2014, the ice bucket challenge circulates the internet. 2015, same-sex marriage is legalized. 2016, Donald Trump is elected president. 2018, the royal wedding. 2020, Covid-19 pandemic. In 2021, Joe Biden is sworn in as president. In 2022, Will Smith slaps Chris Rock. 2024, Kamala Harris runs for president, BRAT summer, Trump gets elected AGAIN. This is a short list of popular events within the past ten years, which is pretty crazy. What is even crazier is that all of these things happened before the release of a new Muppets movie.
I’m sure plenty of people are aware of who the Muppets are: Kermit the Frog, Fozzie Bear, Miss Piggy, Gonzo the Great, and so on. The loveable puppet creatures created by Jim Henson have a long history, starting in 1976 with The “Muppet Show,” which opened up the great Muppet universe. Since then, the Muppets’ popularity has only been on the rise—or at least, it seemed.
2014 marked the last official Muppets movie release with “Muppets Most Wanted”. Since then, there has been a 2021 TV special, “Muppets Haunted Mansion”, and two TV programs, “The Muppets” (2015-2016), and “Muppets Mayhem” (2023), both canceled after only one season. On top of all that, Disney’s attraction Muppet Vision 3D will be shutting down after 33 years to make space for the new Monsters Inc. land. Although the Muppets will be taking over the Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster (currently using an Aerosmith theme) in the Hollywood Studios area of the park, it still seems like a downgrade for the beloved creatures.
All of this begs the question, why does it matter that we aren’t seeing much of the Muppets today? It doesn’t seem like they are relevant to teens and kids today, and frankly, I never really watched the Muppets movies growing up, either. I knew my dad was always a big fan of the Jim Henson puppets, and we watched the various Muppets Christmas movies around the holidays. Still, other than that, I didn’t have much knowledge surrounding the Muppets until recently.
Lately, I have been on a bit of a Muppets marathon, and I have been enjoying it. The Muppets have the perfect mix of humor, easy-to-like characters, random celebrity appearances, and an overall charm. To say that the lack of a recent Muppets movie is upsetting would be an understatement.
The Muppets bring creativity to our media that we don’t see much of anymore. The visuals of little fuzzy creatures interacting with humans are fun and unique. Jim Henson was a brilliant mind who played a big part in many of our childhoods with shows like “Sesame Street” (1969-present) and “Fraggle Rock” (1983-1987). Seeing his work slowly disappear is disappointing, to say the least. We need various art forms in media, and the Muppets were a way to show that introducing new art visions into mainstream television can work and inspire minds.
It’s not like the Muppets are going to completely disappear tomorrow, but it does seem like we are seeing less and less of them each year. It’s sad to see such a unique form of art slowly lose its popularity, but who knows, maybe a new Muppets movie will be announced soon, and all my panic will have been for nothing.
