Poll: Will The Muppet Babies Ever Return

[dwayne1115]

I thought it would be interesting to start a poll about our beloved, but unused at this time Muppet Babies. Yes throughout the late 80's and early 90's the Muppet Babies where in there prime, but now sadly it seems that they have been lost and locked away deep in a Walt Disney vault never to be seen or heard from again. The show and it's characters have a huge following that would only grow by leaps and bounds if only they where used. So I come to you the fans of this great show and ask for your thoughts, your options, and your wish list of what this show and it's characters could do.

 

[muppetlover123]

I think it should be CGI now

 

[Drtooth]

Disney has been pretty good at reestablishing the Muppets so far.

I don't think Muppet Babies coming back will help that very much. For the longest time, the Adaption Displacement of the easy to access Saturday morning Cartoon vs the only available on home video movies and TV show of the original Muppets kinda skewed the franchise back to the Baby roots. I wouldn't like that to be a huge hiccup for the franchise.

On the other hand, the best chance for Muppet babies baby products would have been a couple years back.

I don't see a new TV show in any circumstance, but it's probably more likely than a full Muppet Show comeback.

 

[jvcarroll]

I've never been shy of admitting to not being a big fan of the Muppet Babies program. I enjoyed the first couple seasons as a kid. The original music and mixed media techniques were intriguing, but I couldn't get over the shrill voice work (particularly with Piggy), shoddy animation or the way that every character is reduced to a very simple and bland form of their older puppet self. I understand all of the rationalizations for the choices made, yet I still feel that the Muppet Babies weakened the physical Muppet brand and they're still trying to break out of that mold. There are too many people who think first of the Muppet Babies when people say the word Muppet and I want that to change.

The property still means something to many people and that shouldn't be ignored either. For that reason, I hope the Muppet Babies will return. Maybe even with new, higher quality content. I just think that the real Muppet brand should be strengthened first. I'd prefer Disney to hold-off on the Muppet Babies for another five years or so. Or at least until after all seasons of the Muppet Show are available on home video.

 

[Drtooth]

I really like the show and think it's a great preschool series, but I agree with the rest of the logic. Disney has done a pretty good job of building the brand back up. They don't need to muck things up with subbrands. It's not quite as strong as Marvel, Star Wars, or Cars. The original Muppets need to speak for themselves first.

I can see Muppet Babies slowly emerging as a preschool product brand. Baby notions, safe baby toys, toddler clothing. That's what they should do once The Muppets are completely settled.

As for a cartoon, potential future series or original series... I think a new series for Disney Junior could work, but Disney had enough of a problem juggling Pooh and Mickey preschool shows with their respective brands. Pooh somehow appeals to babies and middle aged women, and not too much in between. That's why the last movie flopped. Glob knows we don't need that to happen to the Muppets. As for the classic series. Sure, I'd love for it to hit DVD. Except Disney hates DVD Box Sets of TV shows. The Disney Afternoon collections (only 6 of 13 even got box set releases) were all unfinished. They didn't even bother with movie tie-in releases of any of their other shows (i.e. Aladdin or Buzz Lightyear of Star Command... and they milked the crap out of everything else Toy Story related)... not even their current animated hits, like Phineas and Ferb or Ultimate Spider-Man got complete sets. Sure... they did get out the Marvel cartoon shows Fantastic Four 94, X-Men, and Avengers completely on DVD... but only FF got a proper set, and the rest got single disk releases. Heck, they didn't even give The Tick a 3rd season set release and the other 2 seasons are missing an episode each.

 

[dwayne1115]

You keep saying that Disney has done, an fairly good job with the Muppets, but have you recently seen what Disney owns regarding the Muppets. They could do so much with them, and that includes the Muppet Babies. At the very lest they could release the old show, and it would not hurt with what they are trying to do with re-launching the Muppets.

 

[Drtooth]

If Disney were to relaunch a Muppet Related preschool franchise, I'd rather they actually do something with Bear in the Big Blue House.

As for Muppet Babies, think of it this way.

MTM was the last theatrical Muppet movie made during Jim's life. The only other Muppet projects before the ill-fated Jim Henson Hour were a couple TV specials. The only major Muppet project going at the time was Muppet Babies. And like Jamie said, that kinda hurt the Muppet brand, making it sink lower and lower into the for kid's level (of course, the Play-along videos have me thinking Jim was planning to focus the Muppet brand to kids anyway, while creature shop films and projects would focus on older audiences). Muppet Babies was essentially the only major Muppet project in the 80's, and it lasted until the 90's.

Not to mention the fact that Disney has waaaaay too many brands. And in there, subbrands. Marvel can hold itself up with each character and any variation of it (though Super Hero Squad is long gone), I'm sure we'll start seeing their plans for Star Wars soon enough. Not to mention their main children's lines of Cars, Princesses, Fairies, and various preschool programming. Like I said before, Mickey and Co were finally getting recognition, but only recently has it come from something other than a preschool show mixed with nostalgic merchandising. And the Pooh Movie flopped because it was broken down into a preschool only franchise, killing the nostalgia factor and replacing it with overexposure.

I'd say a good time to bring Muppet Babies back would be after MMW, if it does well. And even so, quite a bit after that.

 

[dwayne1115]

I can understand that, and your right it does look like they are putting Marvel almost everywhere. I would not be surprised to see Iron Man on Mickey Mouse Clubhouse one day.