Redesigned Muppets for "The Muppets" movie

[Duke Remington]

And Fozzie's overbite kind of suggests he's lacking intelligence, and I think squaring up his face may give him more assertiveness as Kermit's #2 (i.e. lining the mouth up). I know he looked the same in MTM but I think it was the fact that Oz performed him that most people overlooked it.

Again with the Eric Jacobson-bashing?

I know you still miss Frank Oz, but it's for the best that we all just wish him well and respect the fact that he just doesn't want to be involved with the Muppets anymore. He wasn't fired or anything--he made the decision himself to move on.

Getting back on-topic, I kinda agree with Frogboy on Gonzo, but not completely. I loved the previous Gonzo, but the current one isn't too bad.

Overall, all the current puppet styles look pretty good. I know I might get lynched for this, but I sometimes think that we complain and nitpick too much about the puppets' styles and compare them too much to the past versions. I share the sentimentality about maintaining the essence of the characters, but instead, I think it would just be a lot better to just sit back, relax and enjoy the show.

 

[Drtooth]

I can't say I'm a complete perfectionist, there have been better and worse designs of characters. It seems to me that the further puppet building technology and technique goes, the less it becomes perfected and the more it becomes over-perfected. Some characters begin to look better than they ever have, some lose certain slight imperfections that actually tended to look good and gave more personality. And it's not just Muppet Show characters, even Sesame Street characters have this problem in cased. Ernie and Bert especially... and for a time, Cookie Monster was so overly perfected, his look was all over the map. Sometimes he looked like a stuffed couch, sometimes he looked absolutely wonderful.

Redesigns should never EVER get in the way of expressiveness, and I think there's something odd with roundface/overbite Fozzie verses more pineapple shaped head Fozzie. Piggy just hasn't looked right since MTI, but I thank FROG that Janice lost her mid80's Pony tail she had up until... I dunno... I guess MupOz? I know definitely before Studio DC...

 

[Muppetfan44]

I've closely watched the two trailers and for the most part, I think the puppets look great! It almost seems to me like many of them have been restored to their original amazing quality they had on the Muppet Show, looking both new and classic at the same time, which is really neat.

The only two things that I don't like are Gonzo's face and Sam the Eagle's eyebrow. I looked at the side-by-side comparison picture that frogboy4 put up and there is something about the new Gonzo's eyes and mouth shape that I really don't like. His eyes make him look like he went though a seizure and his new mouth shape tends to make him look sad all the time. Sam's eyebrows are way too big and make him look a lot sterner and rigid than he needs to be.

I also noticed a change with one of the Piggy puppets. With the green with envy trailer, the short-haired Piggy we see looks like her eyes and possibly head shape are different than the long-haired Piggy puppet we see in the Fuzzy Pack trailer. I'm not a fan of the short hair, but I do like how the eyes are more darkened underneath (like she is weaing eye-liner). I love the Piggy puppet with the long hair; her face shape looks fantastic, but I don't know why they have her wearing her traditional pearls plus another necklace. That seems very un-Piggy like and a definite fashion faux pas, lol.

Overall though the puppets look great and I can't wait until we see some longer shots of them to better compare

 

[Erine81981]

I don't see anything wrong with any of the Muppets. I'm jsut glad to see a new movie coming out. I just hope to maybe see a cameo by a Sesame Street muppet. How cool would that be? To see Big Bird or Oscar or even maybe Grover? Elmo i wouldn't mind see too but oh well.

 

[frogboy4]

Muppet Designs Through The Years: Muppet Wiki

The Muppets have had some wildly different designs through the years. The Muppet Wiki has done a nice job archiving some of them:

Kermit, Miss Piggy, Fozzie, Gonzo, Scooter, Janice, Floyd, Zoot, Sam, Bunsen, Statler & Waldorf.

Thoughts?

 

[Beauregard]

Something that I've seen raised on other forums (*cough* TP *cough*) is that the Lighting is very important, and the gradient of the film. Some of the intense colors of the new film have a Glee/Pushing Daisies feel to them, rather than the mote muted original Muppet Movie.

 

[LamangoNumber2]

I still think they should do Rowlf, Dr. Teeth, Animal, Robin, and Lew Zealand should have 'Through the years' pages.

 

[Beauregard]

It's a wiki! Feel free to have a play around at putting those pages up, le Mango!

 

[Stulz]

I maintain that while certain characters have looked better at different times, the best the majority of the characters looked is from Muppets Take Manhattan through Muppet Family Christmas.

 

[TikiColadas]

I loved the designs and looks of the characters in The Great Muppet Caper especially Kermit, Piggy, Fozie and Gonzo. They seemed well defined and Miss Piggy was perfect! Kemit's design in Muppets Take Manhattan was superb!