Muppet Maestros: Randy Newman

Muppet Maestros Part V: Randy Newman
As heard on...
The Muppet Show ("Simon Smith and the Amazing Dancing Bear," "Short People," "It's Lonely at the Top")

Hilarie Mukavitz - Randy Newman is the greatest American songwriter you've never heard of.  Some of the Disneyphiles out there might recognize his name as the guy who keeps getting Oscar nominations for scoring Pixar films.  However he doesn't have the same sort of fame as, say, Paul Simon or George Gershwin, even though I feel he's of the same caliber.

Randy Newman was born in Los Angeles, California in 1943. His father was a physician. However, three of his uncles were film soundtrack composers in Hollywood. Newman spent a significant part of his childhood living in New Orleans, Louisiana, which had a huge impact on his musical styling.

Newman started working as a songwriter at age 17.  Initially,  his albums didn't have much success; his songs were successful when they were covered by other people. His first successful album was in 1971 with 12 Songs which included "Mama Told Me Not to Come" (later covered by Three Dog Night.)

"Lonely at the Top"

He followed it up in 1972 with Sail Away, which was full of Newman's unique style of satire.  The title song, "Sail Away" is a chilling lullaby sung to slaves by a slave trader. In "Political Science," the narrator suggests that America's problems could be solved by dropping a nuclear bomb. The album Sail Away also included two songs later featured on The Muppet Show:  "It's Lonely at the Top," which was performed by Qungo the gorilla in Season 4, and "Simon Smith and the Amazing Dancing Bear," performed by Scooter and Fozzie in the first episode. The most famous song from the album is "You Can Leave Your Hat On."

In 1974, Newman released Good Old Boys which was about various aspects of the Deep South.  The most famous song from it is "Louisiana, 1927" about the Mississippi flood in 1927. The song regained popularity in 2005 after Hurricane Katrina. If you are going to check out just one Randy Newman album, this is the one. It contains one of Newman's sweetest love songs "Marie." (Well as sweet as Randy Newman ever gets with lyrics like "I'm drunk right now baby, but I've got to be or I never could tell you what you mean to me."

In 1977, the album Little Criminals contained his breakout hit "Short People" which was... surprise, surprise... a satire! Newman has commented that this is the song that will be the first line in his obituary. "Short People" was performed by James Coco on The Muppet Show in Season 3 with a plethora of tiny Muppets (plus Thog).

Since the 1980's Randy Newman has focused mostly on film soundtracks, including The Natural, Awakenings, The Three Amigos, Toy Story (plus 2 and 3), Pleasantville, Seabiscuit, The Princess and the Frog and the theme song to the television show Monk. If you ever want to hear an in depth talk on the process of creating a film score, check out his commentary track in Pleasantville.  Newman also still does the occasional album such as concept album Faust in 1995 and Harps and Angels in 2008. He also pops up on NPR shows and podcasts periodically with wonderful, snarky one-liners. And if you have stayed with me this long... I can just about guarantee you'll never hear Toy Story's "You've Got a Friend in Me" the same way again!

ith Newman's wicked sense of humor, it's really not surprising his songs were featured on The Muppet Show on three different occasions. Newman himself later made a cameo on Sesame Street in 1993 in the music video for the song "Yakkety Yak Take It Back." All four songs can be seen in our exclusive Randy Newman and the Muppets playlist.

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

News Update: February 18, 2011

NEWS UPDATE: February 18, 2011

As we reported earlier this week, Elmo, Cookie Monster, and Telly appeared on Bravo's Top Chef on Wednesday night to judge a cookie making contest. (With no tongues? No way.) The whole episode has yet to surface online--which is fine, because the Sesame Street monsters only appeared in he first half of the show--but there is a great behind-the-scenes segment on Hulu, which you can see below!



Speaking of Elmo, our good friends on the team of Being Elmo: A Puppeteer's Journey and Muppet Mindset correspondent Chase Beecher have informed us that the film will be screening at another film festival! This time at the SXSW (South By Southwest) Festival in Austin, Texas. No word yet on if Elmo or Kevin Clash will be in attendance, but you can find all the information about screening times and locations at SXSW's website and BeingElmo.com.

More exciting news from the world of Sesame comes in the form of a brand new Sesame Street video game, via our friends at ToughPigs.com, being produced for XBox 360 and compatible with its Kinect accessory. The game is tentatively titled "Once Upon a Monster" and features Elmo and Cookie Monster in a Where the Wild Things Are like world. The Kinect allows you to play games using your whole body, so the game is designed to improve youngster's motor skills and reaction times. The game will be available this fall and we'll keep you posted as new information surfaces!

Last Sunday, a group of fantastic Jim Henson Company puppets appeared on the Grammys with Cee Lo Green and Gwyneth Paltrow performing Cee Lo's hit "(Forget) You." In case you missed our coverage of it on Valentine's Day, here's another look at the wonderful appearance!



While we're on the subject of The Jim Henson Company, exciting news has surfaced about their partnering with Guillermo Del Toro in producing a new film based on the Pinocchio story. Apparently the Henson Company is designing puppets for the film. Once again, our good friends at ToughPigs have the scoop and some exclusive, awesome looking images for us to ogle.

You didn't think we'd be done with The Jim Henson Company that quickly, did you? Good. Because Jim Henson's Fantastic World opened this past Saturday in Peoria, Illinois and will run through May 21st. And, apparently, Jane Henson will be appearing in person on February 24th! Check out all the information about the exhibit at this local newspaper's website. Also... let us know if you'll be going to see Jane Henson on the 24th, because we think our own Ryan Dosier will be there!

In our grand tradition in mentioning ToughPigs far too many times in our News Updates, we've got another ToughPigs link in the form of their fantastic coverage of ToyFair 2011. They've got tons of pictures of upcoming Sesame Street and Fraggle Rock merchandise and a video of Elmo and Cookie Monster in person at ToyFair! How cool is that? Also... before you freak out, there isn't any new Muppet merchandise presented, and we're fairly certain that this is because Disney is holding off on a big marketing push for the Muppets until ComicCon in the summer where they can showcase merchandise closer to the film's release date. But we don't really know anything for sure, so please don't quote us on that, because, really, we know nothing and we just like to talk.

But, hands down the most exciting news of the week, in my humble opinion, is the thrilling announcement that The Muppets will be preceded in theaters by a brand new Toy Story short film! The Muppets and Pixar have always had a great respect and homage paying thing with each other--in fact, Disney even put The Muppets script through the Pixar brain trust--so this is pretty much the perfect partnership. I've hardly met any Muppet fans that aren't also Toy Story fans... so this is basically the best possible situation! I for one am extremely excited for this hugely awesome pairing. Kudos, Mouse House! Gotta love that synergy.

And, finally, I have to be unprofessional for a minute and make a shout out to Sean, my best friend in the world, who said he'd actually get around to checking out my website if I made a shout out to him in a post (I know how it sounds, but he really is a good friend). So... there it is and I've probably completely lost my credibility as a professional blogger (what professional--I don't get paid) by doing this... but hey, I've got to get him to see it somehow. Oh, and so I don't get in trouble... I'll also shout out to Peter, Hannjoo, Tiffany, Sam, and Mickey too.

The Muppet Mindset by Ryan Dosier

What The Muppets Studio Can Learn from Pixar (or: A Shaky Reason for Me to Toy Story 3 Review)

Ryan Dosier - After I finished my second viewing of Disney/Pixar's Toy Story 3 last night (technically now, but since this is being posted tomorrow I'll write in the past tense) and for one glorious moment before I got up to leave the theater, I just sat and watched the credits roll. I was, literally, stunned by the magic of the movies. Not just any movie, mind you, but the eleventh nearly perfect film to go up on Pixar's distinguished mantle.

What is an article like this doing on a Muppet blog? Well... I'm not going to lie to you, dear readers, I really just wanted to write my own review of the greatest movie this year. But I promise I'll tie it back to the Muppets before the final period is typed!

Now as I'm sure you all know, the Toy Story franchise is what started off Pixar's reign as the most successful animated film producers in Hollywood. In 1995, Toy Story dazzled audiences with its stunning new technology, its captivating story, and its hilarious, distinctly human characters. In 1999, Toy Story 2 took that formula and made it twice as effective. Here we are in 2010, and I'm thrilled to say that Toy Story 3 has done the same thing and taken it to infinity and beyond. (C'mon... I had to.)

Each film follows the tale of child's play-things Woody (Tom Hanks), Buzz Lightyear (Tim Allen), and a myriad of other fantastic characters including cowgirl Jessie (Joan Cusack), neurotic dinosaur Rex (Wallace Shawn), Hamm the piggybank, Slinky Dog, and the Potatoheads (Mr. and Mrs.). In every film Woody and Buzz learn something about their existence as toys and what that entails for their lots in life. Toy Story 3 is no exception. In the third installment, the toy's owner, Andy, has matured and grown and is heading to college. The toys, after having no playtime with Andy for years, make a desperate attempt to be loved again and end up being donated to Sunnyside Daycare.

At Sunnyside everything seems peachy-keen, until the toys come to the quick realization that the daycare is more a prison than the Shangri-La they had hoped. The story soon morphs into a prison escape film rivaling any that I've ever seen. But Toy Story 3 is so much more than just an escape, and it proves that within the final half-hour of the film. I've never seen a movie capture such depth and poignancy, while still retaining humor and heart, like Toy Story 3. Its nearly impossible to not have tears welling in your eyes by the time the credits roll. Even upon my second viewing when I knew what would happen, the tears still came.

The Muppets have the ability to be just as emotionally heart-warming and tear-forming as Woody and Buzz; The Muppets Studio just needs to realize it. The reason that Toy Story 3 is such an amazing film is because its story focuses on its established, hilarious, adored characters. Sound familiar? I firmly believe that Kermit and the gang can carry the emotional weight that every Pixar movie has, while still retaining the classic humor and wit they're famous for.

It is more than obvious that creating character-driven films like the Toy Story series is a venture that is just as successful, if not more so, than pandering to an audience that craves toilet humor and pop music backing tracks. A firm focus on the characters is exactly what the Muppets need. Kermit needs to drive his story by chasing his dream of singing and dancing and making people happy, just as Woody drives his story by chasing his dream of being just what Andy wants and needs.

I hope beyond all hope that The Muppets Studio team sends Jason Segel and Nick Stoller's new Muppet movie script through Pixar's writing department. Pixar knows exactly how to create a beautiful (and, as Dr. Teeth would say, profitable) character-driven film. That is exactly what the Muppets need with this new movie--character and heart; and nobody does that better than Pixar.

Do I have enough confidence that Segel and Stoller can write a heart-warming, character driven script on their own, without Pixar's input? Yes, probably. But do I think their chances are infinitely better if they do get input from Pixar? Absolutely. Even though filming for the new movie is slated for September, I still believe that there's plenty of time for the script to circulate through Pixar's writing department, and I sincerely hope that it does.

If Toy Story 3 (which has set a record for animation by making over $41 million on its opening day) is any indication, Pixar knows exactly how to make a movie for all ages that is both hilarious and heart-warming. The key is character, and that's what the Muppets need to focus on once again.

So, in conclusion... Go see Toy Story 3 and witness the best movie of the year and find out exactly what a kind of film the Muppets could be making if they focused on character once again.

The Muppet Mindset by Ryan Dosier