The LETDOWN of Disney

[Muppet Newsgirl]

I don't trust Disney at all these days. The way I see it, they're not concerned with making good films these days; they're just obsessed with bringing in money and being so "hip" it's disgusting.

Not to offend anyone or anything, but my mother thinks that Disney's ownership of the Muppets these days is just plain wrong.

 

[CensoredAlso]

It's very easy to forget that for nearly 20 years after Walt's death, the company was in a serious downfall. While we envision them as being a giant corporation forever, we forget that the re-birth really didn't start till the mid 80's. The muppets aren't as big of a property as disney was, so it's going to take even more work and time to built them back up.

Interesting note: I saw The Muppets' appearance on 60 Minutes from 1979, and the narrator compared The Muppets' popularity (during the run of The Muppet Show) to the former heyday of Disney. Ironic, The Muppets were at their most popular when Disney was floundering.

 

[Vic Romano]

MustangRockstar; I could not agree with you MORE! Especially:

The Henson kids, with all due respect, didn't have the vision of their father.

Frank Oz was effectivly done from that moment on.

There simply wasn't enough product to keep a generation interested.

In short, the people running the muppets REALLY dropped the ball.

Now we can sit here and blame Disney all we want but let's take a cold, hard and painful look at the facts.

I can't understand why everyone wants to blame Disney when the problem has been around for over a decade. I will admit that lately, more and more fans are coming forward with their disappointment in the Muppets, but to blame Disney is ridiculous. The Muppets are Jim, and without his leadership and creativity, it's non-existent. Walt Disney himself had the benefit of his legendary "9 old men" who shared his vision and were able to carry it on. Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately in a grander sense), Jim was one in a million. Brian and the rest of the family are very talented, but they're not their father... no one is, and the Muppets have suffered ever since.

 

[unclematt]

MustangRockstar, I agree 100%. What Disney needs to do is go out and find the next Jim Henson and put him in charge of The Muppets Holding Company. There are plenty of people that share Jim's vision. The question is are there people capapble of acting to see that vision become a reality.

 

[Tim]

I couldn't have said it better. I think that if the Muppets are going to be owned by anyone, Disney has the potential of being the best place for them I remember the press saying as the original deal was going through, that it was "a marraige made in show business heaven", and at the time that was true. With Jim's death, the company floundered and failed, and the product was dissapointing at best.

Even with the now legendary stories of Eisner and his ego, you can't blame Disney for the current state of The Muppets. If the product put out by Henson post Jim had been good, like what continued to come from Disney when Walt died, things would be very different. At the moment, Disney is not about to throw good money after bad. And froma corporate stand point-would you?

I think there are indeed a LOT of great new Muppet items available, but this just confirms to me what Joel Hodgeson (MST3K) told me. That Henson is just a licensing company now that happens to put out the occasional bad film or TV show.

I remember about the time of the "60 Minutes" interveiw the press calling Kermit the "Mickey Mouse of the 70's". Those words take on a whole different meaning for me now.

 

[Ilikemuppets]

Wow MustangRockstar, that certainly made me look at things in a differently.

You know, I think Jim Henson Himself said it best in an interview, when asked how long he thought the Muppet's would last, to which he responded with something like " If the public likes us, well stay, if they don't anymore, then well go away". Plain and simple and that's the reality of it, so it's just a matter of the court of public opinion. I personally an not going to worry about this matter and just wait this out and see what happens.

 

[MustangRockstar]

Believe me guys, for as much of a Disney fan as I am they too can bug the heck out of me. But as I said, I just don't think this is their fault.

Watching the Muppets since Jim's death has been sad actually. The Decline of The Henson company was more than just the decline of the muppets, it was the creature shop and also a certain culture of creativity.

In all fairness, when we think of the muppets and our love for them what do we typically thing about?

The Muppet Show? Muppet Movie? Muppet Caper? Etc.

All of those are from the mid 70's to the mid 80's. For me the last true part of that heyday was Muppet Family Christmas. That's just for me personally, but the fact is that it's still almost 20 years ago. That's 20 years (if not more if you believe it started before hand) that things have really declined.

And part of me is begining to suspect that maybe society changed a little bit too much too. By the early 90's our society in the states at least really started to turn. Shows like The Cosby Show, The Muppets and even Saturday Morning Cartoons began to vanish.

If we remember even Jim himself was having a hard time with the muppets in the early 90's (Muppet's Tonight, The Storyteller, etc.)

If Disney is going to fix this (and unfortunatly they might not be able to fix what the general public just doesn't want anymore) it's going to take time. But the truth is I've seen better merchandise since the Disney deal than before it. In order to build anything for the future, Disney must first get people interested in the past. Thus we see the DVD's, the videos, the replicas, etc. That's the starting point for a possible comeback, it's not just going to happen at the snap of a finger and a show that suddenly people will discover. Right now there best hope is to market to the 20 and 30 somethings so that they raise their kids with the muppets (Disney did a similar approach with Baby Boomers in the 80's when they were having kids). Once they actual can produce a younger generation that is aware of the muppets, then and only then will things fall back into place.

 

[Beauregard]

Here's what I've been thinking...in a time of racial intolerance and loads of movies emphasising this, (Anyone for X-men? Or Crash which happened to win some nice big awards?), and if I remember correctly, the Muppet's are definatly something that pulls together different races (It's not that easy being green...) into a movie. I think now is a perfect time for them to drop an anti-racist movie onto the market, dealing with some of these issues of today...they can and they would make an impact.


Oh, and they would sell...

 

[OverUnderAround]

I can't understand why everyone wants to blame Disney when the problem has been around for over a decade.

Very true. It's a problem that's been around for a while, but at least for me when I read things like this quote from Forbes Magazine; "Last year (Disney), generated nearly $2.5 billion in free cash flow on a gargantuan $31.9 billion in revenue." It does make one wonder why Disney hasn't taken action.

 

[OverUnderAround]

What Disney needs to do is go out and find the next Jim Henson and put him in charge of The Muppets Holding Company. There are plenty of people that share Jim's vision. The question is are there people capapble of acting to see that vision become a reality.

How about the MHC being lead by:
Bernie Brillstein (Jim's agent)- Think of all the shows Bernie must have booked for Jim during his life, that's a guy I'd like in charge!
David Lazer
and creative consultant Frank Oz.