The State of the Muppets (& Suggestions)

[jvcarroll]

As a lifelong fan, I've been thinking about the future of the Muppets and have come up with a few ideas.

The State of the Muppets

First off, Muppets Most Wanted is a fantastic film much more in the classic tradition than its predecessor! Everyone associated with the movie should be proud.

Disney shouldn't run from this new Muppet formula. It works. I don’t know why the film didn’t fare better. My only solution is that sometimes things like that just happen. That was one heck of a sharp marketing campaign. The faux Twitter battle was brilliant! I even liked the tie-in ads for Lipton, Go-Gurt, Toyota and Subway. Bring on more of that if it helps. The Muppets are first and foremost creatures of television and maybe that’s where they should be before pursuing more movies. That used to be how it works.

Disney definitely should think about bringing the Muppets back to television. I think ABCs Sunday night slot held by America’s Funniest Home Videos is ripe for the Muppets. It’s right before prime time and leads into Once Upon A Time. There are also so many alternative options considering the popularity of Netflix, Hulu and other streaming services. Just please don’t kiddify them and stick them on the Disney Channel.

Someone please replace that bizarre M logo. My guess is that the new lettering is supposed to lend the Muppets some sort of Pixar-esque sophistication. It doesn’t. The M is basically a decapitated Kermit with his back turned to us and the typography is in black block letters. The Muppets are colorful and stylish! Bring back the classic Muppets logo and update it as has been done in this recent box. It’s exciting and memorable.

And as for the poster art, the Entertainment Weekly spreads are the best way to go. Those are beautiful! The drag-and-drop Photoshopping of clip art doesn’t quite work. Disney has the poser puppets. I guarantee you they’re very agreeable and keep amazingly still during photoshoots.

​

I also think more television appearances could be key. The Jimmy Fallon was amazing and it shows that the Muppets don't need to have a full fledged movie campaign in order to have gravitas and relevance. They helped shaped the comedic talents of today.

Anyone else have thoughts on this?

 

[Eyeball]

Hmmm, a lot of what you're saying I agree with but I thought the advertising for MMW kinda sucked I mean yes it's all fine and dandy with them being at subway but I didn't see one advertisement on telly heck not even a poster on the side of a bus which didn't really give them the exposure to younger/first time viewers to stay relevant. Also I quite like the new logo it's clean, it's modern and looks nice on posters/dvd's and such and won't draw the eye away from the focal point or characters on the said poster or box.

 

[jvcarroll]

Hmmm, a lot of what you're saying I agree with but I thought the advertising for MMW kinda sucked I mean yes it's all fine and dandy with them being at subway but I didn't see one advertisement on telly heck not even a poster on the side of a bus which didn't really give them the exposure to younger/first time viewers to stay relevant. Also I quite like the new logo it's clean, it's modern and looks nice on posters/dvd's and such and won't draw the eye away from the focal point or characters on the said poster or box.

Really? I guess it's different in the states. There was no shortage of promotion in San Francisco and the TV ads played around the clock in national spots.

I still say ew to the new logo. I just don't understand using something other than the classic branding unless there's something truly unique about it. That M, while recognizable, just seems lazy...and decapitated. The Muppets are already strongly branded with the stylish script. All that bland cuteness is not really needed.

 

[Eyeball]

Really? I guess it's different in the states. There was no shortage of promotion in San Francisco and the TV ads played around the clock in national spots.

Ew to the new logo. I just don't understand using something other than the classic branding unless there's something truly unique about it. That M, while recognizable, just seems lazy...and decapitated.

Yeah a part of me doesn't like the blandness of the logo but by making all of the letters in the Kermit font or even making the font resemble other muppets would kind of take away from the simplistic look of what disney were going for with the MMW and The Muppets advertising. Although as you said, the muppets are supposed to be colourful and that retro esque logo on the animal mug works very nicely.

 

[jvcarroll]

Yeah a part of me doesn't like the blandness of the logo but by making all of the letters in the Kermit font or even making the font resemble other muppets would kind of take away from the simplistic look of what disney were going for with the MMW and The Muppets advertising. Although as you said, the muppets are supposed to be colourful and that retro esque logo on the animal mug works very nicely.

Yeah, I see why they did that to the M so that they could just use the M sometimes. I think the classic M in the logo does that as well. I also kind of liked the Henson Company's merging of modern and classic looks in the early 2000's. Maybe with better colors.

Nonetheless, nothing beats the classic.

 

[Drtooth]

Really? I guess it's different in the states. There was no shortage of promotion in San Francisco and the TV ads played around the clock in national spots.

Aw crap. So Disney pulled a Powerpuff Girls the Movie on this one, and got so disappointed by the lack of a huge Box Office take in the US that they just gave up marketing the movie everywhere else because it wasn't worth even the advertising budget (only in the case of MMW, it was actually released overseas). UGH! They did everything right over here and no one wanted to see a movie in March that wasn't a crappy tween novel movie.

Anyway, I'm done talking about the movie's reception and the baffling amount of the fanbase that didn't appreciate it (especially those who think everyone who liked it has something wrong with them, because we've had such great films before then Post-Henson). Hopefully Disney can walk away with the will to try a movie again, but try putting it in a better month this time. Or at least try with some other project. I'm glad that Kermit and Piggy will be part of a PBS 4th of July thing, but there has to be more.

I agree. It's time to change the logo to something nostalgic, and Muppet Show like. The M logo was cute for the overly minimalistic style of the comeback movie, but it looks tacky on merchandising. And I agree about the posers. I give them credit for some new stock photos, but they're still using the tired 90's Henson poser stock photos on certain pieces of merchandise (scroll down).

 

[charlietheowl]

I think TV is the key for the Muppets, and I'd like to see Disney start having the Muppets make appearances here and there, eventually resulting in a Muppets-centric special that could serve as a pilot for a TV show should all go well. Who knows if Disney is willing to do something like that, but it's not like ABC is knee-deep in successful programs at the moment.

 

[Muppet Master]

As a lifelong fan, I've been thinking about the future of the Muppets and have come up with a few ideas.

The State of the Muppets

First off, Muppets Most Wanted is a fantastic film much more in the classic tradition than its predecessor! Everyone associated with the movie should be proud.

Disney shouldn't run from this new Muppet formula. It works. I don’t know why the film didn’t fare better. My only solution is that sometimes things like that just happen. That was one heck of a sharp marketing campaign. The faux Twitter battle was brilliant! I even liked the tie-in ads for Lipton, Go-Gurt, Toyota and Subway. Bring on more of that if it helps. The Muppets are first and foremost creatures of television and maybe that’s where they should be before pursuing more movies. That used to be how it works.

Disney definitely should think about bringing the Muppets back to television. I think ABCs Sunday night slot held by America’s Funniest Home Videos is ripe for the Muppets. It’s right before prime time and leads into Once Upon A Time. There are also so many alternative options considering the popularity of Netflix, Hulu and other streaming services. Just please don’t kiddify them and stick them on the Disney Channel.

Someone please replace that bizarre M logo. My guess is that the new lettering is supposed to lend the Muppets some sort of Pixar-esque sophistication. It doesn’t. The M is basically a decapitated Kermit with his back turned to us and the typography is in black block letters. The Muppets are colorful and stylish! Bring back the classic Muppets logo and update it as has been done in this recent box. It’s exciting and memorable.

And as for the poster art, the Entertainment Weekly spreads are the best way to go. Those are beautiful! The drag-and-drop Photoshopping of clip art doesn’t quite work. Disney has the poser puppets. I guarantee you they’re very agreeable and keep amazingly still during photoshoots.

​

I also think more television appearances could be key. The Jimmy Fallon was amazing and it shows that the Muppets don't need to have a full fledged movie campaign in order to have gravitas and relevance. They helped shaped the comedic talents of today.

Anyone else have thoughts on this?

All of what you said made perfect sense, but it's just unlikely for the muppets to get tv appearances all the time, since MMW somewhat was a flop, but that's only because disney overloaded with promotion here in america that people were just tired, I mean before the days MMW was going to be released, I'd go on ToughPigs for some muppet news, and there'd literally be like 7 articles for the muppets on Kelly and Michael or GMA or The Queen Latifah show, all that is awesome for muppet fans, but most people got tired after the first 5 appearances on talk shows. Then they killed the film by slamming it in March, yes it works for animated movies, but besides that march kinda sucks, they really should have released it in Summer or the same time as the 2011 film, and we'd have at least seen the film reach $60 million! Lastly, I'm skeptical that the muppets can last more than a season on primetime, but if they could then why does everyone on this forum keep saying it should be on Sunday replacing AFV?????????? I don't get it, why????????? I think it belongs after Modern Family, so Wednesdays at 9:30 pm, so people will watch that, forget to change the channel, and get hooked to the muppet show. Sunday night has too many shows on other channels for audiences to watch the muppets unfortunately.

 

[jvcarroll]

All of what you said made perfect sense, but it's just unlikely for the muppets to get tv appearances all the time, since MMW somewhat was a flop, but that's only because disney overloaded with promotion here in america that people were just tired, I mean before the days MMW was going to be released, I'd go on ToughPigs for some muppet news, and there'd literally be like 7 articles for the muppets on Kelly and Michael or GMA or The Queen Latifah show, all that is awesome for muppet fans, but most people got tired after the first 5 appearances on talk shows. Then they killed the film by slamming it in March, yes it works for animated movies, but besides that march kinda sucks, they really should have released it in Summer or the same time as the 2011 film, and we'd have at least seen the film reach $60 million! Lastly, I'm skeptical that the muppets can last more than a season on primetime, but if they could then why does everyone on this forum keep saying it should be on Sunday replacing AFV?????????? I don't get it, why????????? I think it belongs after Modern Family, so Wednesdays at 9:30 pm, so people will watch that, forget to change the channel, and get hooked to the muppet show. Sunday night has too many shows on other channels for audiences to watch the muppets unfortunately.

Um...I never said they should be on TV "all the time."

The film was definitely a disappointment, but not quite a flop. You use that term very loosely. I guess some of the production team may have used it in a recent interview.

I don't know how the film was "slammed" in March, but they did release it in the month of March. I'm not sure where you're getting these arbitrary numbers of success like $60M, but that would have been considered a disappointment too. Even more so if it were a summer release.

US promotion was perfect. Fans complained that there wasn't enough promotion in the months before the launch and now you're complaining about too much of it. Some folk will never be pleased. This film was treated the way studios treat movies they're proud of. Everything was entirely appropriate.

Modern Family is at 9PM, isn't it? While I'd love the Muppets to be associated with such a popular program, 9:30 would not be an ideal spot for a Muppet Show. It would be a shame to cut the young audiences from seeing the show at airtime. America's Funniest Home Videos has had different time slots before and how many wifflebat crotch shots do we really need to see? That's what YouTube is for. A half-hour Muppet Show at 7:00 or 7:30 would be a nice cushy family-friendly spot with little pressure. Sunday's such a family day. It's ideal.

 

[Drtooth]

I don't know how the film was "slammed" in March, but they did release it in the month of March. I'm not sure where you're getting these arbitrary numbers of success like $60M, but that would have been considered a disappointment too. Even more so if it were a summer release.

March was a bad month for movies all around. 300 had a modest opening, but had a humongous drop the second week. MMW opened op opposite a crappy, cliche storm of a movie based on a by the numbers Young Adult book, which wasn't the same audience, but couldn't manage to climb into respectable numbers. It really sucks the film barely made back it's budget. It's clear families are staying away from any non-super Hero, Lego, or Maleficent movies and obviously will hit these things on Redbox where it barely matters. There's something overall screwy with theater attendance. Plus, I'm sure the older crowd the Muppets would have seen the film if they weren't a bunch of hipsters that are too cool for sequels.