Jim Hill offers a view into the Disney ownership of the Muppets
Are you a Muppets fan frustrated by the lack of effort on the part of the Disney Company to revive this once proud gang of comedians? Have you sat around wondering what Disney could possibly be thinking when they bought the Muppets only to leave them in what seems to be an endless limbo? Well, Jim Hill Media has nearly all of your questions answered today.
The story is a fascinating one, to be sure. But the bottom line is Disney has failed to make the Muppets work, and they need to move forward with this. Mr. Hill fills us with speculation and rumors over what may lie ahead, but the frighteneing thing is that it may be a harder road than any of us Muppets fans may think. Take this piece from the article about the Muppet Mobile Lab…
Mind you, reviving the Muppet franchise — returning these characters to the level of popularity that they once enjoyed back in the 1970s — may be a lot tougher than Lylle originally thought. Take — for example — what happened back in late February / early March, when WDI’s new “Muppet Mobile Lab” was being play-tested at DCA.
The crowds that stood around that theme park’s Hollywood Pictures Backlot area viewing this demo were admittedly wowed by this Living Character Initiative unit. The only problem was — when these people were asked afterwards to name the two mechanical Muppets that they’d just seen — almost none of them could then remember Dr. Bunsen Honeydew and/or Beaker’s names. Or — for that matter — could actually identify these characters as Muppets.
Now how old does this make you feel? Yes, people know Kermit, and they may not know the less popular Muppets like they once did. We all know a good attraction is a good attraction, regardless of the popularity of the characters. But the danger is in the influence of the suits at Disney. Will they actually scale back using these wonderful characters because people don’t recognize them like they used to?
The other alarming part of this article, and something it does not expand on, is whether the results of this survey has had any effect on the future use of the Muppet Mobile Lab.
Jim Hill on Disney's Muppet Revival Project « Broke Hoedown said,
April 30, 2007 @ 6:44 pm
[...] MouseExtra offers some interesting commentary on Jim Hill’s overview and analysis, and asks an important question about what Disney is doing with the results of Guest surveys in response to the Mobile Muppet Lab. [...]
Matt said,
May 1, 2007 @ 1:12 pm
It’s a sad state of affairs regarding Muppets and I really have to limit my outlook on what I can reasonably expect to see in the parks that is Muppets related.
David said,
May 2, 2007 @ 5:16 pm
But the putting the parks aside, when are they going to do something new at all? I mean they have Muppet Vision, which is fine representation. But when are they doing a new movie, tv show, Broadway musical, car race? Whatever? Anything?