Posted on 09/21/2015 1:40:25 PM PDT by C19fan
Shepherding the Muppets through a post-Henson world must be such a high-wire act. In retrospect, what Jim Henson achieved in his time was little short of alchemy. He managed to be anarchic and sincere, postmodern and moral, smart and dumb, all at the same time, without so much as breaking a sweat.
This, one might suspect, is why the last 25 years of Muppetry have been so patchy. With the notable exceptions of The Muppet Christmas Carol, Muppets Tonight and Jason Segel’s 2011 movie, every new Muppet project has struggled to capture the right tone. They’ve either been too cute (The Muppets’ Wizard of Oz), too knowing (Muppets Most Wanted) or too bizarrely in thrall to whatever the zeitgeist happens to be (Lady Gaga and the Muppets’ Holiday Spectacular) to work.
(Excerpt) Read more at theguardian.com ...
Jason Segal’s Muppets movie was good, I’d highly recommend that one. Plus it has a soundtrack by Brett from Flight of the Conchords, so the songs are pretty top notch and funny.
Hollywood liberals soil whatever they touch. Slime.
Hard to believe that Jim Henson has been gone for 25 years now.
” In one scene, Animal laments his consequence-free promiscuity. “
“This Kermit badmouths fellow celebrities, openly discusses his sex life and, at one point, describes his life as “a living hell””
Uuuuh? This is not looking good at all.
I assume a bunch of millennials were hired to write “jokes” and will shove all types of this garbage onto characters that Henson would NEVER have allowed to be used like this!
These is supposed to be a characters that the entire FAMILY can sit and watch and never have to worry about the content.
“Plus it has a soundtrack by Brett from Flight of the Conchords”
Did not know that, hubby and I love them. Maybe we’ll have to get this muppet movie for our little grandson (and us too, of course).
Thanks for that info!
Sha - Kala - Kala - - BOOM!
Oh, I dunno about that. Do a youtube search of some of his pre-"Muppet Show" and "Sesame Street" stuff. I was watching some bits the other night, and was amazed that it snuck past the censors.
He also did a fair number of commercials back in the 50s and 60s - again on youtube. Some of them are laugh-out-loud funny, and you can see a lot of The Muppets in them.
Jim Henson’s motivation was for entertainment. Now it is done strictly for $$.
Oy! I thought you were joking. Perhaps the writer is joking? (although it does not sound like he is). You're right. This is not Henson. The original show was totally family friendly, but smart enough that adults could watch it and find it entertaining. (I still love "Pigs in Space!!")
Part of it is you have to understand the changed world. When the first show was on the “behind the scenes” you got (remember most of the show was back stage) reflected how we envisioned the world of entertainment, the characters were mostly the same on stage as off. A little more weighted down by concerns off, but still the same. 35 years later we know better, we know about actor tirades and suicidal comedians and bad marriages. If they’re going to maintain that same on-stage/ off-stage mix the characters can’t be exactly the same in both parts, it would be saccharine and hokey. Maybe the new method won’t work either, but the old way definitely was doomed.
See what Obama has done to this country!!!!
The key thing is that it was innuendo or maybe a double-entendre at best. Those things got adults to watch while keeping it rated G on the surface for the kids.
Certainly no profanity or outright sex talk.
Kermit was always complaining about something.
He wasn't that far away from calling his life something like that even in the old days.
The sex stuff -- not so much.
They had a press conference and asked Miss Piggy if she was pro-choice and she said, “I’m pro-everything!” I think they had them come out for gay marriage a couple of weeks ago. The Muppets are just a vehicle for the left’s agenda now.
Found out later he was the inventor of Muppet's, I still don't know what a muppet is.
The best “Muppets” now are the many fan videos....
Uploaded on Jul 23, 2008
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“Elmo calls a pharmacist.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HxwkyKV8PU4
“This Kermit badmouths fellow celebrities, openly discusses his sex life and, at one point, describes his life as “a living hell””
I think I will be seated right between Waldorf and Sadler heckling the show.
Yeah, he composed all the music and actually won an Oscar for that. Unfortunately, he doesn’t perform on the songs, but the cast does a pretty good job.
There is an outtake of him and Kermit doing a duet on one song though:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aDnTo2S2BrA
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