It’s been a while I have posted anything in this forum. I love the Muppets but that doesn’t mean I feel compelled to talk about them every day as many of you seem to do ...
It must be age.
This topic is a good one, though, and I guess that Muppet Central is the best place on the world wide web to vent an opinion about something like this if you want to have hope of being listened to. Not just by your fellow fans, but also by the companies we talk about ...
I read through a few of the reactions in this thread -I admit, not all- and I feel like a few things are being confused. Allow me to explain what I mean.
I’m 37 years old ... a child of the seventies and eighties as many others here, I’m sure. If you were as lucky as me, your parents raised you in the proverbial “warm and loving nest” and you have fond memories of your childhood. That “warm nest feeling” has inevitably become associated with whatever I was busy with at the time. That explains to me why I remember the Muppets so fondly. It is not just about their comical genius, but the childhood memories and the nostalgia I have thinking back about them.
But today I’m 37 years old and nothing like the child anymore that I used to be. Okay, almost nothing like that child anymore ...
... At any rate, what I’m trying to say is that I cannot hold Disney alone responsible for the way the Muppets “changed” for me. Part of that is just due to me ... I have grown up; I look at them completely different than when I was a kid. All too often, you’ll find that the new stuff will not bring you that “childish excitement” anymore. But is that abnormal? I don’t think so. I hope not, really.
If I then consider things keeping the above in mind, I do think that Disney is still doing a great job. Put some 10-year olds before the telly and drop a Muppet DVD in the player and the only mayhem that will happen in the next two hours will happen on the screen. The kids will be just as enchanted as I was when I was ten watching the “Classic” Muppets.
And yes, also the Muppets have been slightly adapted to appeal to the kids of today, but as an adult I’m still able to enjoy all of that new stuff too, without being offended in my childhood memories. The changes are subtle and I do notice them, but they are not so drastic that they cause a complete break with the past.
Disney has managed to bridge the old and the new and that’s more of an accomplishment than many of us realise. Of course, I acknowledge Jim Henson as an exceptional creative genius, but the Muppets are still there today and we mostly have to thank the folks at Disney for that and none other.
Except for that, I guess there is then also the debate about Disney having become a big commercial, emotionless giant as a company. This again should not be confused with all of the above when “evaluating” the Muppets in today’s world.
Since I’m a European and Disney has organised itself into American and European divisions (which are managed very differently from each other), I’ll be the first to regret that Disney is no longer the cute, little family business that it used to be with the same message of funny entertainment to everybody. It’s a large company representing much dollars on an annual basis and a lot of people have interest that it’ll stay that way; big shots and little people alike. For the money, yes.
And while you can find it utterly despicable that the little family business is now a huge multinational that seems to put the money first, you have to remember that this same company still made the decision to release the classic shows on DVD, even if that was financially a risky adventure since it was not really known if the “old stuff” would also appeal to the “new kids”. If, as a company, you produce products that nobody buys, you will not be able to continue producing them for very long.
By the way, I guess that we’re still waiting for Season 4 on DVD because that adventure has been a bumpier financial ride than originally thought.
So while I can get quite upset about how decisions about something like child entertainment have become void of emotion and are instead steered by business models, I do also somehow recognise the necessity of that, just to have Disney and the Muppets survive in today’s entertainment business world.
So all things well considered I’m thankful that Disney is giving the Muppets a chance. And I hope that -financially- it can become a success for them without that they have to violate the “memory” I have of Jim Henson’s Muppets. It’s a precious balance and a difficult exercise and I hope they’ll do it well.
At any rate, I’ll be watching, keen to see if they pull it off. Keen to see if the orginal creative genius of Jim Henson can still mean something for the new generations of kids as well. If it works, all the better. If Disney will make loads of money with it at the same time, good for them and for us, because that means it will last for a little while longer.
What would be even more important is that a new generation of kids would be encouraged in their creativity and imagination. Because what our world maybe needs more than see the “old” Muppets rehashed is new imagination to be born. New creative ideas that start in a garage of a family home and can eventually bring undiluted fun and real values to kids.
Fingers crossed.
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not to mention all these unused pilots for internet shows that are half finished. And I'm not even counting the stuff that made it to air for 3 glorious episodes.
