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" Promo Overload

Over the past few days, a plethora of new promotional videos for The Muppets have surfaced in what we can only hope is the beginning of the massive Muppet merchandising machine rolling its way out of the starting gate. First up, a brand new mini-trailer for The Muppets is the featured video on Disney.com today. Thanks to our awesome friend Matt at Muppet Musings, we now have the video on YouTube as well! Check it out below:

Excited yet? Wait, there's more! A couple new promos for The Muppets are currently airing on Disney Channel in what appear to be extremely sporadic rotations. I was lucky enough to catch one of them yesterday morning during a Disney West broadcast of Phineas and Ferb. Lucky for you, I recorded it on my cell phone and stuck it up on YouTube. The quality is shoddy, but it gets the point across. Check it out!



Isn't that awesome? Note Gonzo's seemingly iron-fisted way of running his plumbing company, the fact that Sam Eagle is working for, what appears to be, a FOX News knockoff, Sweetums and Sam in a balcony box for some reason, rats skating on toothbrushes, and just a general air of awesome. If you happen to be watching Disney Channel and catch one of the TV spots, email, Facebook, or tweet us and let us know so we can catch the West Coast feed and record it!

But there is still more! Yesterday The Muppets Studio on YouTube debuted a brand new video for AMC Theaters in which Kermit, Miss Piggy, Fozzie, Swedish Chef, Pepe, Animal, and more tell us the theater policy of cell phones, talking, and drumming during a movie. It's hysterical, classic, and awesome. Watch it!



Fun, no? Be on the lookout for the policy video in front of movies at your local theater. It's already running in front of such movies as The Lion King 3-D.

Finally, we leave you with four new international posters for The Muppets featuring Animal, Gonzo, Statler, Waldorf, Fozzie, The Swedish Chef, Kermit, and Miss Piggy. Unfortunately, no higher resolution images are available yet, but as soon as they are they'll be posted here! Enjoy!

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

Two New Commercials and a Sneak Peek at "The Muppets"

The promotional engine for The Muppets is being revved fairly often by the Disney powers that be. In the past four days, we've seen a ton of new content promoting the film on television and Disney's main website.

First up is an official, Emmy-themed commercial for the movie that aired during FOX's broadcast of the countdown to the Emmys red carpet ceremony. It's very notable because for the first time in promotion for the movie, we get to hear and see Pepe prominently featured!



Our friend Chris Stulz uploaded the video for us and has also provided us with an awesome breakdown of the commercial! Check it all out below:

0:01 - We start off with new Miss Piggy footage superimposed over what I'm sure is going to be one of the final scenes the new movie. "Reporting" like she's on the Emmy Red Carpet. She is obviously covering up Walter, Kermit, Fozzie, Zoot, Animal, and er, herself from the footage of the movie, but we CAN clearly see Scooter, Rowlf, Dr. Teeth, and Janice wearing a coat. The coat reminds me of the ones you see Ralph Lauren or Robert Redford wearing in the mountains, at Sundance, or in over priced catalogs. But the real question that should get fans heads scratching is why. Why is she wearing a coat? Was is it cold in LA that night? I mean it makes me feel bad for poor Rowlf. All he has on is a golf cap. Poor dog must be freezing!

0:06 - Glamour shot of Animal, Zoot, and Dr. Teeth exiting the theater. "Teeth" as he's affectionally known to OK GO, is wearing a black scarf. Wow all those tassels, long, and and I do mean long, sleeves, his trademark furry hat, and he still needs a scarf? Man, how cold out was it! Now I really feel bad for Rowlf!

0:07-0:09 - Movie footage of Crazy Harry doing what he does best... wear a sweater... wait no, that's not it.. it's him blowing something up! Only this time it's himself! The face Crazy Harry has post explosion is just too awesome for words, and that old school, Wile E. Coyote barrel of TNT next to him is just the icing on the cake! All it needs is an ACME logo!

0:20 - New footage of Statler and Waldorf commenting on not wanting to tell Amy Adams that she's in the movie. She may want to get her agent on the phone! But behind them we get our first glimpse of the theater's seating section and balcony as seen from the stage! Now you can see exactly what Kermit saw from center stage every episode without all those pesky audience member in the way! The set design crew really did their homework and it looks amazing!

0:25-0:28 - THE MUPPETS .. and the announcer doesn't even say "Disney's"... how could this get any better! PEPE!!!!!!! In new footage!!! Telling us the date the movie comes out and then laughing in his perfect devious way!! We haven't seen much of Pepe in the marketing or scenes shown yet in the previous trailers, but this tells me he may not have as minor a role as we thought!

0:30 - Then they end it all with a triumphant shot of Adams and Segal with Piggy, Walter, and Kermit above the Hollywood Boulevard dancers and we can see Thog, Behemoth, Sweetums, and Jim Henson, behind them. Wait, Whoa, Huh? WHAT!... YES you read that correctly. While I know many saw pictures from the filming of these scenes, this trailer in that last two seconds would seem to confirm that yes, the sign that featured Jim did make it into the film so we shall se the man who started it all in this film 21 years after his death. Just amazing!!

And if that weren't enough (and, c'mon, we know it's not), yet another commercial for the movie aired during Tuesday night's season premiere episode of Glee. Lucky for you, I'm an unabashed (well... slightly bashed) Gleek and as soon as I finished watching the episode, I had my brother record the commercial on his iPhone and I uploaded it to The Muppet Mindset YouTube account... check it out below!



We don't have a breakdown of this commercial at the moment... but do take note that it features chickens clucking Cee Lo Green's "Forget You," which is fantastic. Plus, more Pepe (in Behemoth's mouth!), lots of Scooter, penguins, and just a general awesome feeling.

Yet this is still not it! Yesterday, the first video to start playing on Disney.com was an exclusive sneak peek at the movie! It features talk segments with Kermit, Piggy, Fozzie, Animal, Floyd (yes, Floyd), Jason Segel, Amy Adams, and we get to hear Uncle Deadly speak with Matt Vogel's voice for the first time! (Spoiler: He sounds perfect.) Lucky for you, our friends at Muppet Musings have uploaded the video to YouTube for all to enjoy forever!



How awesome is this? Three brand new videos promoting The Muppets since Sunday... and each with new content. Incredible! What a great time it is to be a Muppet fan.

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

News Update: September 20, 2011

NEWS UPDATE:   SEPTEMBER 20, 2011

Promotion for The Muppets is ramping up very quickly, so expect to see Muppets everywhere (except in your closet, unfortunately). First up, Kermit recently filmed a commercial for the celebrity-heavy ad campaign of Wonderful Pistachios. You can check out Kermit's cute TV spot (that you'll surely be seeing all the time on while watching your shows) right here:



On October 2nd, Miss Piggy will be returning to Disney Channel on their extremely popular sketch comedy show So Random! (think SNL for 14 year olds). Piggy will be playing herself as the big, celebrity guest star for the show who everyone on the show attempts to appeal to. You can see the promo for the episode here:



And in extremely random Muppet appearance news, the Muppets will be appearing on the wrestling program WWE Raw on October 31st to promote the movie. The official WWE website provides this little bit of information on the upcoming appearance, "What will happen when Kermit the Frog meets The Viper? Will the Divas make Miss Piggy flip with jealousy? Will Beaker be confused for Sheamus? On Halloween, it's time to play the music, it's time to light the lights, because the Muppets are about to get Raw!" I don't really know what any of that means, but this has the potential to be a very fun and funny appearance!

The Museum of Moving Image in New York City, which is currently playing host to the wonderful Jim Henson's Fantastic World exhibit, is having a fun celebration for Jim's birthday on September 24th. Here is a breakdown of what's occurring on the 24th, for more information visit the museum's website:

• At 1:00 p.m. in the Main Theater, attend the special program “Muppet Music Moments,” with special introductions by Craig Shemin, President of The Jim Henson Legacy, and Bonnie Erickson, Executive Director of The Jim Henson Legacy and designer of Miss Piggy, along with special guest speaker Larry Grossman, music consultant for The Muppet Show. This special 77-minute compilation features performances by Harry Belafonte, Elton John, Linda Ronstadt, and other Muppet Show guest stars, in a wide range of musical genres—classic music numbers interpreted as only the Muppets can. Tickets are free with Museum admission and will be distributed first-come, first-served. Museum members may reserve advance tickets. (This compilation program will also be presented on Sunday, September 25, at 1:00 p.m. with Larry Grossman in person).
• Receive a custom-designed commemorative cookie featuring Kermit the Frog’s signature foot prints (as long as supplies last). These artisanal cookies were produced especially for the Museum by Bonne Fete Baking, Inc. and You Cake, Inc., two Queens-based small businesses that operate at the Entrepreneur Space, a partnership of the Queens Economic Development Corporation and Mi kitchen es su kitchen.
• Watch a special episode of The Muppet Show in which the cast celebrates Kermit the Frog’s birthday. The 22-minute program will screen continuously in the Museum’s Fox Amphitheater in the Education Center and is included with Museum admission.
• Write a personal message and sign your name in a commemorative journal that will be given to The Jim Henson Legacy for their archives.

Our good friends over at WeLoveFine T-shirts are hosting another official Muppet T-shirt design contest and they want YOUR art! The Grand Prize winner wins $3,000, with prizes for first and second place as well. The winning design will also get printed on a shirt and sold at WeLoveFine. It's really exciting to think of the prospect of another amazing Muppet t-shirt after our friend James Carroll's shirt was printed. Submission deadline is October 2nd before 11:59 PM and voting for the designs opens up on October 14 until November 4, with winners being announced on November 11. And, just between you and me, most of the designs submitted so far pretty much suck (thankfully not all--see right), so to all you extremely talented Muppet fan artists who we know and love... get to it!

Speaking of t-shirts and awesome artists, our friend and staff member James Carroll's gorgeous and insanely awesome "Muppetational Mosaic" design is now being printed on all sorts of things (unfortunately not your chest) at the Threadless-sponsored Society 6. Via the site, you can order Art Prints, Canvas Prints, iPhone Cases, Laptop and iPad Skins, and iPhone and iPod Skins. It's awesome, and some of the proceeds do go to James, whose artwork makes our website so gorgeous (the header). Buy something! (You know, if you can.)

Finally, Disney has given the official website for The Muppets, TheMuppets.com, a complete makeover and Disney website overhaul. On the site, you'll find Characters (descriptions/pages for Kermit and Piggy, with others coming soon), About the Movie (The Story, The Cast, The Crew [coming soon]), Video Clips (just trailers for now, but more probably coming soon), a picture Gallery, Products (currently only selling The Green Album, but Movies, Toys, Books, Apparel, Beauty, Designer Apparel, Kitchen, Electronics, and Sationary coming soon), Games (Coming Soon), and Downloads (Coming Soon). There currently isn't too much to see on the site, aside from a few cool new pictures if you know where to look, but there is certainly a ton coming very soon as promotion heats up. Keep an eye on the movie site and on The Muppet Mindset for whatever might come from Disney!

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

The Muppets T-Shirt Challenge

Threadless.com, known for their fun and funny t-shirt designs submitted by people like you and me (well... not me, I'm not artistically inclined) which get voted on by people online, has teamed up with Disney and The Muppets to bring us The Muppets T-shirt Design Challenge. The project is simple: design a t-shirt with the Muppets on it, celebrating the theme of friendship. Every design will be voted on, and the winning t-shirt will actually be made and sold online. Do you need it to be more awesome? Okay, fine... the winning designer of the t-shirt will also win $2,500 cash, a $250 Threadless gift card, the winning shirt signed by the Muppets and framed alongside a picture of the Muppets, a set of Jim Shore's Muppet Statues valued at $250, and, finally, a signed copy of the (apparently) upcoming album MUPPETS: The Green Album.

You can find all the details and more (including some pretty awesome Muppet pictures) on the main website for the Challenge.

There is so much to be excited about because of this contest... first off, Disney is very obviously directly including Muppet fans in its promotion for the upcoming movie, which is absolutely fantastic. Second, MUPPETS: The Green Album? What the what? We haven't heard anything about this... unless, of course, they just renamed the Muppets: Revisited CD idea they've been throwing around since the first D23 Expo. Either way... very exciting and I would do just about anything for a signed copy of it! And, to cap it all, we finally get to see the awesome group shot of the Muppets in all its glory!

The prizes are massive, the exposure is huge, and for any talented artist who wants to show of his or her take on the Muppets on a t-shirt, Threadless.com's Muppets T-shirt Design Challenge is absolutely something that you should submit a design to! (I'm looking at you, Dave Hulteen, Stuart Reeves, and all you other super talented fan artists!) Start submitting today! We want to see a Mindset reader/contributor take the big prize!

The Muppet Mindset by Ryan Dosier