Pre-Order The Muppets Original Soundtrack

[Drtooth]

The Muppet Movie soundtrack had some dialogue from the film between some of the songs, and those audio clips weren't listed as seperate tracks. I assume the other movie soundtracks also had between-song audio clips (the only other one I've heard is the Muppets From Space soundtrack, which doesn't). The various Muppet Show albums (not to mention Kermit Unpigged and probably Muppet Beach Party) also had dialogue between the songs without being seperate tracks.

If it helps, when they used to release Simpsons Soundtracks... soundtracks, mind you, not the original song albums, the lines of dialogue, unless they were included in the "medley" which featured a song track were usually separate. in fact, they were listed separately as the case here.

 

[Frogpuppeteer]

The Grinch soundtrack had some dialog tracks on it not attached to any songs

 

[Beauregard]

I personally prefer the idea of having the dialogue tracks separate, so you can have just the songs on your iPod, or you can listen to it all connected, according to choice. Nothing winds me up more than songs with talky-intros, added rapping in the middle or people chatting over them (I'm looking at YOU Beach Party and Red and Green Christmas Rizzo and Gonzo's Most Wonderful Time of the Year.)

 

[minor muppetz]

If it helps, when they used to release Simpsons Soundtracks... soundtracks, mind you, not the original song albums, the lines of dialogue, unless they were included in the "medley" which featured a song track were usually separate. in fact, they were listed separately as the case here.

I forgot about that.

I personally prefer the idea of having the dialogue tracks separate, so you can have just the songs on your iPod, or you can listen to it all connected, according to choice. Nothing winds me up more than songs with talky-intros, added rapping in the middle or people chatting over them (I'm looking at YOU Beach Party and Red and Green Christmas Rizzo and Gonzo's Most Wonderful Time of the Year.)

If dialogue tracks lead to music tracks it can be good to hear them back-to-back on the album, but if listening on an ipod, if listening to tracks in the usual alphabetical tracklist instead of by album, I imagine it could be annoying listening to a track but not getting the song afterwards.

 

[Frogster]

Few people know this, but "Me Party" and "Let's Talk About Me" were inspired by Toby Keith.

 

[TSSD]

Jim Hill just posted a review of the album, and it's pretty positive! Now I can't wait even more! I am a bit worried about the one bad thing he said about the album, which is that there were a few off Muppet voices.

 

[Beauregard]

Jim Hill just posted a review of the album, and it's pretty positive! Now I can't wait even more! I am a bit worried about the one bad thing he said about the album, which is that there were a few off Muppet voices.

Nice article though! Hi Beau in the picture!

 

[Duke Remington]

I really wish people would stop using the whole "wrong-sounding Muppets" thing.

It's gotten well-beyond annoying.

 

[Drtooth]

I really wish people would stop using the whole "wrong-sounding Muppets" thing.

It's gotten well-beyond annoying.

Bugs Bunny in the Beatles cover album was a LOT more wrong sounding than any Muppet recast. And honestly, I barely even mind that. Billy West in the Elvis cover album did a better job. But I'm rambling.

 

[Duke Remington]

Bugs Bunny in the Beatles cover album was a LOT more wrong sounding than any Muppet recast. And honestly, I barely even mind that. Billy West in the Elvis cover album did a better job. But I'm rambling.

Also, there's more to a character than just a voice. It's about the "performance". And the current Muppet performers have been giving great performances.

Who cares if the current voices sound slightly different from the originals? Don't tell me people prefer stale copies.

Saying the ever-so-stupid "wrong-sounding Muppets" thing is exactly the same as if someone were to say that Mickey Mouse has sounded "wrong" since Walt Disney stopped voicing him or that Donald Duck has sounded "wrong" since Clarence Nash died, thus it would be like slamming Wayne Allwine, Bret Iwan, Tony Anselmo, etc. (all of whom have done wonderful jobs of carrying on the legacies of those characters and "plussing" them), which would be awfully wrong.

I also left an anonymous comment on Jim Hill's article, stating my distaste for the use of the "wrong-sounding Muppets" term, and here's what he said in response:

RE: "Wrong-sounding-Muppets" claim being " ... highly annoying, ridiculous and untrue."

Really? Okay. When you pick up your copy of the original soundtrack of Disney's "The Muppets," listen to how Doctor Teeth sounds. Whoever's handling that character these days is doing a grade-school-pageant approximation of what Jim Henson used to do with the good Doctor. It's close ... But still off just enough that -- as you listen to Doctor Teeth talk & sing these days -- you actually think "That's not how that character used to sound."

Look, I know. Jim Henson's dead. As is Richard Hunt. Frank Oz no longer works with the Muppets. And Jerry Nelson is retired. So if the Muppets are actually going to continue, new puppeteers are then going to have to step in and voice and perform these characters.

The reason that I brought this issue up is that people have actually been talking about this issue for the past 5 years or so (That "Family Guy" joke didn't come clear out of the view, you know). And since the Muppets are now owned by The Walt Disney Company (which actually has a character voice department that is dedicated to maintaining consistency when it comes to vocal style & performance. Especially when it comes to Disney's evergreen characters like Mickey Mouse, Winnie the Pooh, Snow White et al) ... It just seems kind of strange to me that Disney hasn't addressed this issue yet. At least when it comes to items that will (in theory, anyway) have very long shelf lives, like the Disney's "The Muppets" soundtrack recording.

Perhaps if this Walt Disney Picture release proves to be a hit, Disney's character voice department will then step in and offer Muppet Studios a hand when it comes to finding just the right performer to voice each individual Muppet character. Where this might get a little tricky is ... Well, the folks who actually puppeteer the Muppets have traditionally been the people who then get to voice these characters. So -- in order to get all of these characters sounding like themselves again -- that may then mean that Muppet Studios has to now step away from this 50+-year tradition and perhaps begin doing some looping of individual Muppet characters as these movies & TV shows move through their post-production phases.

Again, just to be clear here, it's not all of the Muppets who sound off. Just a few individual characters here and there. But if you're a longtime Muppet fan as I am, something like that is just enough to sometimes pull you out of a movie or a TV show for a moment or two. And given that a lot of what the Muppets do actually depends on the suspension of disbelief (i.e. that's not a piece of felt at the end of some guy's arm. That's a living, breathing character), a tiny glitch like that can sometimes prove to be pretty deadly.

As much as I take Mr. Hill's side in a number of situations, I think his reply here was very mean and showing that he just doesn't understand.

And his slam against Dr. Teeth's current voice, I take as a slam against poor Bill Barretta.