There's a conversation starter that has popped up in a couple of my friend groups that is similar to this, basically "what movies would be improved by all but one actor being replaced by muppets?" My answer has consistently been Face/Off with Nic Cage as the only human actor. I even threw a poster together...
They try to go as close to the source material (their own version) as possible while following a checklist of fixes. That checklist involves things like CinemaSins-tier critiques of the original, and what corporate execs think as "good representation" (the most corporate-safe way, e.g. gay characters that can be cut out for certain audiences, because you need that money from Saudi, Chinese, Russian, etc. audiences), with the latter being the most blamed for the issues. But the actual greatest issue itself is that they try to redo even the stuff that only works within the realms of animation in live action.
Animation relies on exaggeration, which doesn't work in real life, thus getting rid of the most fun part of the animation medium, just to win over the "cartoons are for children" crowd. This leads to stuff like The Lion King "live action" remake, with its expressionless realistic animals acting out what cartoon animals did in a previous, animated version of The Lion King. The same is in to different extents and versions in all the other "live action" remakes.
They try to go as close to the source material (their own version)
Except they changed Mulan to appease a Chinese audience. Before release everyone thought the remake would be closer to the original story because of the rumor that the movie targeted the Chinese market. But they turned it into a Marvel movie and made Mulan a superhero resulting in that almost everyone disliked the movie.
My understanding of this phenomenon is there is a committee of "You can't eat salsa, that's cultural appropriation" types who have the final edit on them, which is why you get movies like "What if Beauty and the Beast, but more feminist grudge porn, and a 🏳️🌈🏳️🌈🏳️🌈GAY🏳️🌈🏳️🌈🏳️🌈 character!" or "What if Mulan, but it's about Chinese people so there can't be anything fun or amusing in it, and...look we've got to get rid of this character arc shit. We can't have this character be intrinsically weak and then learn to use her wits to compensate for it. She's a girl, she has to be perfect and effortlessly better than the men from the start or we'll hold our breath. That's what a Strong Female Character is."
That's why they're not fun. People who are not fun are in charge of making them.
What a garbage answer. You can make fun content and still be inclusive, execs just don't want to take any risks on new IPs because they can milk old ones. Stop blaming inclusiveness when the real answer is greed.
This is basically the same strategy that put Lego back on top. And clearly that's working brilliantly.
Aside: Lego was staring into void until they changed leadership and pivoted to this "license everything" strategy. Why? The patent on their bricks was about to expire. Rather than run on brand recognition alone, they embraced something else that nobody else could get. Disney should take note here: any other studio could start cranking out irreverent send-ups of classic fairy tales, but they won't have Muppets.
Please don't remind current-state Disney of this, unless you want to see yet another beloved franchise destroyed in an inconceivable way.
That seems to be Disney's only achievable direction right now. Massacring all creativity out of everything they own for sake of...I can't even tell anymore, but apparently it's somehow not even money.
It's not just Disney digging the graveyard to sell more rotting remains and wondering why they don't go for top dollar; it's the lot of them. FREAKY FRIDAY is coming out again.
What's next? Non-racist Chitty Chitty bang-bang? Twin child actors again with yet another parent trap?
I don't get why people love Muppets so much. I pretty much grew up without it, and I think one time my mom let us take a Muppet movie home from the library when I was a kid, and it was.... Alright. I guess.
Anyone care to explain what they like about about them?
Multiple actors who have played against Sesame Street characters like Elmo have said that they forget there is a human hidden under the puppet - they’re that good.
As an adult who grew up on sesame street and the muppets, it's just the unabashed wholesomeness that I love. They were preaching inclusivity when I was growing up in a time/place that tried to force conformity. They weren't cool, they were themselves, and that's never a bad message for kids (or adults).
The newer movie (The Muppets 2011), co-written by Jason Segal, who also grew up with The Muppets, captures that vibe perfectly IMHO.
The show is the best of the muppets, not the movies. Some of them are decent, but judging the show by the movies is like trying to understand SNL by watching Blues Brothers and Night at the Roxbury.
Said it before I'll say it again, full original trilogy star wars with Muppets, all human characters are Muppets, all muppet aliens are humans (Jaba, Yoda, etc). It would print money
I've seen articles genuinely arguing that "him being such s gamer and obsessed nerd makes him unattractive", they hated that he sided with the fans on Witcher.
I can't say about Europe, but Asia doesn't have the cultural pull for the muppets. I suspect China's indifference to the Muppets makes it less lucrative.
except a muppet movie would be effectively free to produce in comparison to the live action movies, the muppets christmas carol had a budget of 12 million dollars, the live action lion king had a budget of 250 million (jesus christ).
Something about a human grooming a kidnapped muppet is disturbing to me. I think just make Miss Piggy the beast and Kermit the beauty. Their relationship is already a bit rapey.
Uh... what are you on about? She's not exactly kidnapped or groomed in the original Disney movie...
She's jailed for trespassing, and she grooms him in to not being an angry hateful troll... Not all "grooming" is bad, ffs. Get the entire overarching story correct before you complain about something very, very dumb and wrong...