News Update: October 27, 2011

NEWS UPDATE: October 27, 2011

The Disney Store has released a bunch of new Muppet stuff online and in their physical store locations. Among these are four brand new Muppet mugs featuring Kermit the Frog, Miss Piggy, Fozzie Bear, and Gonzo the Great--only available in-store, along with some new t-shirts, and eight wonderful new Muppet plush toys of Kermit, Piggy, Fozzie, Gonzo, Animal, Beaker, Rizzo, and... Pepe the King Prawn! This is the first time a Pepe plush has been widely available, so be sure to get yours today, okay! All of these are available at DisneyStore.com | The Muppets and I've been told that even more stuff--including a Walter plush--will be coming out soon. So be on the look out!

The Muppets have released three brand new videos recently: two promoting their involvement with Alamo Rent-A-Car Company, and the other featuring Sam the Eagle as he shills out for "likes" in The Muppets Fan-A-Thon in the most patriotic way possible. Check out all three videos below--and make sure you bring an umbrella. Rowlf's tongue is flying!







A slew of great new interviews with cast and crew of The Muppets have filtered out onto the internet recently. Variety has a great little piece with Christophe Beck, composer for the film. In it, Beck talks about his exposure to the Muppets, why he enjoys them, and why he has loved working on The Muppets. An interview with Zack Galifianakis on BuzzSugar.com talks a little bit more about Zack's cameo in the movie as a character called "Hobo Joe." He also talks a little about his hope for the film and love of the characters. Director of The Muppets James Bobin talked with Film Journal International at great length and opened up about his love for the Muppets and his love for The Muppets. He really comes across as a great fit for the characters--which should be very satisfying to a lot of fans.

Kermit the Frog recently stopped by Toronto to visit and co-host the popular morning talk show CP24 to promote The Muppets and announce that he and the rest of the Muppets would be appearing in the annual Toronto Santa Claus Parade on November 20th. Luckily, CP24 posted two videos from Kermit's gig on their website and, as always, the Frog was fantastic. Take special notice of how he rolls around in the chair and be sure you watch both videos and stay till the end. There's a very special, adorable, understated musical treat.

Whilst in Toronto, Kermit met up with friend and co-star Jason Segel and the two talked about The Muppets with various news outlets. Toronto.com has a great piece and small interview with both the Frog and the writer/actor. In the interview, Jason talks about the fart shoes and explains why he thinks they work and people are over-reacting. It's basically what we said here the other day... you know how Segel likes to take all of our ideas. I mean, I was talking about a Muppet feature film long before he was!

In the major recent explosion of promotion for Being Elmo: A Puppeteer's Journey, Kevin Clash stopped by some talk shows for some rare appearances without a furry red sock on his arm. Our friends over at ToughPigs.com have the full collection of appearances, but check out below for the video from The Daily Show with Jon Stewart for my favorite of the appearances. Also, take note, that The Muppet Mindset has interviewed someone that Jon Stewart has interviewed. How awesome is that?!

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Kevin Clash
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor & Satire Blog The Daily Show on Facebook

The Muppets are the stars of the November 2011 issue of WIRED Magazine subtitled "Fuzzy Logic." The cover features Dr. Bunsen Honeydew and Beaker and inside, seven pages are wonderfully overflowing with Muppets including Sam the Eagle, Janice, Statler and Waldorf, Gonzo, and a lot more. I can't recommend going out and buying this magazine for yourself highly enough. It's a wonderful item to have with a great piece on Jason Segel included (which has pictures like the one at right). However, if you can't afford the magazine or can't seem to find it for yourself, the wonderful folks over at ToughPigs.com have scanned the whole thing just for you (probably not just for you)... so check it out!

Our friends over at We Love Fine T-Shirts are hosting a Muppet t-shirt design contest and voting is--and has been--open. Voting ends on November 4, so get in there and vote for one of the shirt designs that are actually good, not some of the poorly Photoshopped uses of already existing material. The piece at right, designed by friend of the blog Dave Alvarez, is just one of the examples of amazing Muppet art in this contest. Go vote so you can get to wear one of these on your torso!

There are two great new promotional videos for The Muppets appeared on Disney.com recently. Thanks to our friends over at Muppet Musings, these two videos are now on YouTube for all to see! The first, "The Muppets: 10 in 60" features Jason Segel and Kermit the Frog as they attempt to answer ten questions about The Muppets in 60 seconds. This video features some fantastic new shots from the movie and some great interaction between Kermit and Jason. The second is the Disney Movie Surfers showcase of The Muppets wherein Kermit deems both Jason and the random girl interviewing them as honorary Muppets. Why wasn't I in that room at the time? Anyway... enjoy both below!

And, finally, there is a brand new final parody trailer for The Muppets now available for a bazillion viewings online!! Here it is--in all its amazing glory. The Muppets just parodied their own parody. That just happened. Watch it now!









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

"The Muppets" Score, Marvel, and Book it!

There have been a couple notable developments in the Muppet world over the past few days, but none that have really warranted their own individual post, so we've collected them all together here--now--today!

In The Muppets movie music news (say that five times fast), we've discovered that the composer who is composing the original score for the film has been revealed in one Christophe Beck. Mr. Beck has a multitude of screen composing credits spanning the likes of The Hangover, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Cheaper By the Dozen, Waiting for Superman, and numerous other films and TV productions under his belt. His involvement with the film was revealed on the credits base of the most recent theater poster. I've seen quite a few movies scored by Mr. Beck, but I can't honestly say I paid too much attention to the score in any of them... but I'm sure he'll be a good choice to go alongside Brett MacKenzie's original songs.

As we mentioned a few months ago, Marvel Comics is republishing Roger Langridge and BOOM! Studio's The Muppet Show Comic Book for re-issue. Well, it seems that the first re-issue, "Meet the Muppets," has been quietly seeping into stores. This is only notable because there's a new cover that comes attached to the collection--see it to the right. It's an incredibly odd choice, not that attractive of an image, and pretty bland... but we didn't really expect this to be up to par with the BOOM! stuff did we? At least there's more Muppets in stores.

Finally, as we also mentioned a few months ago, there is a gaggle of books promoting The Muppets coming out this fall. The cover art for four of these books, Meet the Muppets, The Muppets: The Movie Junior Novel, The Muppets: The Reusable Sticker Book, and The Muppets Theater Stage Set, have made their way to Muppet Wiki. Check out both of the images below...

While I love the art on the Meet the Muppets book--it's very old-style and the character choice is wonderful--the same, old, tired photo-puppet posers used on the Theater Stage Set just make me sad. With all the gorgeous new poser images that we've seen on various things (see: the theater standee, the poster, this awesome picture), it's just extremely sad to see such a lazy effort on what could still be a pretty exciting book.






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