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They’re characters who feel like an integral part of childhood for generations of kids growing up since the 60s. Some members of their extended family living on Sesame Street still hold a dear place in children’s hearts today, teaching them about reading, counting, and neighborly spirit every day on PBS. But overall, kids today don’t care as much about The Muppets.
Disney’s finally starting to change that. The House of Mouse added a new wing for The Muppets in 2004, but has done little with the beloved characters since then.
They’ve made a few television and direct-to-video appearances in the past few years, but really The Muppets have not done much of note since the 90s, before they were bought by Disney.
But now hints are appearing of The Muppets’ return. They have an attraction/show at Disney’s Hollywood studios, their popular cover of Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody” is creating strong internet buzz, and starting today, they enter the Magic Kingdom for the first time.
One of the reasons why Disney hasn’t done much with the Muppets since 2004 is because they’ve been searching for a way to make them relevant to the current generation. Now Disney thinks they’ve found it. The Muppets make their Magic Kingdom debut as part of a pre-parade celebration.
Kermit, Miss Piggy, and Sweetums will appear each afternoon to gear the crowd up for parades both in Disney World and Disneyland. The Muppet characters will then slip into their new roles: they will join special floats celebrating volunteerism, presenting honorary Disney VoluntEARS as grand marshals of the parades.
The role Disney’s found for the Muppets is to use them to help promote causes relevant to today’s generation: volunteering and the environment. It seems like a perfect fit to me, especially for Kermit. I expect to hear many new takes on “It’s Not Easy Being Green” in the near future.
But Disney hasn’t forgotten those who love classic Muppet antics. In addition to the Muppets appearing at Disney parks, Disney has commissioned a new Muppet movie, currently in the writing stage.
At first, the men behind the movie don’t inspire much confidence for a fun family film. Penning the script is Jason Segel, an actor most known for shows “Freaks and Geeks” and “How I Met Your Mother.” He starred in the raunchy “Forgetting Sarah Marshall,” which he also wrote. Nick Stoller, who directed the 2008 flick, will also direct the new Muppet movie.
Before you wonder what Disney was thinking giving a family franchise to these guys, consider this: Segel’s character in “Forgetting Sarah Marshall,” is a musician whose pet project is a puppet Dracula musical comedy, snippets of which are seen in the film.
This is a real-life passion project of Segel’s, which he has gone on to perform and promote on talk shows. Segel seems to really care about the Muppets. I don’t think Disney would risk anything on their first feature-length Muppet movie, given how hard they worked to win the rights to the characters. We’ll have to wait and see.
In the meantime, we can now visit our Muppet friends both at Disney Hollywood Studios and the Magic Kingdom.
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*(This image by bea&txm is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 License.)
