Saturday, October 22, 2011 at 4:17PM 'Muppets' Portrayers Worry About The Latest Film
The oddity of another Muppets movie is certainly tantalizing to watch. Even more so than that is made possibly by screenwriter and comedic actor extraordinaire Jason Segel (How I Met Your Mother, Forgetting Sarah Marshall). Many of the veteran performers have come to question The Muppets and whether Segel has fully understood who the characters are supposed to be compared to their previous film appearances.
Even though there's many who may or may not totally recognize the franchise's characters, I'm sure that Disney won't have a hard time marketing the film unlike how The Hollywood Reporter believes that the studio has somewhat of an uphill battle for promotion. THR has an extensive examination of the problems being brought up surrounding The Muppets.
Here are some basic talking points:
- The stakes are high, but not because the film's budget, in the $40 million range... Disney finally will have figured out how to relaunch a neglected franchise that was among the most storied in the media world.
- Disney has been working with a vengeance in anticipation of the film's Nov. 23 release... including amusing spoofs of such films as The Hangover Part II and The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo.
- Muppets creator Jim Henson was finding it a challenge to keep his creatures in the public eye. He was operating independently in an era of media concentration, which helps explain his decision to sell to Disney.
- [C]rucial to make sure you "don't disenchant their core audience"... The old Muppets guard -- a group of writers and performers involved in creating the franchise... But though they have not yet seen it, some wonder whether screenwriter and star Segel -- an obsessed Muppets fan -- has a true grasp of the characters they helped create.
- [M]any feel the pervasive attitude on the film was dismissive of those who originated the characters.
- Concerned with Segel and director James Bobin (a writer on Da Ali G Show and Flight of the Conchords)... were willing to sacrifice the characters' integrity to land a joke. "They're looking at the script on a joke-by-joke basis, rather than as a construction of character and story".
Examples of said character discrepency concern themselves with Fozzie making a fart joke, deeming it cheap, and Kermit living in a mansion, "The Muppets, depicted in the script as jealous of Kermit's wealth, would not have broken up in bitterness. The script "creates a false history that the characters were forced to act out for the sake of this movie," says an old Muppets hand."
- Frank Oz, the most famous living Muppets performer -- known best as Miss Piggy -- spoke more harshly in a recent interview with the British paper Metro. "I wasn't happy with the script," he said bluntly. "I don't think they respected the characters. But I don't want to go on about it like a sourpuss and hurt the movie."
Even the performer behind Kermit the Frog "considered removing their names from the credits. But they didn't, and a Muppets veteran says the gesture would have been costly to the performers and fruitless. "It doesn't send any message," he says. "[Disney] wouldn't care.""
Ouch, I say. Then again all this publicity could be the marketing machine at work generating any and all kinds of buzz to boost online presence and increase box-office numbers.
The Muppets is directed by James Bobin and co-written by screenwrites Jason Segel and Nicholas Stoller, based on the characters by Jim Henson. Starring Jason Segel, Amy Adams and Chris Cooper. The film opens in theaters Novemeber 23, 2011.
Reader Comments (4)
Hey Mario, I need your email address again.
Hey Patrick, the email has been sent. I don't want to post it on the comment section.
"Even the performer behind Kermit the Frog "considered removing their names from the credits. But they didn't,"
I have a feeling that is a bunch of bull.
Want proof?
Check out this blog post from fan who met some of the Muppet performers (including Kermit's puppeteer) what the performers say to him suggests the contrary to what this article claims.;
http://themuppetmindset.blogspot.com/2011/08/muppets-and-me-at-d23-part-2.html
And I would like to point out that in a 2000 interview, Frank Oz said that he cracked up at Jar Jar Binks and he thought that the character would be a hit.
Also, apparently these guys don't have a problem with the crass line that Miss Piggy said (spoken by Frank Oz) in Muppets From Space; "I gotta pee!"
You cannot go wrong with any of the muppet movies at all. All of them have been so good. You will not be disappointed at all with the movie. payroll accounting