Muppets Live Another Day

[blackcauldron85]

Oh, I missed that. It was really funny, though. Why so many canceled Muppet projects?!

[DisneyFan97]

How about Muppers: Live Free or Die a Muppet sa a titel ?

[estefan]

Vanity Fair recently published this article on why there isn't more Muppet content on Disney+, like the original Muppet Show and Muppets Tonight. The writer of the article also revealed he read one of the scripts for Muppets Live Another Day and what he revealed sounds really promising.

But Disney also said no to another Muppet streaming project, one that could have potentially jump-started the brand once more. Last fall, word leaked that Josh Gad and Once Upon a Time producers Adam Horowitz and Eddy Kitsis were working on a new Muppet project for Disney+ that would feature songs from the Frozen husband/wife duo of Bobby and Kristen Lopez. Titled Muppets Live Another Day, it was set a year after the events of The Muppets Take Manhattan and was, according to Gad, “Muppets by way of Stranger Things.” This is mostly true. I was given a copy of the script for the project and can say that Muppets Live Another Day was a big, hearty, extremely funny musical mystery that sees the Muppets reunited after a shadowy figure starts kidnapping them (there are shades of Watchmen, another ’80s-set staple). It was a bold concept, rooted in Muppet classicism but willing to push the franchise in new directions. It also maintained the classic Muppet brand of irreverence, self-referentiality, let’s-put-on-a-show theatricality, and heart in a way that no recent Muppet project has.

Yet Disney wound up passing on the show, even though Muppets Live Another Day could have been a flagship series for Disney+—with the Muppets sending up the trappings of a streaming series in the same way the original Muppet Show played with the boundaries of the variety show format. Instead, as Fast Company noted when reporting about the project’s cancelation, “The checkered history of the Muppets under Disney’s ownership continues.”

A shame this won't come to fruition. It sounds wonderful.

[JeanGreyForever]

A lot of great Disney+ projects seem to have been passed over like this and Kingdom Keepers.

[Disney's Divinity]

I agree, estefan, the bare scraps of the synopsis sounds interesting. The mystery factor probably would've added something to it.

[blackcauldron85]

but it was followed by a disappointing 2014 sequel that brought the franchise back to square one.

No way- Muppets Most Wanted was a very satisfying follow-up. (It even has 80% on Rotten Tomatoes.)

the entire run of The Muppet Show...Then again: three whole seasons of The Muppet Show were already remastered and cleared for release on DVD in 2005, 2007, and 2008, with only minor alterations.

Maybe Disney doesn't hold any music rights for streaming of The Muppet Show...?

there might be a new champion for the characters in the form of Bob Chapek, the company’s new CEO and chairman of Disney Parks, Experiences and Products.

When will he be allowed to be in charge of creative decisions, though, with Iger contining to take the lead?

[JeanGreyForever]

but it was followed by a disappointing 2014 sequel that brought the franchise back to square one.

No way- Muppets Most Wanted was a very satisfying follow-up. (It even has 80% on Rotten Tomatoes.)

I don't think the film did nearly as well as the first one commercially. And even critically, I don't remember anyone raving about this film or claiming it was a must-see.

[Avaitor]

I remember really like Muppets Most Wanted when it first came out, but I haven't really thought about it since then. I recall the bits with Sam the Eagle and Ty Burrell's character being among my favorite parts, though.

[JeanGreyForever]

I liked it enough when I did watch it but I haven't seen it since nor do I remember much about it except for the ending or some of Tina Fey's jokes which they constantly showed in the trailers.