What Disney Needs to do....

[frogboy4]

This is the exact reason I never liked Muppet babies because when I would talk about the Muppets people would go "OOOOOOOH! You mean the Muppet Babies" and I then i want to call crazy harry to come blow them up haha

An aquaintence of mine once stated his distain for the "Muppets' high squeaky voices," of course mistaking them for the Muppet Babies. Sure, as a kid I enjoyed the first couple of seasons, but man...I really don't dig the lower production values. There's no excuse for sub-par animation like that in my opinion.

It was rumored that pre-Disney buy-out the Muppet Babies were to return through the same CG puppet animation technology as Henson is using with the Scrumps and Big Idea. Now that would be interesting - but there always should be a *real* Muppet project on the table. I feel the Babies, while cute and with potential of their own, reduce the Muppet Brand to kiddie fare.

 

[TheJimHensonHour]

I agree 100% I want Muppets of the ground before Disney even touches Muppet Babies.

 

[CensoredAlso]

See I just don't see the Muppet Babies as kiddie stuff. They were much more creative and deeper than a lot of cartoons around at the time (and even today). Dora is kiddie stuff, but the Muppet Babies were more than that.

And personally I don't care what other people think; like if they mistake the Muppets as kids' stuff. They are wrong. End of story. You can't please everybody and you shouldn't try. I'm not going to hide a perfectly good show away just because some people don't get it.

But again, everyone has the right to their opinon.

 

[Drtooth]

Yeah. I mean, I'd love to see them all. But I just hate the crop of Baby versions of characters. MB was great. Tiny Toons was the only other good one. I was fortunate to watch both TMS and MB when I was younger on Saturdays. I'm just saying to put them on Baby products, and not Baby Looney Tunes, baby Mickey, Baby pooh, Baby proncesses, baby whatever the heck is left.

I will say Sesame Beginnings has MB beat, because they actually found a way for it to be all Puppet. If they did that with MB the price would have been astronomical. I like what they were trying to do with Little Muppet Monsters, and have the Muppets actually host it. But that never came to pass.

I just am saying, for an educational kid's show MB was ahead of it's time... actually, not even that. it was in a class of itself. I think it was very beautifully done and broke ground we never broke before. Plus, it was the best thing Jeffery Scott ever did (Pacman is a disgrace. Don't looki it up on Youtube... you'll be sorry).

And look at today's horrendous fare. it's made soley for 2 year olds and slow witted youngsters.

But I do agree we should focus on the Muppets themselves before MB... but there isn't one of us here that has kids (I don't actually) that wouldn't watch the show with them or buy products. Plus, right now we're having the people who grew up with the show who have kids (once again, unlike me) that would share it with their chlidren.

I think we should find a way to put all the Muppet productions back on television. hey! Maybe PBS could do it. I mean, TMS was a Bristish show, technically. it would fit perfectly on their "Britcom" line up.

 

[minor muppetz]

[*]Make a deal with some companies to make better merchandise. The T-shirts are good, the replicas are awesome. But we need something that really gets the fan base excited. You know, like What Palisades did with the AF line.

At first I read "AF" as "Alf". It's not often that people abbreviate "action figure".

 

[minor muppetz]

Here's some things that I wish Disney would do:

First of all, I think that Disney should produce a Muppet TV special. Not a made-for-TV movie or mini-movie, but a special, like the various Mupet specials of the 1980s. Perhaps they could revive Kermit's Christmas Capers, or make a music special (similar to Elmopalooza), or maybe even focus on a holiday other than christmas (it's probably too late for a halloween or thanksgivign special to come out this year, unless there have alreayd been top-secret plans). Or maybe have the Muppets go on vacation.

Next, Disney should release more of it's existing Mupet productions on DVD and/ or one of it's television chanels. Show TMM, GMC, MTI, and MWoO more often. Broadcast reruns of TMS and MB. Have weekend reruns of Mupets Tonight, and maybe even the MupeTelevision segments of The Jim Henson Hour. Show the older specials every once in awhile. It's almost Jim Henson's birthday, maybe he Mupets Celebrate Jim Henson could be shown to celebrate (yes, I know that it was a tribute special).

A lot of Muppet productions are full of copyrited songs and characters. If Disney is concerned about song and character rights for a DVD release, then try to release some Muppet productions on DVD that don't have little-to-no songs or characters owned by other companies, like The Muppets at Walt Disney World (this should be a no-brainer), or Muppet Classic Theater, or the Play-Along Videos, or the Tales From Muppetland specials. It would be great if Disney would go as far as to release a Little Mupet Monsters boxed set.

I think that Disney should produce some Muppet comic books, or mangas, or graphic novels. And there should also be some new, interesting video games. It seems like there were a lot of Muppet video games prodcued between 2000 and 2003, but there should be some more. Maybe have some focus on one or two supporting characters (like Animal or Beaker). Make some game sbased on the movies. Maybe make a Mupet edition of Kingdom Hearts (though I've never played those games). Make sequels to Mupet Racemania and Muppet Party Cruise. Make a Pigs in Space game.

 

[Drtooth]

Wow! Just waht I was thinking. just because they have to start small, doesn't mean microscopic.

Rerun one of the Muppet films, even on syndication. They used to air MCC once and a while on syndication. That's all it takes.

A special? Sure. They don't even have to make anything else for a little while. Show one of the filmed, unsold pilots as a special (provided they fit in a half hour programing block).

And comics would be a smashing idea. Even if they have to make deals from Guy Gilchrist or Marvel, even reprint something in a graphic novel format. Something Manga sized would be great, but any standard larger scale one would be nice. Collect the comics from Muppet Magazine into a volume or something. It would work wonderfully.

See, they can even try to bring them back with minimal effort.

 

[minor muppetz]

Maybe it would be good if Disney produced some Muppet short films, similare to the old Disney, Warner Bros., and MGM shorts from the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s. I don't think there have been many puppet shorts in theaters, but they could probably last 5-10 minutes, and focus on a small number of characters (like the various Looney Tunes shorts, or even the various Muppet Show sketches).

 

[KermieBaby47]

Ooooooooooh! That would be the coolest! Great idea. They could start off all the new Disney movies. They had a new Pluto cartoon several years back at the head of some film, I forget which one though, but it was really neat seeing a Disney short on the big screen.

 

[Drtooth]

Maybe it would be good if Disney produced some Muppet short films, similare to the old Disney, Warner Bros., and MGM shorts from the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s. I don't think there have been many puppet shorts in theaters, but they could probably last 5-10 minutes, and focus on a small number of characters (like the various Looney Tunes shorts, or even the various Muppet Show sketches).

... problem is a lot of companies refuse to do that. And to see them you have to go to a horrible movie. I really wish they would bring back the premovie cartoon short. Rarely they will. When i saw George of the Jungle, it had that new Mickey Mouse cartoon.

But little mini movies like that would be a great idea. Highly improbable. Maybe if they do it instead of "welcome" to the theater. Sort of like the Loews ciniplex things they used to have with Sesame Street characters.