come it's no problem to release them in 2004 but not in 2012? I can't say I'd ever need a box set of the show, but the fact that it was one of the first kid's cartoons to really gain an adult fanbase during it's original run and was the marketing behemoth it was in the late 80s into the 90s, putting the show out on DVD wouldn't hurt the franchise as a whole in the long-term.

 

[minor muppetz]

Also, on side-notes, Palisades sadly went under, leading to the Muppet line ending, as well as the Sesame line not getting started.

Actually, Palisades went under after the Muppets license expired. You are correct that the Sesame Street line didn't get started because of the company going under, though.

Here's what I don't get about the whole Muppet Babies situation: A quick check of Muppet Wiki clearly indicates plenty of episodes from the show's run have been released commercially. If use of copyrighted film footage from different companies was the problem getting the show on DVD, how come it's no problem to release them in 2004 but not in 2012? I can't say I'd ever need a box set of the show, but the fact that it was one of the first kid's cartoons to really gain an adult fanbase during it's original run and was the marketing behemoth it was in the late 80s into the 90s, putting the show out on DVD wouldn't hurt the franchise as a whole in the long-term.

I think I mentioned this in a previous post, but recently somebody who claimed to be in charge of clearing all of the footage used on the show posted in the comments section of an interview with one of the voice actors that when the rights were cleared, it was for every possible media format in every country with no expiration date. I believe he was who he says he was, but who knows if he was lying?

Of course it seems the majority of episodes that have been released on video are from the last season, and I've heard that season doesn't contain any copyrighted clips (only public domain footage and scenes from certain Henson productions). I've only seen a handful of Muppet Babies video releases. Can anybody tell me if the Star Wars footage from Muppet Babies: The Next Generation was cut from the Time to Play VHS?

 

[mupcollector1]

Nine years huh? Where do I begin? lol

All I'm going to say is, there was some good things that came out like The Muppets (2011), From The Balcony (Not sure if that was during the Disney deal or not but that was my favorite that came out of the Disney deal). But to just simply put my opinion on the table, it's not the same as when The Jim Henson Company did things.
There's things that were made that I disagree and so many thoughts and opinions about it all with but I won't mention them because I know there's fans that like the new stuff. But I prefer The Classic Muppets, Muppets Tonight, Muppet Treasure Island and Muppet Christmas Carol the best. From The Balcony I enjoyed and watched every episode when it was out on movies.com, lot of good ones and some where kind of strange. The new movie was okay, but perhaps it's best to just leave it at that.

 

[Drtooth]

But to just simply put my opinion on the table, it's not the same as when The Jim Henson Company did things.

You do realize that, unlike Disney, Henson has been trying to get so many projects off the ground that they've become a joke even to their fans. Disney was able to get one movie out there, and another in production. Henson tried a Dark Crystal movie, a Fraggle Rock movie, Happytown Murders, and I swear there was one more. The only movie that came out from them was a Sid the Science Kid film that got released directly to video with great apathy and ennui. To be fair, they had some CGI TV shows, one puppet based show, and a touring puppet improv group. That's good stuff, sure... but that's kinda underwhelming.

Here's the cold hard truth. If JHC still owned the Muppets, we'd look forward to news of 3 different DTV/telefilm projects that would be in development purgatory until the weakest of the scripts gets produced. And it's full of D list celebrities and tired pop culture jokes, and we'd be eh... okay with it I guess. At Best. It would do okay, but it would be far from a theatrical film. Nothing to get excited over. It doesn't matter how much someone's naggy nostalgia likes to sour their minds to new projects, we got a very good theatrical movie relaunch. MFS was the Muppets' Batman and Robin, and studio ennui on both sides ruined the potential for an ehhh,... pretty good film. There's a lot of angles Disney isn't perfect, but at least when the Muppets make a movie, the Weinstine brothers don't try to screw the film's production up so they don't have to spend a dime on something that isn't vanity plate Oscar Bait.