Weinstein rolls with Fraggle Rock movie

[bazooka_beak]

Just please stick to the ORIGINAL puppeteers, or I will be heartbroken Unless it's a case of where the voice behind the fraggle is no longer with us and it can't be helped.

 

[Drtooth]

I'm sorry, but all those comments made me sick. "teh movie iz bad lik Sppee Racerz and Bullwinlez. Dey rape my chilhood XD."

First of all, Speed Racer isn't like every cheap crappy live action version of a cartoon series. the people behind it did reseach and actually watched the cartoons. They cared about the product. Sure, it was a titanic failure, but it's mainly due to people like that. Mayhaps they would have better liked the cheap low budget crappy film they were going to make in 93.

Heck, I think Spped was the only time they got it right. maybe since The first Flintstones... or even Popeye. Besides, what do they expect from something based on a Sports anime? Those things have notoriously repetitive plots, and focus mainly on the sporting even with a little side story. And this is coming from an ultimate Muscle fan.

Secondly, this is NOT a nostalgia factor film. This is a legit Fraggle Movie. We have never had this chance. We've had numerous near misses, but this time it's gonna happen. A Muppet film ISN'T gonna be a nostalgia grab. A SS movie isn't a nostalgia grab. but since Fraggles had nothing but false starts, and it took 20 years to get it down, it's a nostalgia film? I just don't get it.

Sure, if it was to turn out like Underdog or Gadget, where they stray from the original idea so far, you wonder if they just made a movie about something similar and slapped a franchise name on it to try to get fans.

Something tells me this is going to be a TMNT situatuion (though, TMNT was basically a floating sequal to the first three). It wasn't a relaunch, so much as a continuation. Fraggles don't need their story retold over and over, all incorrectly (much as I surprisingly enjoyed the Chipmunks film, I don't want to see any more inconsistant and off canon origin stories). And I feel it will make the movie better. Maybe a few things could be re-explained, but nothing too retreaded.

 

[RedPiggy]

Exactly. I still fail to see why Speed tanked. I thought it was perfect ... considering the source. The only time the anime stuff looked weird was when the kid was imagining being in an anime, but that's forgivable, becuase it was established he was watching a blasted cartoon. Though, from the little I read on imdb, a lot of it wasn't "it raped my childhood" but "geez, when are they going to have a Japanese actor in an American movie from a Japanese anime".

I agree it shouldn't just be treated like a nostalgia film, though some of the marketing might play along with it. A nostalgia film is what you make when you haven't got anything else better to do and you're having some mid-life crisis.

The beauty of the Hensonian properties is that their characters CAN succeed in every single generation ... as long as the contributors believe in it. Heck, even the bible itself doesn't have that great a track record in its movies. It can be felt all over the world: the time of the Honk of Honks (so to speak) is near. It shouldn't be abandoned just because of fear. I realize I probably make it sound more important than it might be ... but the Dream has always been a part of me. It's not some abstract concept ... I might sound like some neurotic loser, but I tell you all the gospel truth.

FR doesn't need a lot of re-tread or re-vamp. It's not that difficult a concept: we humans have ignored a vital part of a hidden ecosystem because we're too self-absorbed to see the truth. What's so hard about that?

 

[Redsonga]

I don't understand the whole 'Speed Racer is awful' thing ether. I have not seen it yet, but is almost like the reviewers on tv are blackballing it already .

I actually liked Rocky & Bo, the live action Flintstones, and Popeye movies

 

[MrsPepper]

The best line from this article that Robin The Brave posted?

It’s my goal to do everything the “old school Muppet way.” I do believe there are many Henson fans who would have my head on a platter if I attempted anything else.

Hee hee! Poor guy, I hope he's not too scared of us. We're nice, really! We just don't want to see something as good-hearted as Fraggle Rock mutated in order to make big box office bucks. But he seems to get that, so yay! I'm so so so super excited.

 

[frogboy4]

Exactly. I still fail to see why Speed tanked. I thought it was perfect ... considering the source. The only time the anime stuff looked weird was when the kid was imagining being in an anime, but that's forgivable, becuase it was established he was watching a blasted cartoon.

FR doesn't need a lot of re-tread or re-vamp. It's not that difficult a concept: we humans have ignored a vital part of a hidden ecosystem because we're too self-absorbed to see the truth. What's so hard about that?

Speed Racer is beautiful but suffers from poor writing, a bloated running time, lack of direction and upset the fan base from the start. Except for weaving a little of it into the score and making a generic hip hop version of it - the recognizable theme song was hardly in the movie! They only played the few remaining bars from the show's theme. That was blatant hubris on the Wachowski brothers part. They had the brand; they just didn't really use or respect it enough. I saw the film and it isn't awful, it just wasn't very good and worldwide audiences don't really think so either. Critics like to stick things in stark thumbs up or down terms when this one's kind of in the middle. I will consider getting the DVD for the visuals.

Right on about the Fraggle film. It seems like they have the right take on it - a continuation of a Jim concept.

 

[Drtooth]

Speed Racer is beautiful but suffers from poor writing, a bloated running time, lack of direction and upset the fan base from the start.

Speed Racer suffering from dull writing? I fail to see how that isn't the same case with the TV show. I mean, the show itself is basically racing with some odd conspiracy or contrived plot stuck in somewhere. You have to give them credit for trying. It wasn't one of those lame films where they pretty much slap a franchise name on it so they at least have a familiarity angle. The thing LOOKED like an anime, not a cheap low budget telefilm bloated on the big screen (like everything Disney attempted).

But I can clearly see why it tanked. A dude in an iron suit and an epic book movie with a religious following. No wonder it didn't do well. But I really respect what they did with the film. At least they didn't slap a bunch of ultra famous faces that didn't fit the characters at all (Mathew Broaderick as Gadget, Jason lee as Underdog, need I say more).

I really would love to have seen the hack job they would have done with the 90's movie. That would have been a disaster.

But back to the Fraggles, I don't in anyway see how this is anything like those films at all, love or hate them. We are not recasting puppet characters to be human actors (we don't want another Thunderbirds on our hands), we may have to recast roles of certain puppeteers who can't make it, though.

But other than that, we'll see puppets aided by CGI. Something I don't understand the hate for. I mean, I can clearly see them filling the backgrounds with CGI fraggles. I mean, take a look at the opening theme song. You can really tell which of the Fraggles are remote controlled by single puppeteers, just to fill out the business of the rock. They move really stiffly, and almost the same. I can see a CGI enhanced crowd scene, and if done right, they will blend in to the Puppet Fraggles perfectly.

I don't see them remaking the entire thing CGI, though. Twiddle Bugs....

 

[Super Scooter]

But other than that, we'll see puppets aided by CGI. Something I don't understand the hate for. I mean, I can clearly see them filling the backgrounds with CGI fraggles. I mean, take a look at the opening theme song. You can really tell which of the Fraggles are remote controlled by single puppeteers, just to fill out the business of the rock. They move really stiffly, and almost the same. I can see a CGI enhanced crowd scene, and if done right, they will blend in to the Puppet Fraggles perfectly.

I do want to see the puppets aided by a little CGI, as with any modern Henson production (except the Wizard's alter egos in The Muppets Wizard of Oz. that was too much). However, with the advances in animatronics, I hope to see as much of that as possible (when needed). The puppets for Revenge of the Sith were absolutely incredible! But they hardly got used. I would like to see a combination of puppets, animatronics, and CGI. I'm sure we will see that since, apart from the CGI, that's how Fraggle Rock was made. Just think of what they can do with a modern Doozer animatronic!

 

[Drtooth]

Yeah. CGI being used for special effects and to fill in crowds. Aiding the performance. Not to replace the puupets. Exactly what I think that they should do, and I'm about 90% sure we'd see that sort of thing. And even if they use CGI, what's to say Henson wouldn't be the ones behind it either? Henson does so much more than puppeteering. After all, even Jim experimented with computer imaging and puppetry at the same time.

I could see a lot of WALDO used here. Both for anamatronics and CGI.

 

[CensoredAlso]

I don't see "nostalgic" as a bad word at all. Especially when Hollywood can clearly seen better days. Being modern (or nostalgic for that matter) shouldn't be the main priority. Decent writing should be.