u/Frequent_Rhubarb_36

Like in Disneyland Paris.

The Disney gang appears and are talking

Minnie: speaks in English

Mickey: replies in French

They do this for most characters. I believe the Iron Man ride even has video with either Iron Man or Captain Marvel speaking French. Some characters repeat their lines in French/English.

To me, it breaks the immersion. I speak both French and English and the moment they switch languages it feels "fake" regardless of voice quality. I'd rather have them speaking either all French or all English. Even when I didn't understand Japanese yet I had less of a problem with a ride in all Japanese. It felt more natural than the switching.

Looks well done, although I'm a bit disappointed that the performance at the end is just a video. It would be cool to see an animatronic Electric Mayhem performing. Now that I think of it, it's their ride so it would be nice to see at least a Dr Teeth animatronic.

Really puts her KH performances in a different light.

I know they're owned by different companies but that doesn't always have to be a problem. The recent FIFA promotion probably involved a big bag of cash in order to whitewash the promotion, but even in the past it has been sporadic.

Does Disney have to pay the CTW a lot to be able to work together? I believe there was an idea of Elmo appearing in the 2011 Muppets movie but that was canned. Was that money-related as well?

Since then we've only seen them together in a short Jim Henson tribute video and Kermit appeared in a Sesame special.

You'd think that with the money issues the CTW has had for years they would be more willing to play ball.

The Muppets Show was a massive hit and the the Jim Henson movies did well too but it seemed to crumble after that, even when he was alive.

Let's look at the live-action Muppet series since the original Muppet show:

• Little Muppet Monsters - Massive flop. Only 3 episodes aired
• The Jim Henson Hour - Flop, only 9/12 episodes aired. Cancelled
• Muppets Tonight - Cancelled after 1.5 season. Probably the most successful of these? It felt like a mid-90's version of the Muppet show
• Muppets TV - Flop, Cancelled after 2 months due to low ratings
• The Muppets (ABC) - Cancelled after a mid-season retooling couldn't get the ratings up
• Muppets now - Cancelled after 6 episodes
• The Muppets Mayhem - 10 episodes, not renewed for a second season

That's 40 years of trying to recapture a lost audience.

Meanwhile, the animated Muppets Babies and the reboot did very well, with multiple seasons each. Dog City apparently also did well, although I'm not familiar with it. With animation you can obviously do a lot more on a budget than with puppetry, giving these more freedom.

When you look at the post-Jim movies it's interesting as well.

• Both Treasure Hunt and Christmas Carol did really well, both critically as well as commercially. Perhaps due to Jerry Juhl's writing or Brian's direction as the movies after these had very mixed results, lacked Brian and had Jerry work with different writers.
• Muppets from Space - Massive flop
• The Muppets 2011 - Big success, played massively into the nostalgia in both marketing as well as writing with a in-universe Muppet Show revival
• Muppets Most Wanted - Massive flop

Recently we had the Muppet Show special, which did very well, again playing into the nostalgia with a recreating of a show from 50 years ago.

It seems like people want a quick nostalgic Muppets fix but after that they stop watching and don't care about anything new.

While I personally found the special average at best, the reception in general was very positive. I believe the ratings were pretty good as well. That makes it so weird that Disney lets all that momentum go to waste. They have announced nothing regarding future projects/more episodes since airing that special.

It's really baffling. Regardless of what you might think of the end product, they put a lot of money into it with sets, puppets, Sabrina etc. The special was well received and then....nothing major. Yes, we get the Electric Mayhem overlay in WDW this month, but that is a separate project that was already set in stone before the special.

I get it that when projects flop, you don't want to put more money into it. But this one didn't seem to flop, nor get critically bashed. You'd think they do more with the momentum.

Just wondering how those experiences were.

I find the Count and the Countess a really cute romantic couple. The episode in which the Count wanted to make a move on the Countess was so cute. They fit great together.

Least favorite?

Probably Kermit and Piggy. It was fun at first but later on it got tiresome, with the egotistical Piggy and the more meek Kermit. I really didn't care if they broke up or not. Heck, the question is if Kermit was actually in love at some point or not. Kermit's romance during the Office-like show was also pretty bad. Actually, perhaps it's just Kermit. I can't see him really being part of a couple.

I myself liked it and it seemed to open a door for more Disney Ride parodies but it released and we haven't seen a sequel yet, and probably won't after all this time. Muppets Jungle Cruise would have been great.

Some productions digitally remove the puppet rods, some don't. What do you prefer?

To me, I don't mind rods in close up shots, but in movies and such it can be distracting sometimes. That being said I don't miss the rods when they're removed. It doesn't take away from the craft as we still see the movement and such.

I entered one in Europe and one thing bothered me so I was wondering how this was done in other countries.

So, in Europe, the track for the qualifiers was DK Jungle Parkway. Fine enough and me and my friends practices like crazy on it.

During the actual qualifiers though, you had to have the fastest times....in GP mode. Of course I got screwed up by items and lost. I guess they did GP mode to allow for a faster flow of contestants.

How was this handled in other countries?

He made a ton of money. I guess Neverland cost a lot too, but did he spend so much?