News Update: December 8, 2012

NEWS UPDATE: December 8, 2012

Let me just preface this by saying that I can't remember the last time we did two News Updates in one week... but this week has been jam-packed with Muppet news and content, so... here we go!

As we reported earlier this week, Kermit the Frog appeared on NBC's 30 Rock on Thursday night. He only had a brief appearance near the end, but it was a perfect cameo. Check out Kermit as he joins Jack Donaghy (Alec Baldwin) for the greatest eulogy of all time in the video below!



Speaking of everyone's favorite frog, Kermit also stopped by the TV Guide offices while he was in New York last week to film a video as part of their "Cubicle Confessions" series. It's a really fantastic and fun little clip with rapid-fire questions for Kermit, including his favorite TV shows! Watch below!




Last Friday I wrote up an article about my time spent with Caroll Spinney at the University of Illinois. As I mentioned in the article, video footage of Caroll's entire lecture might be on the way... and I was right! So check out the video below for exclusive video from the event featuring Caroll Spinney and Oscar the Grouch, all filmed by our friend Josh Hankemeier!




In news that you don't have to watch a video for, a few days ago Grammy nominations came out and it was announced that The Muppets was nominated for two Grammy Awards! One for Best Compilation Soundtrack For Visual Media and one for "Man or Muppet" for Best Song Written For Visual Media. This is just another entry on the list of the tons of awards The Muppets has been nominated for/won. Hopefully Bret McKenzie and the Muppets be able to add two more statues to shiny gold statues to their shelves when the winners are announced!

Finally, in official casting news for the next Muppet movie, ABC's Modern Family's funny-man Ty Burrell has officially signed on for the film! The Hollywood Reporter broke the story last night, revealing that Burrell would take the role previously offered to Christoph Waltz, who is too committed to other projects to be in the movie. Burrell will play "one of the key roles" in the movie, that of an Interpol inspector. I don't know about you, Muppet fans, but I think this is a phenomenal casting choice. Ty Burrell is fantastically funny and incredibly goofy and a perhaps perfect performer to play alongside the Muppets. I can't wait to see him in the movie! (And I just can't wait to see the movie.)





The Muppet Mindset by Ryan Dosier, muppetmindset@gmail.com

News Update: February 16, 2012

NEWS UPDATE: February 16, 2012
Miss Piggy was chosen to host the BAFTA Red Carpet ceremony in London this past weekend and, as you would guess, she did an amazing job. She mingled with the likes of Daniel Radcliffe, John Hamm, Gary Oldman, and plenty of other major stars all showing up for the British Academy awards. You can check out an eight minute video of Piggy's hosting gig below!



ToyFair 2012 was this past weekend as well, and our good friends at ToughPigs stopped by the convention to look out for Muppet stuff! They found some awesome Sesame Street toys coming soon, along with some cool Muppet toys as well! You can check out the full coverage on ToughPigs proper, but we wanted to spotlight some cool stuff below. First up is another look at the Funko POP! Muppet figures coming soon. The artwork shown here reveals pupils on the figures, along with fantastically awesome Mahna Mahna and Snowth figures! Looky looky!

Also from Funko are some incredibly awesome Muppet bobbleheads--also coming soon. How amazing is it that we'll be getting a Dr. Teeth bobblehead before too long?! Must have!

It was a slow week for Muppet news, but here we have an article from Empire Online in which they interviewed various celebrities to find out their favorite Muppets. There are some spectacularly obscure choices (Simon Pegg loves Floyd, Ricky Gervais loves Robin the Frog, etc.) and some hilarious and aggravating, incredibly wrong choices as well. Someone asserted that Walt Disney was a Muppet, Ryan Reynolds made an off-color comment about Gonzo, David Yates like something called Ernie the Frog. But mostly, it's just neat to hear celebrities talking about Muppets!

Finally, the petition telling The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to let the Muppets sing at the Academy Awards next Sunday, February 26th, has reached nearly 60,000 signatures. It's over halfway towards its goal of 100,000, so if you haven't already sign and share the petition with everyone you know! We could get the Muppets at the Oscars! Come on, Muppet fans!

The Muppet Mindset by Ryan Dosier, ryguy102390@gmail.com

News Update: February 9, 2012

NEWS UPDATE: February 9, 2012

Coming soon to a video game console near you: Muppet costumes for the popular game Disney Universe available on the X-Box 360 and PS3! The game, which acts as Disney's answer to the popular Little Big Planet games (which coincidentally also have Muppet costumes), features downloadable content which allows you to get more costumes for your player to dress it up as your favorite Disney characters. Specific characters or costume details (or even pictures) have yet to be released, but for an example of what they might look like, check out the Mike Wazowski (from Monsters, Inc.) costume at right!

In huge awards show news (no, The Academy still hasn't changed their minds about Original Song performances), Miss Piggy will be hosting the Red Carpet for the BAFTAs in London! BAFTA stands for the British Academy of Film and Television Arts, and they've chosen Piggy to host their red carpet arrival ceremony before the awards kick off. This means that our British friends across the pond have the chance to see Piggy on TV interacting with the likes of George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Meryl Streep, and many, many other major actors and actresses. The show begins this Sunday night in London. No word yet on if American audiences will get to see the Pig in action... but one can hope.

Speaking of the Brits, Kermit the Frog and Pepe the Prawn recently filmed a commercial for the Cravendale milk company. The commercial stars Kermit and Pepe (obviously) along with the breakout star: Pepe's magic potato. Watch for yourself below...



Hysterical, no? What's even better, our good friend Matt Drapper has started an internet sensation (sort of) with his Tumblr account: Pepe Potatoes, where he matches up Pepe and his magic potato alongside quotes from history and movies and television. The result is absolute hilarity. Check out one of our favorites below and head over to Pepe Potatoes on Tumblr for yourself!

The incredibly popular line of POP! Vinyl figures from Funko, which partners often with Disney, is releasing a line of Muppet figures! The first wave of figures will feature Kermit, Piggy, Fozzie, Gonzo, Animal, and Dr. Teeth and will be available in stores soon. For now, you can see concept art for the awesome looking figures below (and start saving your money to buy them as soon as they come out):

The folks at Virgin Radio are hosting a Fake Film Festival, in which filmmakers spoof popular films in 60 seconds. Well, one of the incredibly talented people has made "The Muppet Movie in 60 Seconds" with a mixture of Palisades Toys, old dolls, and paper cut-outs--and it's absolutely spectacular. You can watch the video below but be sure to go to Virgin Radio's contest page and click the "Like" button to help make this the winning film!



Finally, in Oscar news, after The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced that there would be no Best Original Song performances on the Oscar telecast--thus meaning no Muppets--people all over the internet took to protesting. Celebrities ranging from Judd Apatow (The 40 Year Old Virgin, Knocked Up), Alison Brie (Community), Adam Levine (Maroon 5), Jeff Garlin (Curb Your Enthusiasm), and Patton Oswalt (Ratatouille) took to Twitter to show their support for the Muppets and their disdain towards The Academy. Even The Muppets co-writer Nicholas Stoller took a stand alongside Jason Segel on Twitter to protest the decision. But the biggest contribution came from noted blogger Perez Hilton who started a petition to "Get The Muppet On The Oscars!" As of writing, the petition has over 9,000 signatures (in less than one day, mind you) and is still growing. If you haven't already, please go sign and show your support for Walter, the Muppet, Jason Segel, Peter Linz, Bret McKenzie, and everyone on The Muppets team. Don't they deserve it? You never know if we can make a difference!







The Muppet Mindset by Ryan Dosier, ryguy102390@gmail.com

"Man or Muppet" Nominated for an Academy Award!

Early this morning, deep in the hills of Hollywood, nominations for the 84th Annual Academy Awards were announced. Muppet fans everywhere awaited the news of any nominations at all for The Muppets. Well, we didn't have to wait long to find out that The Muppets was nominated for Best Original Song with the touching, powerful, hilarious, magnificent "Man or Muppet" written by Bret McKenzie and performed by Jason Segel, Walter (Peter Linz), Muppet Jason Segel (Bill Barretta), and Jim Parsons!!

This is huge news, not only because it was nominated, but because "Man or Muppet" has a 50% chance of winning the Oscar, thanks to there only being two songs nominated in the Best Original Song category this year. The other song nominated is "Real in Rio" from the animated film Rio. We may be living in the year when, for the first time, a Muppet movie takes home an Oscar.

I'm sure most of you are wondering why only one song from the film was nominated, well, I was too. It turns out, in 2008, after Disney's Enchanted was nominated for three songs and ended up not winning for any of them, the Academy Awards announced that a limit would be placed on the number of songs that can be nominated per movie, so that votes aren't split between them.

But whatever, because Bret McKenzie, "Man or Muppet," and The Muppets have all been recognized and honored with a nomination, and that's what matters. Life's a happy song for "Man or Muppet," and surely for Bret McKenzie, Jason Segel, James Bobin, Nick Stoller, Peter Linz, and everyone else on The Muppets team! Our huge, sincere congratulations to all of them. I also have to say that I told Bret McKenzie he would win an Oscar for "Life's a Happy Song"... but we'll just pretend I said "Man or Muppet," because, quite frankly, they both deserve an Oscar.

The 84th Annual Academy Awards air on ABC on Sunday, February 26. It hasn't been announced yet if the song will be performed live, but with only two nominees it seems silly not to. I would be shocked if Jason and Walter, at least, weren't there to perform, and I honestly expect a lot more! We'll see!

It's a great day to be a Muppet fan, a Muppet of a man, or a very manly Muppet!! Congratulations all around!

The Muppet Mindset by Ryan Dosier, ryguy102390@gmail.com

THE MUPPETS Wins at Critics Choice Movie Awards

Last night The Critics Choice Movie Awards were held and broadcast live on VH1. These awards help kick off the awards season, leading into the Golden Globes this weekend, the Academy Awards next month, and numerous other awards in between. The Critics Choice marked the first awards that The Muppets was nominated for, being nominated for Best Comedy and "Life's a Happy Song," "Man or Muppet," and "Pictures in My Head" being nominated for Best Song.

The Muppets unfortunately (but unsurprisingly) lost in the Best Comedy category to Bridesmaids. But for the movie to be nominated alongside huge comedic successes such as Crazy, Stupid, Love, Bridesmaids, and others is a major honor for the film.

The Muppets did, however, take home the statue for Best Song for "Life's a Happy Song"!! This category was not broadcast on VH1, but the LA Times later confirmed the victory for them. This win only yields positive things for the movie and the song, giving it a much better chance of both being nominated and winning subsequent awards, including the coveted Oscar. Our sincere congratulations go out to Bret McKenzie, James Bobin, Jason Segel, and everyone on The Muppets team for their first big win of the awards season!

There was also a treat for Muppet fans watching the Awards last night, when Statler and Waldorf made a brief appearance via satellite, heckling movie stars and blockbuster pictures from the comfort of their home (or a home) in their bed robes. Thanks to our friends at ToughPigs, who found the video, you can now watch the two old geezers in their appearance below!

Get More: 17th Annual Critics' Choice Movie Awards

Congratulations again to The Muppets for the big win for "Life's a Happy Song"! Unfortunately, the movie received no Golden Globe nominations, so our next big awards season event will come with the announcement of Oscar nominations on January 24th, with the Oscars ceremony on February 26th. It seems that The Muppets is a shoe-in for "Best Original Song" nominations there, and perhaps more... and more than likely we'll see some Muppets make appearances at the ceremony. But until then...

Life's a filet of fish... yes it is!

The Muppet Mindset by Ryan Dosier, ryguy102390@gmail.com

THE MUPPETS Critics Choice Awards Nominations!

With The Muppets being released about a month ago, Disney put it out into the public eye just in time for the movie to be considered for award show nominations. It's finally awards season and the nominations are rolling in. Yesterday, nominations for The Critics Choice Awards were announced and The Muppets hit all the right categories, being nominated for Best Comedy and Best Song for three songs from the film. Below are the entire list of nominations for Best Comedy and Best Song to show off the competition The Muppets faces when The 17th Annual Critics Choice Movie Awards airs on January 12, 2012 on VH1.

BEST COMEDY
Bridesmaids
Crazy Stupid Love
Horrible Bosses
Midnight in Paris
The Muppets

BEST SONG
"Hello Hello" from Gnomeo and Juliet
"The Living Proof" from The Help
"Life's a Happy Song" from The Muppets
"Man or Muppet" from The Muppets
"Pictures in My Head" from The Muppets

The Muppets faces very steep competition in the Best Comedy category, with Bridesmaids, Crazy Stupid Love, and Horrible Bosses being big blockbusters with great reviews... but The Muppets may be able to hold its own against them. But either way, it's huge that they even got nominated.

As for Best Song, if I may editorialize a bit, I think The Muppets has this one in the bag. I feel like "Life's a Happy Song" has the best chance of winning here (as well it should), but "Man or Muppet" is probably a close second there. Even though Gnomeo and Juliet totes Elton John and The Help has Mary J. Blige, I don't think either song has the lyrical or musical prowess to take down "Life's a Happy Song." I guess we'll find out on January 12th!

I would also be remiss if I didn't mention that Golden Globe nominations came out today, and the Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA) completely snubbed The Muppets in all categories. This could be due to two factors... one, The Muppets has not been released in many non-U.S. markets yet, and the HFPA is comprised of journalists from Europe, Asia, Australia, and Latin America, and The Muppets has yet to be released in most of these countries, so the voters aren't as informed, unfortunately. The second reason is that the Golden Globes are notoriously against nominating family films; in 2010, they nominated Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland over Toy Story 3 for Best Picture (Comedy or Musical). Both are great films, but the critical acclaim and success of Toy Story 3 is incomparable to Alice in Wonderland. So, basically what I'm saying is don't worry about the lack of Golden Globe nominations for The Muppets. The Academy Awards are much more favorable for family films (in recent years), and The Muppets is sure to rack up at least a Best Song nomination there, if not more.

The Muppet Mindset by Ryan Dosier, ryguy102390@gmail.com