The Muppet Year in Review, 2013

Ryan Dosier - Greetings Muppet fans! Here we are again, New Year's Eve. 2013 is ending and 2014 is heading our way. But before we get there, it's our annual tradition to take a look at the past 12 months and see how they treated the Muppets, Sesame Street, Fraggle Rock, and more! Let's get started, shall we?

January - 

• Jan. 9, Tina Fey confirmed for The Muppets... Again! - Who else could play a Russian prison guard?!
• Jan. 14 - The Muppets... Again given official release date: March 21, 2014 - Spring with the Muppets! What could be better?
• Jan. 18, The Muppet Mindset interviews John Tartaglia - There are few people better than good ol' Johnny T.
• Jan. 20, Filming officially begins on The Muppets... Again! - Boy, I hope that title doesn't change!
• Jan. 30, The first publicity for The Muppets... Again! surfaces - Ricky Gervais! Bret McKenzie! So much more!

February -

• Feb. 2, Sesame Street parodies Downton Abbey - Yet somehow, the Countess von Backwards did not play the Dowager Countess.
• Feb. 4, Davide Maugeri's fan-made Dinosaurs animated video debuts - It stars the Baby, gotta love it!
• Feb. 22, Big Bird teams up with First Lady Michelle Obama for a Get Healthy initiative - Big Bird is so svelt for an 8 foot 2 inch yellow bird.
• Feb. 24, The Muppets predict the Oscar winners - In a shocking turn, Floyd Pepper's choice of Argo won--Animal was not pleased.

March -

• March 1, Louise Gold and Annie Sue revealed to be returning for The Muppets... Again! - Bringing the golden afro back in style.
• March 7, Awesome on-set photos from The Muppets... Again! escape online - Kermit at the tower of London for a wedding? Somebody tell the pig.
• March 21, The Muppet Madness Tournament begins - Oh boy, I hope Sir Didymus wins!
• March 24, Tom Hiddleston filmed a cameo for The Muppets... Again! - Let's hope he keeps it... Loki. Ahh! Wocka! Wocka!

April -

• April 2, Jane Henson passed away - We miss you, Jane. Thank you so much for everything.
• April 5, Usher announced for a cameo in The Muppets... Again! - He'll Usher in a new age of Muppets. Or something.
• April 11, John Tartaglia begins performing Gobo Fraggle - He really nailed it, eh?
• April 13, The Muppet Mindset interviews Arianne Gallagher, who visited the set of The Muppets... Again! - Did you know that the Muppets... are puppets?!
• April 20, Muppet Bobbleheads announced - Finally, a Dr. Teeth bobblehead for the working man.
• April 27, Frank Langella announced for a cameo in The Muppets... Again! - Was he Frost or Nixon?

May -

• May 3, Danny Trejo and Ray Liotta announced for cameos in The Muppets... Again! - Wait, haven't we seen them in our Muppet movies before?
• May 15, Armando announced as the newest Sesame Street human cast member - Better than Armadillo, right?
• May 17, Ryan Dosier visits the set of The Muppets... Again! - And I still can't talk about it!
• May 24, The Jim Henson Gallery announced for New York City's Museum of the Moving Image - Oscar, Gobo, Miss Piggy, and Mayor Bloomberg make the announcement--which one is not a a Muppet, again?
• May 30, The Muppets... Again! Cameo Rundown begins - So many cameos, so little time!

June -

• June 1, Series 3 of The Muppets Vinylmation revealed - Uncle Deadly? Beauregard? Newsman? What year is this?!
• June 7, Ryan Dillon begins performing Elmo - And he's fantastic.
• June 13, The Muppets rumored for a Broadway run - Broadway! Broad-way, Broad-way!!!
• June 14, The Muppets... Again! renamed Muppets Most Wanted - Well now I'm confused.
• June 16, Sesame Street wins seven Daytime Emmy Awards - Sewen! Sewen awards! Ah! Ah! Ah!
• June 21, The phone application "My Muppets Show" debuts on iPhone - Now you can have your own Pepe!
• June 30, James Carrol's Electric Mayhem print revealed - Rock. On.

July -

• July 20, Disney Channel releases videos from on set of Muppets Most Wanted - Featuring Disney stars I've never heard of.
• July 25, Kermit and Miss Piggy welcome the Royal Baby - And Piggy tries to steal its crown..

August - 

• Aug. 6, The Teaser Trailer for Muppets Most Wanted debuts online - It's coming!!
• Aug. 8, Ryan Dosier reviews Jim Henson: The Biography - You guys, it's, like, so good.
• Aug. 10, Tons of Muppets Most Wanted news comes out of D23 Expo - Ty Burrell's tiny car!
• Aug. 12, The Muppet Movie is released on Blu-ray - It's so blue, ray!
• Aug. 21, Kermit and Steve Martin play "Dueling Banjos" - Strum it, frog.

September - 

• Sept. 5, Red and Mokey Fraggle appear at DragonCon - This is the first time Mokey Fraggle has been performed by Kathryn Mullen since 1990.
• Sept. 17, The Muppet Mindset interviews Dave Goelz - And thus, Ryan Dosier's head exploded.
• Sept. 24, Jim Henson: The Biography is released - The best piece of Muppet merchandise in 2013.
• Sept. 24, The Henson family donates over 20 Muppets to the Smithsonian - Finally, a J.P. Grosse exhibit!
• Sept. 25, Jimmy Fallon and The Roots play with the Sesame Street gang - Pretty sure Questlove and Grover are kindred souls.
• Sept. 26, Big Bird and Oscar the Grouch appear on The Colbert Report - Brought to you by the Letter T for truthiness.

October -

• Oct. 1, Expert Muppet engineer Faz Fazakas passes away - He gave the Muppets amazing life.
• Oct. 10, Brian Jay Jones visits The Daily Show with Jon Stewart - Can't beat that!
• Oct. 15, Brian Jay Jones and Frank Oz appear on Today - But... that wasn't today?
• Oct. 17, Lady Gaga & The Muppets Holiday Spectacular announced for Thanksgiving - I'm sure this won't be awkward and terrible!
• Oct. 29, First poster for Muppets Most Wanted revealed - Isn't Photoshop amazing?

November -

• Nov. 1, Sesame Street airs brilliant tribute to Count von Count and Jerry Nelson - One, one amazing episode.
• Nov. 14, Oscar the Grouch meets Grumpy Cat - They both hated it.
• Nov. 16, The Muppet Mindset joins Instagram - And we still don't understand Throwback Thursday.
• Nov. 19, Our sister site, The Mickey Mindset, launches - As Mickey would say: "Oh, boy!"
• Nov. 20, Three distinct trailers for Muppets Most Wanted debut - That's my most wanted day!
• Nov. 22, Sesame Street parodies The Hunger Games: Catching Fire with Cookie Monster - My heart caught fire with joy!
• Nov. 28, Lady Gaga & The Muppets Holiday Spectacular airs on ABC - Thank goodness for Kristen Bell.

December - 

• Dec. 5, The first ever Muppisode debuts with Gordon Ramsay vs. The Swedish Chef - It put me in the food mood!
• Dec. 10, The Great Muppet Caper and Muppet Treasure Island released on Blu-ray - The two most similar Muppet movies, for sure.
• Dec. 18, Cookie Monster appears on Michael Buble's Christmas special - Surprise, he ate cookies.
• Dec. 26, Caroll Spinney turns 80 years old - He doesn't look a day over amazing.

Well there you have it, Muppet fans: 2013! We're so glad we got to spend this year spreading Muppet joy and happiness with you. And now with 2014 on the way, we're going to get Muppets Most Wanted, Season 45 of Sesame Street, the fifth anniversary of The Muppet Mindset, and so much more. I know I can't wait! Happy New Year, Muppet fans! See you in 2014!

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

Muppets Most Wanted Poster Revealed!

The first poster for Muppets Most Wanted has been revealed via The Walt Disney Company and Entertainment Weekly. Check it out below in high resolution:

I don't hate the poster, by any means. It's fun and colorful and manages to get in all of the main characters, which is nice. Also, FOO FOO! And I can't say how much I adore the tagline "Taking The World By Farce"--absolutely brilliant. I do have some major issues though. First, Gonzo and Pepe are far, far smaller than they should be. Second, Animal, Sam, Foo Foo, and Constantine are the only Muppet poser puppets on here that weren't used constantly in promotion for The Muppets in 2011, which is disappointing.

But for the most part I'm just severely excited for this movie. Is it March yet?






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

Muppets Most Wanted at the D23 Expo

Today at Disney's D23 Expo in Anaheim, California, The Walt Disney Studios presentation, which lasted a whopping two hours, showcased the best in upcoming live action films from Disney, Marvel, Lucasfilm, and more. Among this more was Muppets Most Wanted, the upcoming Muppet movie, which commanded a lot of time and a lot of laughs during the presentation. We've managed to compile what happened in the presentation (even though we weren't there), thanks mostly to Twitter.

The Muppet portion started out by showing a longer, more detailed trailer for Muppets Most Wanted, which featured "Tina Fey singing" (@MouseInfo), "lots of good, Muppet-y gags" (@ThePlaylist), "more plot, better jokes" (@raysubers), and was "infinitely better" (@ThePlaylist) than the teaser trailer from a few days ago. There was also a lot of talk about how the trailer makes a big deal about Kermit's resemblance to Constantine. Danny Horn (@MuppetWiki) tweeted that there was a gag where "Fozzie has a newspaper with a mugshot of Constantine. Fozzie puts his finger over C's mole and Walter says, 'Hey, it's Kermit!' Fozzie takes his finger away, and Walter says, 'Wait! Where's Kermit? Where did Kermit go??'"

After the trailer, Ty Burrell drove "the tiniest car ever" (@marcgraser) onstage (which was seen in the teaser trailer) and got out to talk about his role as Interpol agent Jean-Pierre Napoleon. According to Stitch Kingdom, Burrell said that he was "'mesmerized' and told to 'stay focused' due to being Muppets starstruck." Based on both the trailer and Burrell's appearance, it seems that "Much of Muppets Most Wanted seems to be a buddy cop movie with Ty Burrell's French Interpol agent and Sam the Eagle" (@ThePlaylist). Danny Horn went on to say that Sam plays a CIA agent and he and Jean-Pierre Napoleon are forced to work together.

From Burrell's appearance, a "live" video of Miss Piggy, Tina Fey, and Kermit on the London set was shown. Piggy forced Kermit and Tina Fey to wear "P23" t-shirts (for Piggy 23). When asked what the 23 stood for, Piggy responded her age. Tina Fey turned and mouthed "No" to the camera. Kermit introduced a brand new full musical number scene. The song, apparently called "I'm Number One, You're Number Two" features Constantine and Ricky Gervais's Dominic Badguy (he's French, so it's pronounced Bad-gee, according to Danny Horn). Constantine leads the song and tells Dominic "Dance, monkey, dance" quite a lot. (Various sources for all of this.) All reports say that Constantine and the song are fantastic.

After that the Muppet portion was over, but below are a few other interesting tid-bits that happened during the presentation...

• "All the Muppets believe it's really Kermit except Animal who yells "Bad frog! Bad frog!" and bites him on the arm." - @EricIGN
• "YES, FOO-FOO IS IN THE MOVIE. Figured I'd start with that because nobody else would mention it." - @MuppetWiki
• "Danny Trejo, whose scene in a prison was cut from The Muppets, is in Muppets Most Wanted... in a scene in a prison!" - @EricIGN

And that's all we know! But based on this, Muppets Most Wanted sounds just as funny, exciting, musical, and magnificent as The Muppets. Hopefully the footage shown at the presentation will be released by Disney soon... but don't hold your breath.

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

"Muppets Most Wanted" Teaser Trailer Breakdown

Yesterday the Muppet fan world was shocked when Disney released the very first teaser trailer for Muppets Most Wanted! The trailer is fun, exciting, and hysterical--plus it features Scooter singing "Moves Like Jagger." Yup. Really. Anyway! Last time we had Muppet trailers coming at us, The Muppet Mindset painstakingly screencapped every trailer and broke down what was going on in each frame. We intended to do the same thing this time, but the awesome folks at Muppet Wiki already did the screencapping, so we all have to do is ramble about the images. Thanks, Muppet Wiki! Once again, you set the bar!

Ahhhh!! AN-I-MAL! Welcoming us right away. Wonderful.

When I first watched the trailer I thought they were just going to show clips from The Muppets... because this looks just like The Muppets. But then I looked closer at the collar on this frog...

It's Ty Burrell! As Jean-Pierre Napoleon! With Sam Eagle! And Kermit! And Fozzie! At the Tower of London! AWESOME.

Golden tuxedoes, canes, Muppets, dancing girls... This is going to be one heck of a number! It's also worth noting that I didn't even bat an eye at the fact that Scooter and Rowlf are in the forefront--which is crazy.

It's Kermit!! Wait... is it?! Note the odd short collar and the tiny green mole on his face. Methinks, ladies and gents, that this is Constantine! Also, not sure what's going on with Piggy's hair here, but there's her dog Foo-Foo!!

And here's Constantine doing karate! Something tells me that he might try to use this on a pig and it won't end well for him... but still, fantastic puppetry here.

Perhaps my favorite shot in the trailer... Walter, Fozzie, and Animal wandering all disciple-like through the desert. Beautiful, hysterical, wonderful... I cannot wait to see what the heck is going on here! Also, love Walter's walking stick!

Ricky Gervais as Dominic telling us it's going to be amazing. Plus, Constantine again!

THIS is awesome. It looks like Constantine (I think it's him at least) is dancing on some metalwork of a building. Or walking on it. Or something. Anyway, I love the puppetry.

I love how much Ty Burrell and Sam are together in this trailer. It looks like they may be partnered up in this, giving Sam a pretty big role, which would be great.

This. Is. Gorgeous. This whole film just looks so strikingly cinematic and beautiful.

Ricky, you dancing fool!

Perfect. Hysterical. I have a feeling Ty Burrell is going to steal the show.

And Tina Fey. Beautiful. She's going to give Ty and Ricky and the Muppets a serious run for their money. She already is hilarious. I can't wait for this Russian gulag number.

Now I believe this is Kermit. I think the black mole indicates Kermit. Plus, the collar looks longer. Also, this is hilarious.

Put. The Frog. DOWN.

I spy Danny Trejo in the bottom right corner!! Here's hoping the poor guy doesn't get cut out from another prison scene in a Muppet movie. Also, apparently Ray Liotta is the guy on the left and if you look closely Steve Whitmire is behind him!

I love this. The teeny tiny little Interpol car is hysterical! And, I could be wrong, but I think Sam Eagle is in the passenger's seat. This is SO Muppety.

Poor Chef... being chased by a shark (that he obviously had tried to cook) as Zoot and Janice watch on. Love.

Now for the onslaught of cameos! This is Bridget Mendler, who worked with the Muppets on Good Luck Charlie on Disney Channel, and Debby Ryan, who is also from Disney Channel. It looks like they're at some sort of fancy party.

There's Sean P. Diddy Combs and Pepe P. Prawnie Prawn! So very excited to see more Pepe and this scene looks hilarious.

There's Disney Channel's Ross Lynch, showing some vase twirling skills in front of the Tower of London.

Here's a cameo we didn't know about: the lovely Selma Hayek! She's a fantastic actress and looks hilarious here. Note Camilla in the bottom right corner and the target on her chest. Could she be part of Gonzo's stunts?

Yup. Sam and Ty Burrell are definitely teaming up--and it looks like they have a musical number. I love it!!

No big deal... just Rowlf and Lew Zealand hanging out. AWESOME.

Love this. So much. Scooter singing "Moves Like Jagger" with a bunch of penguins. It's so brilliant!!

Rizzo!! I think it's a great sign that he's featured in the trailer! Hopefully that carries over to the film.

Yaaaaay! More Walter! Gotta love that little guy!

Aww, this is just how I look when I watch Muppets with my friends. (Note: I'm Animal, my friends are Kermit.)

So there you have it, Muppet fans! The first teaser trailer for Muppets Most Wanted! Be sure to click the pictures for hi-res. Thanks again to Muppet Wiki for doing the grunt work!

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

"Muppets Most Wanted" Teaser Trailer!

Shooting on to the internet out of nowhere is the very first official, awesome teaser trailer for Muppets Most Wanted!! The new Muppet movie looks 100% incredible and absolutely perfect. Watch the teaser trailer NOW!



Try not to panic.






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

Muppet Movies Video Reviews Coming Soon!

Ryan Dosier - Today I am thrilled to showcase the start of a brand new video series from my good friend Rachel Herrick, who is a funny, friendly, talented, all-around awesome Muppet fan. With the release of Muppets Most Wanted just under eight months away, Rachel and The Muppet Mindset are teaming up for a seven-part video series where Rachel reviews every theatrical Muppet movie once a month leading up to Muppets Most Wanted.

Eager to learn more? You should be! Watch Rachel's hysterical, zany, wonderful preview video for the upcoming reviews below. This is just a taste of how much fun Rachel's reviews are going to be.



I for one can't wait for Rachel to get started! The video review of The Muppet Movie will debut on August 21st, so be on the lookout for it!

Special thanks to my friend Rachel for doing this awesome countdown!






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

First Official "Muppets Most Wanted" Videos

Disney is ready to teach you all about the word synergy with the first official videos from the set of Muppets Most Wanted (or The Muppets Most Wanted, no one is really sure). These two videos feature Kermit and Miss Piggy as they interact with Disney Channel sensations and apparent cameo guest stars Ross Lynch and Debby Ryan. Normally, I'm not a fan of Disney Channel people shoe-horning their way into Muppet stuff, but these two seem pretty decent and their parts seem VERY small, so it could be worse. Anyway, watch the videos for some very brief snippets of Muppet footage including Kermit in an awesome gold tux!





Special thanks to our friends at ToughPigs.com for finding the videos!

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