The Walt Disney Company
From Muppet Wiki
The Walt Disney Company acquired the Muppets and Bear in the Big Blue House franchises in 2004, forming The Muppets Holding Company, LLC.
In the early 1980s, Jim Henson considered purchasing the company which was then under the management team of Ron Miller and Roy Disney. The idea never went as far as negotiations, but a few years later when Michael Eisner, Frank Wells and Jeffrey Katzenberg took over, the idea was revived. Due to lack of activity with the Muppets after The Muppet Show’s run, Disney decided to pass on a merger.[1]
Another aspect unattractive to the deal was that the Sesame Street franchise was untouchable. Joan Ganz Cooney recalled that "In the end... at the end of his life, when he was being pursued by Disney, and very close to being bought by Disney... they had tried to get control of the Sesame Street product as well as the Muppet franchise, and Jim said 'that's a deal breaker'... they should remain entirely separate... He said to me 'I intend to leave with you... in my will.' He wanted it to go on it perpetuity."[2]
Jim Henson again had a desire to sell the company to Disney in 1989, and this time Michael Eisner was more willing to buy the company without getting the rights to the Sesame Street cast. Many projects were planned, but very few were actually made, and even fewer released to the general public. In 1990, Jim Henson died during the week that he was to sign the contract, and his family decided to keep the company private.
Among the Disney/Henson collaborations that have been seen are the special The Muppets At Walt Disney World, the stage show Here Come The Muppets, and the theme park attraction/film Muppet*Vision 3D. Among the projects that were made but never shown to the public are the proposed TV series The Little Mermaid's Island, and a segment for The Mickey Mouse Club about puppeteering (this sequence was filmed while Jim Henson was making Muppet*Vision 3D). Jim Henson had also pitched the series Dinosaurs, which Disney developed and released after Henson died.
The Walt Disney Company also produced and released The Muppet Christmas Carol and Muppet Treasure Island, the first two Muppet movies made after Jim Henson died, and for a time in the early 90s, controlled the video release rights to The Muppet Movie, The Great Muppet Caper, episodes of Fraggle Rock and Muppet Babies, and other properties, released through their Buena Vista Home Entertainment label (under a label titled Jim Henson Video). Disney had already distributed Muppet videos back in 1983, under the "Muppet Home Video" label. At present, the company has full ownership of the The Muppet Show and related characters and all the theatrically-released Muppet films, except for Muppets Take Manhattan and Muppets from Space.
Recent DVD releases of certain properties currently outside of Disney's domain, such as Emmet Otter's Jug-Band Christmas, have been compelled to remove scenes featuring Kermit the Frog. The main exception, however, are DVD releases of Sesame Street productions featuring Kermit. Partly because Sesame Workshop is a non-profit organization, Sesame Workshop currently has permission to include old Kermit segments in new episodes of Sesame Street, and DVD releases of past videos featuring Kermit have been released, uncut.
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Disney-Owned Properties
Many Muppet productions are in fact owned, and controlled, by outside companies. This had been true even prior to the Disney sale where The Jim Henson Company owned the characters, but outside companies controlled the films or specials.
For example, Columbia TriStar has retained the rights to The Muppets Take Manhattan and Muppets From Space, which were produced by TriStar Pictures and Columbia Pictures, respectively. Unlike The Muppet Movie and The Great Muppet Caper, which were independently produced and merely distributed by Columbia, these two remain in the Sony library and unless Disney purchases the film rights, Sony has control over distribution. Prior to the sale of the Muppets to Disney, Disney owned The Muppet Christmas Carol and Muppet Treasure Island in a similar fashion (with character rights belonging to Henson). After buying the Muppets the company gained full control over these two films, as well as gaining control over The Muppet Movie and The Great Muppet Caper. Other productions, such as early commercials, talk show appearances, The Great Santa Claus Switch and others, are owned by outside groups, i.e., Sam and Friends is now owned by NBC Universal, via their ownership of WRC-TV, the station that produced Sam and Friends many years ago - whereas the characters are owned by The Muppets Holding Company.
The Walt Disney Company gained rights to the productions with Sesame Street and Fraggle Rock crossovers featured in the Muppet film library, (i.e. A Muppet Family Christmas and The Muppets: A Celebration of 30 Years).
Dinosaurs has always been owned by the Walt Disney Company and was not purchased through the 2004 Muppet acquisition.
A complete list of ownership rights is not available, as more production ownership is not as clear-cut. Disney, the Jim Henson Company and Sesame Workshop can work, and have worked, to clear the ambitiously owned and cross-over properties for release and use.
References
Before The Walt Disney Company bought the Muppets, there have been a number of references to the company and Disney's various productions and characters in various Henson productions and appearances. More recently, such references have occurred as cross-promotion in merchandise.
- When Kermit the Frog hosted The Tonight Show in 1979, he mentioned that the Muppets went to Disneyland, and the guard at the gate wouldn't let them out.
- A number of songs from Disney movies have been sung on The Muppet Show, including "Never Smile at a Crocodile", "An Actor's Life For Me", "It's a Small World", "Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah", and "When You Wish Upon a Star".
- An early 1980s Ask Oscar segment features a letter written to Oscar the Grouch in which he's asked what the longest grouch word is. Because this segment is being translated into sign language, he enjoys repeating "super-cali-fragile-istic-yucka-alidocious" several times. The word is a slight variation from a song in Disney's film adaptatation of Mary Poppins, starring Julie Andrews.
- On The Merv Griffin Show in 1984, during a discussion between Merv Griffin and Kermit about the places Animal likes to go, the topic turns to the cinema. Kermit says he takes him to "nice movies" as Animal professes a particular love for Bambi.
- In Labyrinth, a panning shot of Sarah's scrapbook reveals an image of the fox version of Robin Hood, as seen in the 1973 Disney animated film.
- The Dinosaurs episode "Honey, I Miss the Kids" featured Baby Sinclair's favorite video, The Little Underwater Girl, a spoof of The Little Mermaid. The song "Under the Water," performed by lobsters, parodies the original film's song "Under the Sea." Likewise, the title is a refference to the Disney film Honey, I Shrunk the Kids.
- The Dinosaurs episode Network Genius featured references to two Disney shows on the schedule board in one scene. The shows listed on the board were "The Wonderful World of Black and White" (spoofing The Wonderful World of Color) and "The Mickey Test Patterns Club" (spoofing The Mickey Mouse Club).
- The Dinosaurs episode Variations on a Theme Park spoofed Disneyland as WESAYSOLAND.
- Clifford calls Seymour "Dumbo" in Muppets Tonight episode 202.
- On September 7, 2007, following Disney's purchase of the Muppets, a pin was released for sale only at Walt Disney World, featuring Kermit as Mickey Mouse, Fozzie Bear as Goofy, and Miss Piggy as Minnie Mouse.
- In episode 320 of The Muppet Show, during the song "Let's Call the Whole Thing Off, after the lion sings "I like plato and you like Pluto", Sylvester Stallone says "You can ave plato, and I'll stick with Pluto, and Mickey, and Goofy".
- For other references, see Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, and Bambi; for well-known Disney adaptations that didn't necessarily reference the Disney version: Snow White, Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty.
Sources
- ↑ Bernie Brillstein, Where Did I Go Right?, p.327
- ↑ Interview: "Time Travel with Dan Hollis & Jeff O'Boyle"
