I'd like to add a brief commentary as to why I personally think this will be a failure, and not just because of the phase shift.
The year is 1992. The day is December 11. 'The Muppet Christmas Carol' is released in the US to millions of fans eagerly waiting for the next Muppet motion picture. This film would soon gross $27,281,507 in the theaters.
The year is 1996. The day is March 15. 'Muppet Treasure Island' is released in the US to millions of fans eagerly waiting for the next Muppet motion picture. This film would soon gross $33,609,000 in the theaters.
The year is 1979. The day is June 22. 'The Muppet Movie' is released in the US to millions of fans eagerly waiting for the first Muppet motion picture. This film would soon gross $76,657,507 in the theaters, and would eventually gross $32,000,000 in video rental sales alone.
And that was in 1979 VS 1996 -- WITHOUT inflation factored in. The VIDEO RENTAL sales of TMM ALONE outsold that of MCC, nearly going over MTI -- WITHOUT inflation factored in. Get my point?
It's not that the 'classic tale' retelling movies are bad -- they aren't. Compared to most other children's movies, they're titans. But compared to the classic original Muppet films, they're ants.
All stats from imdb.com.
:edit: And don't even get me started on 'Muppet Classic Theatre'...