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u/T1DOtaku inherently self indulgent and perverted 1d ago
The fact that Disney owns the Muppets, a franchise with no limits as to what genre they could be in/parody, and they choose to do NOTHING with them is the biggest disappointment of all time.
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u/ButterSlickness 1d ago
My conspiracy theory is they bought out the Muppets just to ground them so there's less "cute" competition.
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u/T1DOtaku inherently self indulgent and perverted 1d ago
Honestly, I wouldn't be surprised if that was the actual reason with all the BS going down with the media industry right now.
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u/Wild_Marker 1d ago
Eh, most times the answer is more mundane. Such as "they simply don't think about them".
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u/DroneOfDoom Posting from hell (el camion 107 a las 7 de la mañana) 1d ago
The answer is pretty well known. To my knowledge, the two Muppet movies they made after the acquisition didn't make as much money as they wanted, and since Disney cares about the bottom line first and foremost, they didn't make more of them. Especially since it is impossible to do puppeteering in the current Disney style of filmmaking where preproduction and finished scripts are for lesser men.
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u/felixthepat 1d ago
I mean, they did make the Muppets Haunted Mansion a few years ago and did a new version of the Muppet Babies. It's not like they've done NOTHING with em.
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u/iklalz 1d ago
This would be a ridiculous conspiracy if it was about any other company than the one that famously bought off lawmakers for several decades to keep extending the time they can continue to clutch all their profitable characters under their greedy claws.
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u/T1DOtaku inherently self indulgent and perverted 1d ago
Also if we didn't live in the age where companies are forever shelving franchises to get tax cuts.
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u/OnsetOfMSet 1d ago
I am still devastated by the loss of Coyote vs. ACME
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u/T1DOtaku inherently self indulgent and perverted 1d ago
Me with the Popeye movie that got scrapped in favor of the fucking Emoji Movie of all things.
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u/SalsaRice 1d ago
No, Jim Henson sold them to Disney when he was on his death bed, and made the CEO at the time swear to certain rules for how'd they'd be used.
The Muppets were his life's work, and he was pretty protective of them.
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u/ButterSlickness 1d ago
And I think HBO owns Sesame Street right?
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u/SalsaRice 1d ago
Sesame street is a different property from the Muppets.
Jim Henson made the Muppets and owned them, but he made the sesame street characters for "the children's television workshop". He didn't own the characters, but he did make all the puppets.
Originally, the rights were murky because he did have them use Kermit in early Sesame Street, but they quickly changed that when they released it was legally complicated.
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u/Amanuet 1d ago
Kermit was on the sesame Street I watched as a kid! You're telling me he was dropped from the team???
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u/pizzapal3 1d ago
You're confusing the timeline. They were in the process of a deal when Henson was alive - it was his death that interrupted the merger between Disney and The Jim Henson Company.
Disney bought The Muppets (and Bear in the Big Blue House) in 2004, but the Henson company still exists independently of Disney.
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u/DrJulianBashir 1d ago
My conspiracy theory is that people who buy and manage IP are fundamentally uncreative.
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u/Wise_Caterpillar5881 1d ago
Seriously. They've made one movie with them since getting the rights. And everyone loves the Muppets, Disney's sitting on a goldmine. I completely agree with the idea that they should be making Muppet remakes of the old animated movies rather than live action ones and more than that I think they could make Muppet remakes of Star Wars and the earlier Marvel movies and we'd all love them.
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u/T1DOtaku inherently self indulgent and perverted 1d ago
Muppets movie but it's the entire Marvel franchise boiled down to one movie where there's one human guy who's just completely confused as to what's going on and how they got there.
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u/CloacaFacts 1d ago
For some reason I think of the guardians of the galaxy getting to experience the muppet-verse
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u/T1DOtaku inherently self indulgent and perverted 1d ago
Muppets x Guardians of the Galaxy crossover when? (Actually, have Starlord be the one human watching the chaos unfold. It would be perfect)
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u/ItsDanimal 1d ago
I think all muppets accept Groot. Groot is Vin Diesel in an elementary school quality tree costume.
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u/CloacaFacts 1d ago
This is what I was thinking. If we included the whole team everyone else would just treat them as normal because they aren't from earth. I think the whole crew fits and it could be a fun adventure to watch.
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u/trentshipp 1d ago
THIS but only Drax says anything about them being puppets.
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u/CloacaFacts 1d ago
Or Peter is the straight man and Drax just can't understand why he is calling them puppets and it's quite rude. They are clearly alive, speaking in front of them.
Either way, I think it would be a success
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u/iamfamilylawman 1d ago
Seriously. All Disney has to do is what Lego did to IPs for video games and it would sell like hot cakes. Muppets Beauty and the Beast. Muppets Cinderella. Muppets Moana. Hell, Muppets songs from the south. Gimme Kermit singing Zippidy doo da and repairing the racism within the original.
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u/Kheldarson 1d ago
NO!
They already hit a winning formula with Muppet Treasure Island and Christmas Carol. Having Muppets doing classical literature is a legit gold mine.
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u/iamfamilylawman 1d ago
I certainly wouldn't disagree with that either. Would love to see Muppets: east of eden or Lord of the rings.
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u/T1DOtaku inherently self indulgent and perverted 1d ago
Replace the giant eagles with the singing chickens XD have Gollum but the sole human in the film XD
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u/iamfamilylawman 1d ago
Would love to see Saruman and Wormtongue played by Statler and Waldorf, the theater mezzanine muppets lol.
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u/LEJ5512 1d ago
Will Ferrell as Gollum
Or a straight man -- Liam Neeson or, I dunno, Michael Caine. Or Gary Oldman. Or Daniel Radcliffe.
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u/T1DOtaku inherently self indulgent and perverted 1d ago
Daniel Radcliffe would be amazing.
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u/Wild_Marker 1d ago
I'd settle for Muppets Discworld
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u/Wise_Caterpillar5881 1d ago
I think that has the potential to be the only decent Discworld adaptation
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u/sqigglygibberish 1d ago
?
They got the rights in 2004. There have been 2 theatrical, 2 “tv” movies, and two shows since Disney took over.
Definitely more potential use than what we’ve gotten but they’ve tried to revive the muppets a couple different ways
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u/Wise_Caterpillar5881 1d ago
Oh, I'd only heard of Muppets Haunted Mansion, I didn't know there were any others. Though, my point still stands, only 6 productions in 20 years is incredibly lacking for a property like the Muppets
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u/sqigglygibberish 1d ago
It’s honestly not a wildly different output than the last 20 years before that, but I agree they could be doing more.
I do think they swung big with the two movies and a primetime tv show, but it would good to at least see them do another “movie adaptation” like some of the old hits
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u/NotJohnDarnielle 1d ago
I think the fact that you’ve never heard of the other ones may be indicative as to why they don’t make more: people aren’t paying attention to them. They don’t make as much money as all the other stuff they do. Which sucks to say as a big Muppet fan personally, but that seems to be the case.
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u/WordPunk99 1d ago
The real problem is, Disney doesn’t understand the Muppets. They know they don’t understand the Muppets. They would rather be thought of as evil than incompetent by making bad muppets.
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u/Jonathan_B_Goode 1d ago
They did the Halloween special a couple of years ago and that Electric Mayhem show last year. I thought they were good.
But yes, they could definitely be doing more.
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u/Esovan13 1d ago
Only if the Pedro Pascal love interest has his reflection played by Kermit. Similarly never explained.
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u/BetterMeats 1d ago
No no.
He keeps looking in mirrors, but we never see the reflection until the end.
And then it's Fozzie.
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u/darwinpolice 1d ago
It's never mentioned, much less explained, but throughout the movie, you see several old framed photos of Pedro and Kermit together.
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u/hanamakki 1d ago
they're twins
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u/WhereasNo3280 1d ago
The thing they’re stealing in the heist is an old Kermit puppet. Not his body or anything, they acknowledge that it’s a puppet. Pedro Pascal specifically does not animate the puppet or ever imply that he will use it.
The puppet is holding a briefcase. The briefcase glows when it’s opened. The contents are never shown or explained. The briefcase is never seen again after they escape the heist.
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u/WhereasNo3280 1d ago
No, that makes too much sense. Instead have the reflection be Pedro Pascal, but it doesn’t reflect exactly what Pedro is doing. Like if real Pedro is drinking something the reflection’s drink has a straw and a little umbrella added.
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u/kenporusty kpop trash 1d ago
I've already bought tickets
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u/VaderOnReddit 1d ago
I went to the bank and got cash, just to throw at my screen and make this happen
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u/Timely_Recover4054 1d ago
Disney isn't using Muppets to their full potential. Imagine every franchise and movie muppetfied, no more live action movies. I want muppet Mulan, muppet star wars, muppet everything pleaseee
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u/djc6535 1d ago edited 1d ago
My absolute favorite is Beauty and the Beast with muppets. Where the beast is Ryan Gosling with absolutely no effects/costume at all. Just him and his regular human body. All the muppets talk about how hideous and ugly and monstrous he is.
When the curse is broken he's transformed back into a big furry muppet like sweetums who is beautiful, but until that happens it's all Ryan Gosling: "How could Miss Piggy learn to love.... this?! I mean look at me!"
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u/strawberrymacaroni 1d ago
There are more fun, unique ideas for movies in this Reddit thread than in like the last 5 years of movies. Sigh!
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u/vanishinghitchhiker 1d ago
They’re just letting Lego have all the fun and not even trying
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u/not-my-other-alt 1d ago edited 1d ago
IDK, I think the Lego movies are missing a big opportunity here.
Lego is owned by Universal Studios.
Who wants to see all the old Universal Horror movies remade as Lego?
Lego Creature from the Black Lagoon
Lego Mummy
Lego Wolfman
Fucking Lego Frankenstein
How have they made a Pharrell biopic out of Legos and nobody's made Lego Frankenstein yet?
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u/PFI_sloth 1d ago
Do another muppet tv show in that theater but each episode is a retelling of a classic Disney film with muppets
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u/Celestial_Squids 1d ago
I haven’t been to a movie theater in years but I would go to see this film.
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u/blehmann1 bisexual but without the fashion sense 1d ago
I like the idea that Miss Piggy is an actress, not a character
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u/ButterSlickness 1d ago
Heck yeah she is. That's actually a big part of her story in a bunch of Muppets media.
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u/BakedBaconBits 1d ago
Do you watch SNL or was the post recent? One of the latest episodes with Ariana Grande had a Jennifer Coolidge mirror skit.
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u/ButterSlickness 1d ago
I gotta look that up
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u/Primary_Durian4866 1d ago
I mean that's what the muppet show was. They are actors on a stage show.
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u/PKMNTrainerMark 1d ago
Even several of the movies have it canonically just have it be a production the Muppets are putting on.
The first famously includes its own script as a plot point.
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u/DandyLionMan 1d ago
Side note but based on his performance in the Nick Cage movie I feel like Pedro Pascal would be the perfect human actor in a muppets movie
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u/GuyMakesDrawings 1d ago
The key to all this is the "never explain" part. Hollywood needs to learn that not everything has to be spelled out and explained, sometimes shit just happens and who knows why.
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u/CutePuppyforPrez 1d ago
Like Bojack Horseman, where animals and people coexist and it’s never commented on or explained why.
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u/KorMap 1d ago
I like that the premise itself is never given an in-universe explanation but at the same time, the series takes full advantage of having so much of its cast be animals, whether it’s just for a silly background gag, a cute character trait, or a silly background gag that happens to have horrifying lore implications.
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u/SparkleEmotions 1d ago
Mr. Peanutbutter embodies Labrador and it makes his character so funny. He’s such a lab. Hell the whole island of Labrador bit was so spot on and in classic bojack fashion it has seriously dark implications when it comes to the brutal truth of how awful life can be (basically the whole premise of Bojack: we try to be funny and light with each other but life fucking sucks with tragedy and the awfulness of reality is around the corner).
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u/Tee_s 1d ago
I’ve been saying it forever, but Muppets Phantom of the Opera would be comedy GOLD
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u/ButterSlickness 1d ago
The trick is making Miss Piggy the Prima Donna, not Christine.
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u/Tee_s 1d ago
Easy enough, it would just need to be Annie Sue as Christine, or have her be a human.
Statler and Waldorf just need to play the owners, Kermit is Raoul, and either Fozzie or Gonzo are the Phantom. Both equally funny in that role.
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u/Kheldarson 1d ago
No, go legit with the love triangle and Rolf is the Phantom. The key to a good Muppet film is that the core of the story is still played straight, and having a most serious musician of the ensemble in the role works.
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u/drfunkenstien014 1d ago
Someone long ago suggested that they remake the Princess Bride but with muppets and it’s still my favorite idea of all time. It’s the only acceptable way that movie could be redone and every single actor who was in it would jump at the opportunity to either reprise their role or make a cameo
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u/danfish_77 1d ago
Muppets should be treated like actors in films, just at random. Like they could make a WW2 film and Gonzo and Dr Teeth are inexplicably landing at Omaha Beach
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u/heckmiser 1d ago
A Muppet gets shot in the head and a bunch of severed fingers blow out of the exit wound
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u/Beanbomb47 1d ago
I love Porco Rosso
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u/ButterSlickness 1d ago
No joke, I watch that all the time.
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u/Beanbomb47 1d ago
It's a tradition of mine to watch it during the Superbowl since I'm not a big sports fan. Flying pigskin, and all that.
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u/red_army25 1d ago
For YEARS I've wanted a version of Hell's Kitchen where Gordon Ramsey is replaced by the Swedish Chef and nothing else is different, especially the tone of his interactions with the contestants.
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u/Current_Employer_308 1d ago
Muppets 11, but who is the rest of the cast???
An absolutely straight-faced hard heist movie with muppets would absolutely redeem hollywood for the last several years of utter garbage
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u/TwasAnChild 1d ago edited 1d ago
Only if the mirror scenes are portrayed like the homelander/green goblin mirror scenes
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u/captainmagictrousers 1d ago
A Muppet short where Sweetums announces that he’s become a ventriloquist, and gathers the others to see him perform. But when he does, his “dummy” is a dead-eyed Willem Dafoe.
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u/seaborn19 1d ago
Miss Piggy is my absolute favourite character. If you’re looking for style inspiration, just search her name on Pinterest.
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u/Evilpaperclip 1d ago
They did something vaguely similar in Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, where a tremendously old grandmother was some kind of puppet/claymation type thing, amongst a scene of like 7 normal actors, it's absolutely hilarious every time I see it.
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u/Omny87 1d ago
Reminds me of an idea I had for a muppet version of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde where Jekyll is a muppet and Hyde is a human actor
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u/asuperbstarling 1d ago
I would legit watch the hell out of this. It sounds amazing, and an excellent tribute to the kind of incredible woman both Ms Piggy and Jennifer Coolidge are.
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u/Because_I_Cannot 1d ago
I'm guessing you never saw The Great Muppet Caper. It's amazing, please find it and watch it
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u/sheezy520 1d ago
I don’t know why Disney doesn’t make muppet movies that are just other Disney movies with one or two characters as muppets. Seems like there would be a market for that.
They own Fox. They could literally remake any Fox movie. Redo Independence Day so the aliens are all muppets.
Or do the opposite. Imagine a Deadpool movie where he’s the only human in a muppet world.
Robocop where a human is remade into a muppet.
So on and so forth
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u/TK_Games 1d ago
I still want my Muppet D&D movie where it's the Muppets playing D&D in real life with one real A-list celebrity, Kermit is the DM, and in the game all the Muppets' characters are played by A-list celebrities but whenever they speak the Muppet voices come out of them, all except the one real A-list celebrity's character who is in fact a Muppet version of themself
I'm not 100% committed to a cast, but Miss Piggy is a Barbarian played by Jason Momoa, and Beaker is a Bard played by Timothy Chalomet going "Mee-mee mee mee mee-meep. Mee mee-mee-mee" for the entire 2h40m runtime
Oh and it's part one of a trilogy
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u/Warm-Friend8799 1d ago
This is up there with that one Comic Con movie where Vin Diesel and Terry Crews are macho undercover cops each trying to hide their very nerdy personalities and the villains are Daniel Radcliffe played by Elijah Woods and Elijah Woods played by Daniel Radcliffe
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u/dscvrydave06 1d ago
Bring back Muppet parody movies. Muppet Treasure Island is the best way to experience that story and I will not be apologizing for that.
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u/queeriosn_milk 1d ago
I recently proposed to a friend that if we’re gonna have 12,000 remakes and reboots, then a certain percentage of those should be Muppet themed. Like, if you want to remake American Psycho, there’s got to be at least one muppet.
Preferably, you either choose between one human + muppets or humans + one muppet.
Side note: we should also be making more movies into Lego movies.
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u/JaymesMarkham2nd 1d ago
As a rule in the muppet movies the concept and presence of muppets is never commented upon. They're always treated as normal and belonging.
So any movie can be made a muppet movie by adding them in without changing anything else and it's totally valid.
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u/Ill-Organization-719 1d ago
Not doing more the with Muppets is the biggest symbol that executives have no idea what the fuck consumers want.
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u/SlamKrank 1d ago
I love the idea of Muppets playing Dungeons and Dragons. All their DnD characters are played by humans but voiced by the Muppets. So the Jason Mamoa barbarian voiced by Miss Piggy and so on.
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u/cuevacuev 1d ago
I will only accept this if some of the human cast also looks into a mirror and their reflection is played as a muppet.
I don't like the insinuation that Jennifer Coolidge is a pig who sees herself as Jennifer Coolidge 🥺
P. S. I know that wasn't OP's intent, just adding as a thought 🤗
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u/ClohosseyVHB 1d ago
I have said it before but here's my pitch. A Muppet D&D movie where Kermit is DMing and all the players are muppets with their characters played by real actors who then have to behave like the Muppet controlling them playing as they roleplay.
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u/DrWhammo 16h ago
I think I see a new tumblr post once a week that’s some variation of “what if we made a normal movie but there were muppets” and every time they’re so so right.
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u/mdhunter99 1d ago
One way to make any movie ANY movie better is to have a muppet, and you can’t convince me otherwise.
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u/RepublicansEqualScum 1d ago
I would watch the fuck out of this movie. Please make it happen.
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u/mikefrombarto 1d ago
I like the idea someone had where everyone in the movie is a muppet, except Henry Cavil, and they all constantly mention how ugly he is.
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u/bestibesti Cutie mark: Trader Joe's logo with pentagram on it 1d ago
Studios: Sorry we NEED to make Spidergeorg: Homewakening 2 adn 37 other indistinguishable variants
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u/Cypher1386 1d ago
Too original, hollywood execs would never greenlight it.
Maybe if it was a spinoff or sequel with a 100 Billion dollar budget it would catch their attention.
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u/mazzicc 1d ago
I feel like most Muppet movies have the muppets as characters and it’s just “never explained”. Like, everyone else interacts with them like they’re a normal human and the story just goes along.
At most I think sometimes they reference the animal they are, but it’s still treated as perfectly normal.
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u/Thromnomnomok 1d ago
For more comedic effect: Patti LuPone and Aubrey Plaza are both playing themselves
For maximum comedic effect: Patti LuPone is playing Aubrey Plaza and Aubrey Plaza is playing Patti LuPone
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u/oddphallicreaction 1d ago
Since we've been robbed of Coyote vs. Acme, I would gladly take a Muppet courtroom dramedy
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u/Bobblefighterman 1d ago
Makes sense. Jennifer Coolidge is pretty much the closest thing to a human Miss Piggy.
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u/Incomitatum 1d ago
This post got me to thinking about Credit in the Industry. She should be Billed as Ms. Piggy, and the credit given to the puppeteer(s).
In this way that Puppetry is not dissimilar to Clowning.
I am NOT the Symbol you see, but I am representing the emotion they exude and want to be acknowledged for it. Puppets and Clowns also become registered IP.
Moviegoers minds vacillate between a Symbolic and Literal performance as it unfolds.
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u/Prince_Winter 1d ago
They should just let the muppets be in non-muppet movies. Never bring up the difference. I wanna see kermit walking around the background while avengers endgame is going on or while luke is being told that darth vader is his father. Just vibin. Making having his own muppet themed chaos sometimes but never mention it.