By: debbie lynn elias
As we get ready to “start the music” and “light the lights” for the opening of THE MUPPETS on November 23, during a recent press junket, I had a chance to ask both our filmmakers [producers David Hoberman and Todd Lieberman, co-screenwriter Nick Stoller, music supervisor/songwriter of 3 original songs Brett McKenzie, and director James Bobin] and some of our stars [Amy Adams, Jason Segel, Miss Piggy, Kermit and Walter] some very important questions! And amidst some very friendly banter [okay, sometimes “not” so friendly…Miss Piggy!], I got some surprising revelations and answers, especially when it comes to even thinking about. . .a world without Muppets! GASP!!!
With the possible exception of David [Hoberman], none of you have known the world without the Muppets. What do you think the world would have been like if they were not here?
DAVID HOBERMAN: Am I supposed to resent that? [laughing] I donft know.
JAMES BOBIN: He’s my son. [laughing] That’s a great question. I don’t know. I think it would be a sadder place without the Muppets. You know what I mean? I really do feel that they have this great optimistic vibe about them, which is irreplaceable. And I kind of think of things that have a similar feeling. It’s like a world without Jimmy Stewart in A Wonderful Life. It’s that sort of thing and about the great optimism that they have about themselves. Well, standing from my life, my childhood would have been a far sadder place without them. So yeah.
NICK STOLLER: I would have had no friends as a child.
JAMES BOBIN: Yeah.
NICK STOLLER: So there’s that.
JAMES BOBIN: And nothing else on in the afternoons either.
NICK STOLLER: Yeah.
JAMES BOBIN: Yeah, I know. Yes, it’s a very sad thought.
TODD LIEBERMAN: Yeah, it’s a hard one to really conceptualize with a world without them. But I can look at again going to my own children because they werenft as familiar or maybe actually weren’t familiar at all with Kermit, the Muppets. And my older son is 6-1/2. So I saw the world through his eyes of there are no Muppets and then introducing the Muppets to him. And as these guys are saying, yes, it becomes a much nicer place when the Muppets are there and the big smile comes on the face.
NICK STOLLER: I also think from a practical standpoint I think there probably wouldnft be the Simpsons. I think there probably wouldn’t be Pixar like some of the Pixar movies. I think that they started a kind of comedy that breaks the fourth wall. But it also is really heart felt and is really witty, but also has like big slapstick things. I think that they really laid the groundwork really for a lot of comedy that is so popular.
JAMES BOBIN: But also important, I think, for a comedy to work for all age ranges, that’s the amazing thing about Muppets. I think they were way ahead of their time, and that sort of idea there is a show that could work for four-year-olds and the 60-year-olds and 30-year-olds. Because when you watch it, you take different things from it. And that’s what is so clever about it. And I think what a lot of people have learned from that, the big people at Pixar who make such amazing movies these days.
NICK STOLLER: Yeah, thatfs a great one.
JAMES BOBIN: The Muppets feel like a very early version of those kinds of movies.
NICK STOLLER: Also, this Muppet Movie wouldn’t exist.
JAMES BOBIN: Yeah, we wouldn’t be here would we?
NICK STOLLER: So that’s another problem.
First, I just want to say to Amy, you are to Disney now what Annette Funicello was back in the back in the ’50s and ’60s.
AMY ADAMS: Oh, thank you!
Truly amazing. But, for Walter, how does it feel to be so embraced and welcomed by the Muppets?
WALTER: Well, how else could it feel? It’s unbelievable. You know, I keep pinching myself. I have bruises to prove it. This sort of thing doesn’t happen everyday and certainly not to me. It’s just been overwhelming and a real dream come true. We’re a pretty easy bunch to come into, you know. We’re pretty accepting.
JASON SEGEL: Yeah, really, really.
MISS PIGGY: Pretty accepting.
JASON SEGEL: Relatively most of the time. Mostly accepting.
MISS PIGGY: Not much at all.
For more from Miss Piggy, Kermit, Walter and the gang, as well as my review, keep checking back here as I countdown to the happiest day of the year – November 23rd – when THE MUPPETS return to the big screen!
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