News Update: September 20, 2011

 NEWS UPDATE:   SEPTEMBER 20, 2011

Promotion for The Muppets is ramping up very quickly, so expect to see Muppets everywhere (except in your closet, unfortunately). First up, Kermit recently filmed a commercial for the celebrity-heavy ad campaign of Wonderful Pistachios. You can check out Kermit's cute TV spot (that you'll surely be seeing all the time on while watching your shows) right here:



On October 2nd, Miss Piggy will be returning to Disney Channel on their extremely popular sketch comedy show So Random! (think SNL for 14 year olds). Piggy will be playing herself as the big, celebrity guest star for the show who everyone on the show attempts to appeal to. You can see the promo for the episode here:



And in extremely random Muppet appearance news, the Muppets will be appearing on the wrestling program WWE Raw on October 31st to promote the movie. The official WWE website provides this little bit of information on the upcoming appearance, "What will happen when Kermit the Frog meets The Viper? Will the Divas make Miss Piggy flip with jealousy? Will Beaker be confused for Sheamus? On Halloween, it's time to play the music, it's time to light the lights, because the Muppets are about to get Raw!" I don't really know what any of that means, but this has the potential to be a very fun and funny appearance!

The Museum of Moving Image in New York City, which is currently playing host to the wonderful Jim Henson's Fantastic World exhibit, is having a fun celebration for Jim's birthday on September 24th. Here is a breakdown of what's occurring on the 24th, for more information visit the museum's website:

• At 1:00 p.m. in the Main Theater, attend the special program “Muppet Music Moments,” with special introductions by Craig Shemin, President of The Jim Henson Legacy, and Bonnie Erickson, Executive Director of The Jim Henson Legacy and designer of Miss Piggy, along with special guest speaker Larry Grossman, music consultant for The Muppet Show. This special 77-minute compilation features performances by Harry Belafonte, Elton John, Linda Ronstadt, and other Muppet Show guest stars, in a wide range of musical genres—classic music numbers interpreted as only the Muppets can. Tickets are free with Museum admission and will be distributed first-come, first-served. Museum members may reserve advance tickets. (This compilation program will also be presented on Sunday, September 25, at 1:00 p.m. with Larry Grossman in person).
• Receive a custom-designed commemorative cookie featuring Kermit the Frog’s signature foot prints (as long as supplies last). These artisanal cookies were produced especially for the Museum by Bonne Fete Baking, Inc. and You Cake, Inc., two Queens-based small businesses that operate at the Entrepreneur Space, a partnership of the Queens Economic Development Corporation and Mi kitchen es su kitchen.
• Watch a special episode of The Muppet Show in which the cast celebrates Kermit the Frog’s birthday. The 22-minute program will screen continuously in the Museum’s Fox Amphitheater in the Education Center and is included with Museum admission.
• Write a personal message and sign your name in a commemorative journal that will be given to The Jim Henson Legacy for their archives.

Our good friends over at WeLoveFine T-shirts are hosting another official Muppet T-shirt design contest and they want YOUR art! The Grand Prize winner wins $3,000, with prizes for first and second place as well. The winning design will also get printed on a shirt and sold at WeLoveFine. It's really exciting to think of the prospect of another amazing Muppet t-shirt after our friend James Carroll's shirt was printed. Submission deadline is October 2nd before 11:59 PM and voting for the designs opens up on October 14 until November 4, with winners being announced on November 11. And, just between you and me, most of the designs submitted so far pretty much suck (thankfully not all--see right), so to all you extremely talented Muppet fan artists who we know and love... get to it!

Speaking of t-shirts and awesome artists, our friend and staff member James Carroll's gorgeous and insanely awesome "Muppetational Mosaic" design is now being printed on all sorts of things (unfortunately not your chest) at the Threadless-sponsored Society 6. Via the site, you can order Art Prints, Canvas Prints, iPhone Cases, Laptop and iPad Skins, and iPhone and iPod Skins. It's awesome, and some of the proceeds do go to James, whose artwork makes our website so gorgeous (the header). Buy something! (You know, if you can.)

Finally, Disney has given the official website for The Muppets, TheMuppets.com, a complete makeover and Disney website overhaul. On the site, you'll find Characters (descriptions/pages for Kermit and Piggy, with others coming soon), About the Movie (The Story, The Cast, The Crew [coming soon]), Video Clips (just trailers for now, but more probably coming soon), a picture Gallery, Products (currently only selling The Green Album, but Movies, Toys, Books, Apparel, Beauty, Designer Apparel, Kitchen, Electronics, and Sationary coming soon), Games (Coming Soon), and Downloads (Coming Soon). There currently isn't too much to see on the site, aside from a few cool new pictures if you know where to look, but there is certainly a ton coming very soon as promotion heats up. Keep an eye on the movie site and on The Muppet Mindset for whatever might come from Disney!










The Muppet Mindset by Ryan Dosier, ryguy102390@gmail.comSource URL: https://jimhensons.blogspot.com/search/label/Fan%20Art
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Muppet Fan Art Spotlight: Justin Piatt

Today we have a very simple, very fun, very well done article thanks to our friend and frequent Muppet Mindset contributor Justin Piatt. Justin is also a talented sketch artist who has provided us with some fantastic pieces to show off on the site. So... please enjoy our gallery of Justin Piatt artwork!



 Miss Piggy's Audition

 The Monsters Audition

 Moody Muppets Series: Fozzie Bear

 Moody Muppets Series: The Great Gonzo

 Moody Muppets Series: Rowlf the Dog












The Muppet Mindset by Ryan Dosier, ryguy102390@gmail.com
Source URL: https://jimhensons.blogspot.com/search/label/Fan%20Art
Visit Jim Henson for Daily Updated Hairstyles Collection

Muppet Vinylmation Fan Art (and More!)

Today we have a really cool spotlight on a very talented Muppet fan artist, Mike Boon. His work is incredibly inspired, including his magnificent Muppet Alphabet piece and two different series of Muppet Vinylmation (the popular, characterized Disney figures available at Disney Parks and Disney Stores) personally designed as a fun project for Mike, but the fan response was so great that it really took off. So... we're extremely excited to present an exclusive first look at Mike's Muppet Vinylmation Series 4, which is premiering here on The Muppet Mindset. Mike and his work are amazing. Be sure to check out his blog, Muppet Mania as well. Enjoy it!

Mike Boon - I've always been a huge fan of the Muppets but I'm not ashamed to admit that my appreciation had dwindled over the last 10 years or so. Sure, I'd always catch the Muppets when they were on TV and readily grabbed any DVD when it was released but the lack of product based on the core characters from the original TV series mostly left me with only memories to focus on.

That is until Bohemian Rhapsody came out. The viral video really hit the nostalgia sweet spot and I started really taking in everything that was being written about and speculated on about the Muppets. And then, once I started seeing Muppet merchandise hitting the shelves (only a smattering of it, but still), all of a sudden my kids were getting Muppet shirts as gifts and my geek flag started to fly.

I've never considered myself an artist by any means, but I came upon the idea for the Muppet Alphabet one day. So I loaded my old Adobe Illustrator from 1998 (made me feel ancient) and thought I would try it out using some key characters first (P, B and Z). It was so much fun that it led to a full alphabet and I was really inspired by the positive feedback I got from all sorts of Muppet fans.

For some reason, I get a real kick out of seeing a bunch of Muppets on my shelves, even if they aren't necessarily in traditional form. Which is where the Muppet Vinylmations became my undoing. I don't live near any of the Disney parks, but I happened to take a Disney cruise where they were selling Series 1. Every day I would tell myself to just get one or two more and by the end of the week, I had cleared out their shelf. Since then, I've dug in and purchased all of Series 2 as well (I particularly dig Floyd and Janice). Even if some of them are weirdly visualized (Lew Zealand and Sweetums), oddly designed (why are Scooter’s ears above his glasses?) or just plain off (Pepe's eyes are way too small and Series 1 Piggy has far too much space between her eyes and nose), I can't help but want every one.

Without any more 3" Vinylmations to buy though, I was still left with wanting more. There were so many possibilities out there, even if they wouldn't necessarily have as much demand outside the Muppet community as the first two sets. So I decided to create my own, with the added restriction that I needed to try to take perceived printing limitations into consideration and avoid accessories (like hats). First up was Series 3, in which I envisioned the Jim Henson Muppet as the chaser. I must admit that I got quite the kick when this showed up on Muppet Wiki as an official series 3, even if it has since been removed. Check it out below!


I've since put together a Muppet Vinylmation Series 4 that I hope goes over as well as Series 3. Originally, I pictured the adult Skeeter as the chaser but once I designed '80s Robot, I knew he would be a better choice. He would be printed on a clear mold like Waldo was in Series 2. Also, I never would have imagined putting Wayne and Wanda on here (after all, I once considered them X-Muppets in the alphabet) but after seeing them prominently in trailers for The Muppets and the OK Go video, I knew it was their time to shine. You can see all of Series 4 below:



Along the way, I've also done a few other minor pieces. Drawn Together was done as part of the Threadless contest. It was inspired by the thought that since the Muppets always come together to beat the odds, it may be fun to draw them together as one image, with one character transitioning smoothly into another. It was an admitted rush job based on limited time. Doc Hopper's Other Ideas was a quick little piece based on a fun idea I had. Neither are all that great but I can't help myself--the Muppets are such inventive creations that ideas keep kicking around in my brain until they can see the page or the screen.

I guess that is a testament to Jim Henson and crew that 35 years after the launch of The Muppet Show, this motley group of characters still inspire me and many others to put pen to paper (or hand to mouse) to try to visualize our appreciation for their offbeat sensibilities, endless sense of oddball invention and unwavering sense of community. Speaking of community, be sure to check out some of the Muppet works over at www.deviantart.com. A lot of the pieces there put my minor efforts to shame. Check it out regularly--it always seems like there are more and more Muppet goodies from artists all around to inspire and entertain.








The Muppet Mindset by Ryan Dosier, ryguy102390@gmail.comSource URL: https://jimhensons.blogspot.com/search/label/Fan%20Art
Visit Jim Henson for Daily Updated Hairstyles Collection

The Muppets T-Shirt Challenge

Threadless.com, known for their fun and funny t-shirt designs submitted by people like you and me (well... not me, I'm not artistically inclined) which get voted on by people online, has teamed up with Disney and The Muppets to bring us The Muppets T-shirt Design Challenge. The project is simple: design a t-shirt with the Muppets on it, celebrating the theme of friendship. Every design will be voted on, and the winning t-shirt will actually be made and sold online. Do you need it to be more awesome? Okay, fine... the winning designer of the t-shirt will also win $2,500 cash, a $250 Threadless gift card, the winning shirt signed by the Muppets and framed alongside a picture of the Muppets, a set of Jim Shore's Muppet Statues valued at $250, and, finally, a signed copy of the (apparently) upcoming album MUPPETS: The Green Album.

You can find all the details and more (including some pretty awesome Muppet pictures) on the main website for the Challenge.

There is so much to be excited about because of this contest... first off, Disney is very obviously directly including Muppet fans in its promotion for the upcoming movie, which is absolutely fantastic. Second, MUPPETS: The Green Album? What the what? We haven't heard anything about this... unless, of course, they just renamed the Muppets: Revisited CD idea they've been throwing around since the first D23 Expo. Either way... very exciting and I would do just about anything for a signed copy of it! And, to cap it all, we finally get to see the awesome group shot of the Muppets in all its glory!

The prizes are massive, the exposure is huge, and for any talented artist who wants to show of his or her take on the Muppets on a t-shirt, Threadless.com's Muppets T-shirt Design Challenge is absolutely something that you should submit a design to! (I'm looking at you, Dave Hulteen, Stuart Reeves, and all you other super talented fan artists!) Start submitting today! We want to see a Mindset reader/contributor take the big prize!









The Muppet Mindset by Ryan DosierSource URL: https://jimhensons.blogspot.com/search/label/Fan%20Art
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Muppet Fans Do Awesome Things on the Internet

So... I went to see Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides at midnight last night. My main goal, of course, was to see the trailer for The Muppets... but my hopes were shattered when the trailer was not included before the film at my local theater. Needless to say, disappointment doesn't begin to describe how I felt/feel... but then I got only and I started to feel a bit better. Why, you ask? Well... because Muppet fans are awesome. There's such a treasure trove of great, fan-created content on the web that I've been fortunate enough to have shared with me by Muppet fans. It never ceases to amaze me how talented Muppet fans are. I'm also really glad that they're willing to share said talent on the internet for everyone to see. So, while we wait for the Muppet trailer to hit YouTube, enjoy just some of the awesome Muppet fan things that hit the web recently.

Our new friend Ben Henry from The Baseball Card Blog emailed me last week with a link to his site where he features a bunch of customized baseball cards, including quite a few Muppet cards made by Travis Peterson. It's a really fun trip through America's pastime with Muppets on the iconic cards instead of baseball players. There's a lot of fun tid-bits Ben includes in his posts, so be sure to check out all of his Muppet cards for yourself! I especially like the Christopher Reeve card and the Scooter card, because it says "Snuffies" on it because that's a funny word.

Neil McNally from the website The Daily Deceased, which profiles notable persons daily who passed away on that date, emailed me yesterday with a link to the profile from May 16th which, of course, spotlighted Jim Henson. It's a nice little article and another way of remembering Jim 21 years later, which we should all do.

One very talented YouTube video maker took the time to edit together clips of Kermit and Piggy from the first three Muppet movies spliced over three songs including "I'm Gonna Always Love You" and music from the Beach Boys. The video is entitled "Warmth of the Next Love" and it's sweet, cute, and fun. Enjoy it!



Finally, our good friend and one of my personal favorite people, Dave Hulteen is now offering Custom Digital Puppet Illustration commissions. Essentially, Dave will draw you or someone you know as a puppet character with exagerated skin tones and features, much like the caricatures of myself, Joe Hennes, Ryan Roe, Steve Swanson, and Dave himself that you can see over at MuppetFans.com. Trust me when I say that these are awesome and make a fantastic profile picture for your Facebook, Twitter, or where ever you kids socialize nowadays. Just take a look at this side by side comparison of me and the Hulteen caricature of me. Uncanny, no? No go forth and patronize!






The Muppet Mindset by Ryan DosierSource URL: https://jimhensons.blogspot.com/search/label/Fan%20Art
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Lisa the Intern's Fan Art

Lacking other content for today--darned if I know how Ryan manages to put something up every single day--I, your faithful intern, must resort to ego-centricism and show off my strange fan art. That should be enjoyable for everyone, right? I mean, my mom likes it, anyway...

I'm not much of an artist, and as anyone who has ever tried to draw a Muppet knows, they're not easy to capture. I try to get around both of these things. For one, I use Paint--no, not paint as in the stuff you apply with a brush, but Paint as in the crummy little program found on all Windows PCs. An odd choice, perhaps, but it works for me. My other trick is that I don't start from scratch--I sort of trace an existing picture of whatever Muppet I'm "drawing." I'm not quite sure how else to explain it, but since a picture is worth a thousand words, let's start showing, shall we?

You may or may not know that Robin is my favorite Muppet, so naturally the first bit of fan art I did was of him. I started with this picture here of cute little Robin sitting on the floor backstage at the Muppet Theater. Then I completely removed the background and sort of re-colored Robin so that he no longer looked like a photograph, but more like the sort of "shading" I can do in Paint on my own. Then I moved him around a bit and put him on a rock in the middle of a river, so the final result looked like this:





Note to self: Running water is really, really hard. Somehow, I always forget that.

Next was Miss Piggy. I started with this screencap of her when she's just won the beauty contest at the Bogen County Fair. Then I took out the background, moved her over a little, and put her in the wings of the Muppet Theater, just about to come on stage. We can see Kermit in the audience--the only one in the audience, apparently. But this one just sort of kept getting more complicated on me. So there's also a big hole in the wall behind Piggy, complete with rubble on the floor, a broom next to it waiting to tend to that rubble, and a couple of chickens strolling through that hole. And above the hole, there's an exit sign with an arrow pointing somewhere else, but someone took some black spray-paint, crossed out the original arrow, and made a new one pointing to the hole. Nice and Muppety, don't you think?




Note to self: I hate hair.



In attempt to avoid hair, I tackled Scooter next. Believe it or not, this one isn't entirely done, but it's close enough for me to feel okay sharing it. I took one of those pictures we got when we were waiting for Letters to Santa to come out, and I got rid of Kermit, Piggy, and the entire background. Then I put Scooter on some random city rooftop, where he's apparently looking at the stars, but his original reason for coming up to the roof was to fetch Kermit, whom we can see sitting at the edge of the roof, doing some star-gazing of his own.




Note to self: Clothes are always a lot harder than they look.

So that is my fan art--or at least, the stuff that's worth looking at. Enjoy!







The Muppet Mindset by Ryan DosierSource URL: https://jimhensons.blogspot.com/search/label/Fan%20Art
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Lisa the Intern Takes Command

Lisa Alexander - Hello there, folks! Lisa the Intern here. As you've seen, Ryan is on vacation, which means I'm in charge for the week. He even sent me a cute little document called "How to Run the Muppet Mindset," which I am keeping under lock and key in a concrete vault in the center of an underground labyrinth so that it will never fall into the hands of The British Correspondent. Which is actually why today's post is a bit late... I got a little lost in that labyrinth, triggered a couple trip wires, strained my back trying to get through a nasty web of lasers... by the way, is that my flesh I smell burning? Ah, crap... Lemme find some water...

Right! There we go. Now the bad news is that unlike last year, Ryan's Spring Break doesn't line up with mine, so while he's off gallivanting in Disney World, I am back at school trying to run this blog while I write ten-page papers and read post-modern theory and study for an Anthropology exam, which really wouldn't be too much of a problem except that he didn't leave me much in the way of posts to put up while he's gone. So just bear with me here, alright?

For the record, I am not at all bitter about being stuck here at school in Cornfield Central, slaving away under a huge stack of textbooks, while Ryan has a grand ol' time in the happiest place in the world filling his suitcase with all the Muppet merchandise known to mankind. ...Well, not VERY bitter, I mean. Or at least not as bitter as I USUALLY am. I mean, the guy goes to Disney just about every single year, and with as long as we've known each other... I'm just used to it by now, right? ...Yeah, not so much. More like I'm feeling tolerant because I get my own Disney trip at the end of May.

So as I mentioned, Ryan didn't leave much for me to post, and since I have a huge paper due tomorrow that I haven't really started yet, I don't exactly have time to sit here and make something up on the spot. So instead, I will show you a piece of my fan art, which I figure I'll display more fully later in the week unless I can think of something better.

But stay tuned, because we've got an interesting week ahead of us, starting with a fantastic announcement tomorrow!

In the meantime... I'm out.











The Muppet Mindset by Ryan DosierSource URL: https://jimhensons.blogspot.com/search/label/Fan%20Art
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Dave Goelz Gets Interviewed and Jason Segel Says the Movie Rocks

Don't you love it when you get a message from a Muppet fan letting you know that he has an audio interview with Dave Goelz on his website? ...That's never happened to you? Oh. Well... then live vicariously through The Muppet Mindset! My new friend Andrew messaged me recently to let me know that his website, CobblestonePath.org, has a great audio interview with Muppeteer legend Dave Goelz. Dave, as you probably know, has performed The Great Gonzo since 1976 and continues to be a major star in the Muppet world. The interview is awesome, so I highly recommend checking it out!

Speaking of Muppets (as if we're not always speaking of Muppets around here), IGN.com had the opportunity to ask Jason Segel how the movie is going. According to him, it's going quite well--"fantastic," actually. He also says that he's sworn to secrecy about the cameos in the movie (other than name-dropping Jack Black and Emily Blunt). I wonder if he's seen everything we know... probably not. He's too busy for us. Packaging a blockbuster... Anyway, it's a nice little update--check it out!

And, finally, check out this incredibly awesome piece of fan art designed by Pasha Romanowski. Pasha has his own website, www.projectpuppet.com, which, you guessed it, you should also check out! But first... the fan art!













The Muppet Mindset by Ryan DosierSource URL: https://jimhensons.blogspot.com/search/label/Fan%20Art
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Zoot Gets Animated

Greetings, Muppet fans! I'm really, really excited about our post today because I get to debut an incredible piece of fan-made video work. No, it's not another shoddy YouTube video by yours truly, it's an amazing 3D animated rendering of the classic skit from The Muppet Show, "Sax and Violence." Now, the original starred Zoot and Mahna Mahna, but this remake by Muppet fan and artist Andreas Qassim stars Zoot and a very funny 3D figure designed by Andreas himself. Check it out! I promise you won't be disappointed!


Triangle vs Saxophone from Andreas Qassim on Vimeo.

Wasn't that awesome? Andreas should be incredibly proud of this piece of work! It's wonderful!

I also promised Andreas I'd show off this wonderful comic he drew featuring Kermit, Fozzie, and super famous Norwegian comic book teddy bear Bamse wishing Donald Duck a happy 75th Birthday. I gotta say, the duck looks much better on TV.




Do I get the joke? Nope. Is the artwork awesome? Heck yes! GREAT job, Andreas! Thanks for the contribution!






The Muppet Mindset by Ryan DosierSource URL: https://jimhensons.blogspot.com/search/label/Fan%20Art
Visit Jim Henson for Daily Updated Hairstyles Collection

Minimalist Muppets Fan Art

Happy Black Friday, Muppet fans! I hope none of you got trampled while heading to Wal-Mart for $5 Blu-ray movies. (For that matter, I hope I don't get trampled heading to Wal-Mart for $5 Blu-ray movies.)

Today we've got a fun little post for you featuring some great Muppet fan-art from Eric Slager. Eric is a terrific and talented graphic designer who has his own blog called, appropriately, The Blog of Eric Slager. Eric's first display of his great talent on his blog is shown in his latest piece of art entitled "Minimalist Muppets." Take a look!




Isn't that incredible? I absolutely love it! If you can't tell, the Muppets featured include (from top left) Kermit, Fozzie, Swedish Chef, Scooter, Waldorf, Statler, Rizzo, Dr. Teeth, Zoot, Floyd, Janice, Animal, Bunsen, Beaker, Sweetums, Sam Eagle, Gonzo, Camilla, Miss Piggy, and Rowlf!

I absolutely adore the simplistic style of this. I think Bunsen is my favorite one, but they're all absolutely awesome. Thanks so much to Eric for emailing me with a link to this awesome piece of artwork!

While we're on our fan-art kick... now is as good a time as any to debut our two and only submissions from James Carrol's "How to Draw Pepe in 10 Easy Steps" tutorial. The drawings come to us from Christopher O'Connor and Kevin Williams...



Pepe by Christopher O'Connor





Pepe by Kevin Williams
More awesome art by more awesome people!! I love it! I've still got to draw my Pepe to show off... and if you still want to submit a drawing of Pepe from James' 10 Easy Steps, we're always taking submissions by email at ryguy102390@gmail.com!






The Muppet Mindset by Ryan DosierSource URL: https://jimhensons.blogspot.com/search/label/Fan%20Art
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