Miss Piggy Joins Mickey Mouse
 

In the further consolidation of kids programming and brand name awareness, The Muppets were sold to Disney. If you have ever been to California Adventure the Muppets in 3D is a neat show.

I saw Muppets 3D at MGM (I think?) a few years back. Hell, probably about 10 years ago. Loads of fun.

I hope Disney doesn't screw up the Muppets.

I totally agree.

I wholeheartedly agree, but somehow, I just don't hold much faith in that. :(

so they only own some of the right to the characters? did they say that Disney only owns the 'Muppet' characters, not 'Sesame Street'? Well it's better than nothing, I would hate to see all those characters dwindle out of existence because of lack of funding.

hmmm, i can't see how they would screw up an existing brand, especially one that has dedicated and loyal followings for each character. The money is really in the rights for merchandising. The Muppets have been shelved for the most part, save the advertising campaign they were involved in last year.

I was surprised when they sold the Muppets to EM.TV (a german media company) and was equally worried when the Nuermarket crashed... I was sure EM.TV was going to sell the Muppets to anyone so long as they paid down their debts.

I too can't see them messing with the brand all that much. However, never put it past Disney to suck the danger out of life... By that I mean the muppets have some nice nasty edges to them (not too nasty but you know what I mean)... most Disney product is just a little too saccarine.

This could be a good move for Kermit. Now, maybe Miss Piggy will be too busy fighting with Minnie over Mickey to be madly in love with the little green guy.

Disney has screwed up Disney recently. What with all the Cinderella II and Peter Pan II and Lion King 1 1/2... Jesus, let well enough alone. I swear, if I see "Old Yeller II, the curse of Young Yeller" I'm going to shoot Eisner.

Disney doesn't know when to leave well enough alone. They're always out to make more money and they aren't afraid to whore out their own brand to do it.

Averett: I mostly agree with you on Disney. The only good things to come out of Disney recently has been Pixar movies and Kim Possible. And Pixar just cut the cord.

The Muppets haven't done anything of note in the last few years. I'm hoping Disney starts with a new Muppet television program. I think that the Henson's will be able to keep the brand intact working under Disney.

ahhh... the sequels, but they didn't. The artwork was shoddy for them, Hunchback 2 was almost unwatchable. Junglebook 2 had some really good animation. Each one had it's own production budget and it was apparent when watching which franchises got the purse strings.

They added a different dimension to the franchise, for the "new crop of kids"

oddly enough, it works like this... I loved the movie GREASE. My sister hated it. She likes GREASE 2. Go figure.

I hope they are able to do a lot with the Muppets to keep them going. Jim Henson got his start making sock puppets and early Muppet-like creatures in the U of Maryland theater department, and the school just put a statue of him on campus. It'd be a shame to see what he created go to waste.

My very first thought when I saw the thread name. Eisner has slowly but surely eroded Walts vision. I hate to think that he could do the same to the beloved muppets.