The retro thing sucks... I'll give it that. Anytime we want to get a decent relaunch, something crappy, like the Smurfs film, will drag down the other. The Smurfs was just a mindless cash grab, mangled by an indifferent studio that got the script written a week before shooting. Paramount had these BIG plans to make an honest to goodness Smurf movie trilogy. I wonder what happened for Sony, with the WORST animation studio in History to basically buy the license and sit on it, only to slap together a crapfest before the license expires? They clearly had no interest in making it, they know they're not going to make any money off of merchandising, they know everyone's gonna hate it... that's why they dumped it in the August death slot.
Difference between Sony and Disney is Disney actually WANTS the Muppets to do well. I mean, a movie as bad as the Smurfs will be (I'll sigh... still give it a shot) can kill a franchise, but it's something of disposable nostalgia... they can release a couple halfdonkeyed DVD releases and T-Shirts and just make it up that way. Smurfs will still be popular in Europe, at least Belgium. Now, with the Muppets, things are a little different. Sure, there's the merchandising angle, but Disney OWNS the Muppets. They didn't buy a license to do a movie, they bought the characters lock stock and barrel. Now, if Disney wants to make the investment pay off, and have these characters stand along side Mickey, Pooh, and Pixar in merchandising alone, this movie has to do well. The sake of future projects rests in the balance of the film. This isn't something they can take lightly and shove aside... they OWN these guys.
That's the problem with the FR movie. Henson no longer has Kermit and Piggy to help pick up/hold up their business. They have pretty much cleaned out their back catalog and put most, if not a good amount, of that out into the public on DVD. And there's no doubt in my mind Henson wants to make Fraggle Rock their tentpole, their Mickey Mouse. This movie was supposed to help this out, but things aren't working out well here. The worst part is it isn't all Henson, and mostly Weinstine. Henson tried very hard to hype this up, putting comics and clothing out there, but Wein just doesn't want to make the movie, and it shows. Now all Henson has is an Outsourced animated series about Dinosaurs voiced by Canadians. Sid to a lesser extent, but hey... at least they have Henson people working on it.
Difference between Sony and Disney is Disney actually WANTS the Muppets to do well. I mean, a movie as bad as the Smurfs will be (I'll sigh... still give it a shot) can kill a franchise, but it's something of disposable nostalgia... they can release a couple halfdonkeyed DVD releases and T-Shirts and just make it up that way. Smurfs will still be popular in Europe, at least Belgium. Now, with the Muppets, things are a little different. Sure, there's the merchandising angle, but Disney OWNS the Muppets. They didn't buy a license to do a movie, they bought the characters lock stock and barrel. Now, if Disney wants to make the investment pay off, and have these characters stand along side Mickey, Pooh, and Pixar in merchandising alone, this movie has to do well. The sake of future projects rests in the balance of the film. This isn't something they can take lightly and shove aside... they OWN these guys.
That's the problem with the FR movie. Henson no longer has Kermit and Piggy to help pick up/hold up their business. They have pretty much cleaned out their back catalog and put most, if not a good amount, of that out into the public on DVD. And there's no doubt in my mind Henson wants to make Fraggle Rock their tentpole, their Mickey Mouse. This movie was supposed to help this out, but things aren't working out well here. The worst part is it isn't all Henson, and mostly Weinstine. Henson tried very hard to hype this up, putting comics and clothing out there, but Wein just doesn't want to make the movie, and it shows. Now all Henson has is an Outsourced animated series about Dinosaurs voiced by Canadians. Sid to a lesser extent, but hey... at least they have Henson people working on it.