I still cringe a little when the Disney logo comes up, considering what they’ve generally done with the rights to the classic Muppet characters, but at least this first teaser trailer for the reboot of the franchise, simply called The Muppets, has a certain amount of charm. The script was co-written by Jason Segel of Forgetting Sarah Marshall fame, the director co-created Flight of the Conchords, and Bret from the Conchords wrote the songs, so I think there’s room for a reasonable amount of optimism, right?
Also, yes, I’m aware that I’m a thirty five year old man excited for a new Muppet movie.
This article appears in May 19-25, 2011.
Um, Disney hasn’t done anything *bad* with the Muppets except, oh, buy them and keep them from being dispersed and sold off piece by piece, which was actually happening before Michael Eisner stepped in. ALL of the latter-day Muppet productions are the responsibility of the Muppet company, NOT Disney. If those productions have all sucked (and they pretty much have) Disney does not deserve the blame.
Even this trailer, which also sucks, is not Disney’s fault. Disney’s providing the scratch, nothing else.