Where Did the Magic Go?

[SSLFan]

...a lot of young kids have *great* difficulty in identifying with retro series mainly due to the way these shows were recorded compared with today - ie long scenes that last five or more minutes as opposed to the short bursts you see on TV today.

The sad part is i'm a victim to that. Well, expect for the part where I can't identify with the show. Now that I can do!

 

[SSLFan]

"You CANNOT leave the magic."

Never plan to...

 

[theprawncracker]

Ya know... the magic hasn't gone anywhere, it's just... been asleep for awhile or... just waiting. What we need is people to take the reins, so to speak, and wake it up, and there are people out there. There are people within the company who want to wake up the magic.

There are still so many people out there who believe in the dream, fans, performers, writers, producers, directors, business people... they just have to keep the dream from becoming a nightmare, ya know? They're trying, I think they're trying, really I do. We're seeing a new Muppet comic strip in a Disney magazine for kids! I mean, kids don't know who Link Hogthrob is, but it's apparent that Disney has enough faith in the characters to put him, Dr. Strangepork, and all of the Muppets out there to kids.

Like Will, I've never once regretted the Disney deal. I think that they have so many resources at their fingertips, they can easily sky-rocket the Muppets. It just takes time, and that's what people need to realize. Things don't happen overnight, or even over the course of three years. It takes time to get things going, and make sure they're quality. I think that's why it's been so long since we've seen a good Muppet production. MWoO was rushed, that's why it seemed that the characters were lost, because the script wasn't solidified before it was put out. They were just rushing to get the fans something, showing that Disney wasn't just gonna put the Muppets on a shelf and leave them there, and upon seeing the public's response to their rush... they're waiting to put something of good quality out. So the magic hasn't gone anywhere, it's just lying in wait.

Just my two and a half cents.

 

[scottishpiggy]

I know it has probbaly been brought up plenty of times, but does anyone have regrets about The Muppets selling their rights to The Walt Disney Company? It just seems like the magic just dissapeared....

- Do you have any regrets about this happening?

I totally agree with this point, i was devestated when I heard.
I knew that muppets would go down the toilet- in my opinion disney itself has lost the magic- the CGI is great, but, *sigh* i dunno, seems what they pay for in effects they lose in scripting. I used to love disney stores, and all of a sudden they bacame majorly babyfied. Its not that i got older, its just dumbing down.
It seems to me that disney saw this as a chance to make major money really quickly, not caring about actual quality.
There was part of me that hoped, once disney had them, then, at least more products would be out, etc, and then came wizard of oz. And i dont mean to offend anyone, but that is a terrible, terrible movie. ( altho i dont think muppets from space was that good either- c'mon, if gonzo was an alien, jim would have said so....urgh!)
Not even in the muppet shop- at the henson 3d- at MGM - did they have muppet stuff! ok, a few (crappy) tshirts and cheaply made stuff for like, 1/4 of the shop- the rest was mickey mouse stuff. When i was 12 & 14, the shop was brimming with merchandise of amazing quality- why cant they do that anymore?
ok im gonna end this rant before it becomes a novel

 

[Drtooth]

Firstly, I have to whole heartedly agree with this statement.

TV has now been dumbed down for audiences and dumbed down quite badly - reality television rules the airwaves these days.

And Judge Shows, and Maury Povich, and frothy little laugh track family (or single moron) sitcoms... TV is making itself obsolete. Kids TV is terrible now. Sure, we have standbys like Sesame Street and Arthur (and Cureous George is making strides), but Dora, Blue, Jojo's Circus? What the heck is any of this? It's garbage! And I want to clobber the idiot who thought the only way to make Looney Tunes relevant to the kids of today was to turn them into what some out of touch 50 year old guy thinks anime is (Basically just Dragon Ball Z and Pokemon, since they caught a whole five minutes combined at a nephew's house).

Hoever, I will say, I think Disney actually wants to try now, with the Star Wars Muppet toys and the Pigs in Space comic. MupOz did pretty much all but kill the franchise. And I can see why. it was rushed, the script needed at least a couple more rewrites, Ashanti couldn't bloody act, and they had to fill the time with as many pop culture jokes as possible. I like Pop culture jokes when done properly. This wasn't. I liked Dr. Teeth's brief cameo, and Quenten Tarrentino (who really should have directed the movie for reals), but other than that, I felt it was an embarassment. I know the movie actually existed BEFORE the buy out, but Diz did rush it out.

If they have to play the nostalgia angle, well, I'm sad to say this, but they're gonna have to for a while, at least. If that's the ONLY thing holding the franchise together, and it brings some new interrest into it.