Seven Years Later: Disney buys Muppets and Bear

[piggyinmanhatte]

There hasn't been a prime time Muppet Show since Muppets Tonight which is now over 10 years ago, and that show was awesome! And I strongly feel there hasn't been a good movie since Muppet Treasure Island and It's a Very Merry Muppet Christmas Movie.

I heartily agree with you.

 

[Yorick]

In short: To me, Lion King was an instant classic, and I liked Letters From Santa more than Very Merry Muppet Christmas (though it had it's moments).

 

[Drtooth]

Lion King is one of my favorite movies from Disney. And the sequel is one of the few to do justice to the original film... never saw 1 1/2 though, And Timon and Pumbaa are my favorite characters.

To me, Disney's worst films were Pocahontas and Home on the Range for 2 distinctly different reasons. Poc was trying too hard to be a classic, Home didn't try period. Home felt like an off brand Dreamworks CGI wanna be in the form of a Disney 2-D animated film. Poc was too preachy to be fun, took itself too seriously and the animal characters were weak comic relief. Home was a non-stop goof fest, it had no direction, and the animal characters were weak comic relief, AND Cuba Gooding Jr. is in it (He annoys me). I did like the villain being an unappreciated Yodeler in Home, though... only good part of the movie. That and the weak backhand at Dreamworks "Hey, Spirit of the Cim-moron!" Take that Shrek, who's villain was a caricature of Eisner! of course, I'm only yalking about their in house 2-D films... now Dinosaur was just LOOOOOOOOONG and boring. And I refuse to accept Vanguard or The Wild as Disney films. I also refuse to watch them.

 

[RedPiggy]

1 1/2 is kind of like a MST3K treatment of the first movie, but only at the beginning and the end, with the rest just a look at what Timon and Pumbaa were doing while offscreen in the first. It's touching in spots but it's definitely a very light-hearted look. It can be touching, such as fleshing out their relationship with Kid Simba after they find the oasis, but even then it's almost sarcastic.

 

[Drtooth]

How would you compare it to the Timon and Pumbaa cartoon series? Is it anything closer to that?

 

[RedPiggy]

I think so, but better drawn, LOL. Artwise it seemed to be like a cross between the movie and the cartoon. I thought it was hilarious. It uses a tune from the Pridelands CD, though it was about Pumbaa on the CD and it's about Timon in the movie (Warthog Rhapsody or something like that). Timon's backstory seems to be taken from that same CD's version of Hakuna Matata, which focuses more on Timon not fitting in with the meerkat collective. And Timon proposing to Shenzi is just fall-on-the-floor funny, at least it was to me.

 

[beaker]

Paging Dr Tooth:

The film you were totally looking forward to(or not) "Gnomeo And Juliet" had once again taken the top spot in its third week of release:
http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/41810181/ns/today-entertainment/

Eeeps!

 

[Drtooth]

This is what I'm afraid of. Garbage kid's films that ONLY get high ratings at the box office because they're the ONLY kid's films out there... and the only reason why people are going to movies is because they need to baby sit their booger eating brats for an hour and a half. Same reason Yogi Bear did well.

Rango's gonna kick it's butt.... at least I hope it is.

What I can't wait for is the 50 DTV sequels Gnomecrap's going to get.

 

[Daffney]

(Noticed that the thread was getting off topic.)

I do have mixed feelings on the Disney ownership.

In its defense, it was always Jim's desire to have the Muppets at Disney. A deal with Disney buying the Henson company was almost a go-ahead, but Jim died the week he was to sign the contract and the Henson kids kept the company and the Muppets private.

Still, Disney and Henson had a partnership over the early '90's. We had the two Muppet movie treats and a new Muppet show. Plus, Muppet*Vision 3D at Disney-MGM Studios. And as a cherry on top, Disney gave Henson their own video division and there was a lot of releases.

Them by late 1996, Henson took themselves and the Muppets to Sony. Things took a turn for the worse for the Muppets, and by the time Henson was bought by EM.TV things were very dark.

Disney decided it was time to reunite with the Muppets, so they bought them and Bear from Henson in 2004. When I heard about this, I hoped for the best.

Well, we did get the first three seasons of The Muppet Show on DVD, plus re-rereleases of four Muppet movies (even though they had lackluster special features). Aside from that, Disney didn't do allot with the Muppets. Okay, there were a few tv specials, but while Letters from Santa was decent, Studio DC was quite painful.

I still have hopes that the upcoming movie will be the Muppets' finest hour.

 

[Drtooth]

Studio DC was an unfortunate experiment. They wanted to try to promote the characters to the tweenagers... this was a period in time when they still only cared about that demographic. Dark days indeed. Now all three High School Musical movies are selling in the bargain bin, Hanna Montana stuff has been cleared out at ruthlessly low prices (90% off), and Phineas and Ferb, a CARTOON, is getting the focus those shows once had. Things are a step in the right direction... though I want to see a better vehicle for Mickey, Goofy and the gang than a Dora clone kid's show... Epic Mickey should be a cartoon series or something.

Now, until recently when they're either resting up before the big match, or just not caring until after Cars 2 comes out, I feel they've been doing a great job. Sure, we've had 4 unfinished projects, but that's about a million less than Henson has, and those projects were inconsequential... really, did we REALLY want to see a Reality Competition parody?

However, the movie's going to be here before you know it... sure, they just finished filming not even a month ago and the players deserve a nice rest (unless they're working on Sesame Street stuff), but once their vacation is over, it's time to round them back up, make more virals, and promote the heck out of the movie and the brand.