Muppet Movie Re-Make

EDIT: I just figured out that the post on ToughPigs that made me want to rip out my liver was an April Fool’s Day joke. My rant still holds many truths though.

Now, it’s time for this blogger to do what bloggers do best.

Rant

And even better– rant about fanboy-ish stuff nobody cares about.

Today Google Reader brought me this post from ToughPigs.

If you don’t want to read that post, have a little snippet:

Having been unable to come up with a new script that everyone likes, Disney has announced a new plan to relaunch the Muppet movie franchise with a remake of The Muppet Movie.

When I read this I was so angry.

First- Disney does crap with the Muppets. They had Studio DC: Almost Live, and Letters To Santa which weren’t very good. Sure, they released The Muppet Show box sets after the Jim Henson Company released the Fraggle Rock box sets.

Then they had all the internet videos, right? After the Jim Henson Company shifted it’s focus to online.

Okay, let’s shift to another section of the Walt Disney Company. Let’s take a peep at their other live action films. Oh… wait a minute… they have made the same movie billions of times!!!!! People that don’t get along well, they’re thrust together, they face a common conflict, they love each other.

It’s right about now that Disney is realizing “Wait a minute!!!! We can’t do that with the Muppets! We actually have to come up with a new concept!!!!!!”

So then Rich Ross (Dick Cook’s replacement, for those of you who don’t know) says, “Awww man, I wish we could just use Jim Henson’s ideas… he was good.” (That was not intended to be a gay joke.)

“Hey wait a minute! Why can’t we? Let’s re-make The Muppet Movie.”

So Disney can only use minimal creativity. They can’t come up with their own feature concept anymore. (At least for live action, we’re not discussing animation here.)

But what if this sale never went through? What if The Jim Henson Company never sold the property?

THEY SUCK TO RIGHT NOW!!!!!!

I hate to be blunt but its the truth. They have their kids shows (Shot on HDPS, which is pretty much motion-capture/puppetry in one.) Sid The Science Kid and Dinosaur Train, and those are good, then they have a bunch of properties under the Henson Alternative (HA!) brand. But these aren’t even shows. These are videos that they put online and say “we’re gonna make a new TV show” AND THEN THEY NEVER DO!

Honestly, if JHC still had their hands on it, I’d be blogging my rant about an HDPS Kermit.

Now wait for a few months for my rant on a Pixar Kermit.

It sucks to be a Muppet Geek.

Princess & The Frog’s B.O. Flop

I’ve been obseassing over Box Office numbers recently. Mostly because I needed a hobby (besides work) and got so angry at Avatar’s success.

What’s really dispointing about these B.O. numbers is one movie that I have been waiting for since it was announced. Disney’s The Princess & The Frog. The return to cell animation. What I’m not so happy about? It’s done terribly in B.O.

It was doing great, then all of a sudden Alvin & The Chipmunks 2: I Refuse To Type The Subtitle hit theatres and killed. Utterly destroying Frog. (Chipmunks are cuter?)

The weekend Chipmunks 2 hit (December 25-27, 2010), Frog got 35% up on that Friday 97% up on that Saturday, then on Sunday, everything began to die.

Most of days in January, it was on a decline: even after the chipmunk hype! Because of all the mass hysteria of Chipmunks 2 everyone forgot Princess & The Frog was there! It played strongly on Fridays and Saturdays, which is interesting.

Don’t get me wrong, it did pretty good, but only increased for a short while, then got on it’s steady decline of daily gross.

You know what really gets me fired up about all this? Disney’s bold move to traditional animation got beaten by a computer-animated star movie.

After Frog, Disney plans to bring us Tangled (formerly Rapunzel) next year (planned to hit on my birthday!) and King of The Elves in 2012. Two COMPUTER ANIMATED films. Frog didn’t flop, but it got beaten, and when your as big as Disney, getting beaten is just as bad as a flop.

You know what I see here? I see Disney leaving behind the feature cells for good. That’s upsetting.

On a side note- This week saw Frog drop out of the top twenty.

Go see Princess and The Frog stop seeing Avatar.

On Art

The other day I made a post on my other blog about art.

Its not just about film and its pretty Christian, so I decided to put it over there, but check it out: Click here!

A New Blog!

Hey there! Welcome to my fabulous new blog: Frames of Film! Before I begin blogging away I want to tell you a bit about myself, my name is Doug Hanna, I’m an Indie film-maker, and long-time film geek.

I have another blog for my professional life, but most of the time I blog about my personal life, or upcoming releases and news from my media brand, Blue Squid Productions. Being a film geek, I always wanted to blog about movies, but don’t want to scare away potential fans of my own movies, just because I use words like foley.

I wanted an outlet to really just geek out. To spew information out to the world about the great movies I’ve seen, to share tips, to, well, just geek out.

Enter Frames of Film.

I want to use this blog to talk about movies, television shows, any moving picture. A place I can share tips I’ve learned, things I liked/didn’t like about movies, tips for different softwares (I am a beast with Sony’s Vegas), and so much more!

And most importantly: Your feedback is important! I’ll probably still blog if I get no readers, but I want your comments!!! Is there a specific movie you’d like me to review? Let me know! Want me to study a certain artist or producer in the field? Let me know! Want me to dance the Macarena while wearing a chicken suit???? LET ME KNOW DARN IT!

If you don’t understand a term I use, please, feel free to comment! If anyone leaves any RTFM comments in here, I assure you, people will be blocked!

And that brings me to the end of my first post over here on Frames of Film, coming quite soon: reviews on Where The Wild Things Are and Disney·Pixar’s Toy Story 3-D Double Feature!

STAY TUNED!

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