Fellow artists I hope to one day link this blog with my own web sight that will be under construction I hope soon. In that way we can discuss and perhaps exhaust the endless possibilities of the ever lasting potential that card board furniture posses!
Ok gang considering I am really new to all this crazy Blog stuff, I am going to talk about a different topic just to try and get things going here a bit. I have been known to stand up on my soap box and rant on about useless drivel. I thought I would start my blog out with my comments about the Disney/ Muppet latest DVD release The Muppets Wizard of OZ. Since creator Jim Henson passed away nearly 15 years ago the Muppets have been floating around on the breeze and seemed to be struggling to find them selves again. Jim was such a grounding force and a director of their movement that I think for a long while the Muppets were lost. And in a big way experimenting with them selves. After the success of Muppets Christmas Carol, and then Muppets Treasure island, the reasonable success of Muppets from Space the die hard and devoted fans began to notice that the magical spark the Muppets once had was wavering, and fading. Its A very Merry Muppet Family Christmas, 2003's Muppet Holiday special was not only edgy, it was dark and spooky, poorly written, with only one very sad excuse for a song, considerably more adult humor, and a plot that made one wonder just what the writes were going for. While many loved this special, I felt it was an accurate representation of the turmoil the Muppets had been facing for the last 5 years at least. With the Muppet/ Disney merger on the for front of 2005 many die hard fans felt a breath of hope was being blown back into a dieing icon. that is until Disney announced that their first Muppet project would be The Muppet Wizard of Oz Tela -film.
On
http://www.muppetcentral.com I began blasting on at least 3 if not more forums this new Muppet film expecting the worst. Being a major Oz fan and collector I knew there was not way that the Muppets in there present state would be able to pull off such a hart warming, morally good, and timeless tail as OZ, especially when the rumors began to fly about the cast story line and music. I had all but given up on the film, but to add injury to insult I learned that the Muppets would be fallowing the original story written by L. Frank Baum.
Well to be honest with you all I have had to eat my words, The Muppets Wizard of OZ was good, all things considered, it was very good, and I would have to say that the old spark is coming back. Muppet OZ does fallow Baum’s book, it also borrows much from the 1970s film version of The Wiz, and in a strange way some of the more modern twists from more recent OZ films like the 1985 Return to Oz which was Henson and Disney collaboration. Over all Muppets Wizard of Oz is a good jumping off place with lots of room for improvement, but the Muppets are still just as entertaining as they have always been. I watched the Tela Film when it originally aired, in fact I sat cross legged on the floor in front of my TV with a big bowl of pop corn, like a little kid and only got up to go to the bathroom on the commercials. Oddly enough The Muppet story really does fallow the book, and much of the dialogue has its origins in the original text. the timeless story with its philosophy, and morality shines through the mad cap romp, an din the they end, although short lived Dorothy does learn that truly there is no place like home, and we all have the brains, heart, and courage that we need, right there inside of ourselves, if only we believe in ourselves. Of course having the right shoes helps a lot too, but then that is how things work in magic lands the thing you were looking for was there all the time, you just could not see it before. Lesson learned, I give Muppets Oz 3 out of 5 stars and look forward to their next big adventure. Just as a side note I did purchase the Muppets Wizard of Oz DVD, and the 20 minutes of extended footage really added to the film, and I was glad to see Dr. Teeth, Floyd and Janice all had speaking parts.
think.
