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.com

News Update: September 5, 2011

NEWS UPDATE: September 5, 2011

The historic (and Disney-owned) El Capitan Theatre in Hollywood, on Hollywood Boulevard, where many scenes from The Muppets were filmed earlier this year, is hosting a special event this November through January to welcome the arrival of the first theatrical Muppet movie in 12 years. The event is being billed as The Most Sensational Muppet Party and takes place at The El Capitan and the adjacent Disney Soda Fountain and Studio Store. From November 23rd to January 5th, families can join The El Capitan for finger sandwiches, fruit salad, cupcake decorating, and "Wocka Wocka Wocka" fun for everyone. In addition, every guest receives a commemorative photo and and a special gift. The El Capitan is also stating that there will be a Holiday Sing-a-Long with Kermit and Miss Piggy LIVE on stage before every movie. If you're in the Los Angeles/Hollywood area, this sounds like an event you can't pass up! For more information, check out The El Capitan online.

As you all know, last week Animal and Miss Piggy appeared on The Tonight Show with OK Go. Unfortunately, in an egregious error we never posted a link to the video. Thankfully, our good friends over at ToughPigs did all the hard work for us so all we have to do is mention their name and show off the video. So... thanks for that.



Our good friends at the Center for Puppetry Arts in Atlanta, Georgia are having an amazing auction to benefit the center and all the good it does to spread the magic of puppetry throughout the world. This is a fantastic cause that I whole-heartedly support, especially when they offer spectacular auction items such as the gorgeous Palisades Toys Jim Henson action figure signed by puppet designer Bonnie Erickson. This also includes a candid shot of Jim, Bonnie, and the Jim Henson Muppet, also signed by Bonnie. It's a wonderful piece, and you should bid on it!

Finally, the chronicles of our friend James Carroll, designer of our awesome main page header, and the Threadless Muppet contest have come to an oh-so-satisfying conclusion. His gorgeous and explosive "Muppetational Mosaic" t-shirt is now available for sale online! For 48 hours only, you can buy the fantastic t-shirt for just $10.00. So... go buy two or seven while they're cheap and while they're awesome. Well... I guess they'll always be awesome. But still. Buy one. And wear it. Everywhere. How often can you own a t-shirt with Thog, George the Janitor, and Angus McGonagle on it? Never, that's how.

The Muppet Mindset by Ryan Dosier, ryguy102390@gmail.com

Threadless T-Shirt Contest

The Muppets Threadless T-Shirt Design Contest has come to a close and a winner has been announced: "Together Again" by shirt designer ponchodiazv which can be seen below...

Although this isn't a bad t-shirt by any means (including Rowlf and Scooter in the design wins style points for sure), this wasn't the shirt that won the popular vote in the challenge. The shirt design that received the highest average vote score belonged to our good friend (and designer of our header) James V. Carroll. His fan-favorite and mind-blowingly detailed "The Muppetational Mosaic," seen below...

So, you're probably asking, if the mosaic design won the highest score, why did the other design win? Well, that's because Threadless maintains the final decision on declaring a winner based on what they think their customers will buy, what they could easily print, etc. Thus, they've awarded the second place "Together Again" design with first place. But, fret not fans of The Muppetational Mosaic, because James has revealed that Threadless has indeed accepted his design as the second place winner and will be producing it as a t-shirt! Also in other exciting news, there's a decent chance that Threadless will produce other designs from the contest as well, which could lead to an entire wardrobe of awesome Muppet shirts--and an empty wallet for most Muppet fans. Worth it, though.

You'll be able to purchase "The Muppetational Mosaic" soon on Threadless and for now you can pre-order "Together Again" as part of a combo pack which includes the t-shirt, a poster, and Muppets: The Green Album on Disney's new MuppetsMusic.com.

Congratulations to both winners and we hope we'll get to congratulate even more designers soon if Threadless does decide to produce more!







The Muppet Mindset by Ryan Dosier, ryguy102390@gmail.com

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 Dosier

A Brand New Header

Ryan Dosier - Greetings, Muppet fans! I'm very excited today. Do you know why? Well, there are two reasons... one, it's my birthday! (I'm 20 whole years old--can you believe it?) And two, we have another incredibly exciting surprise from our good friend James Carroll, who brought us the mind-blowing "How to Draw Pepe" tutorial yesterday. Today he brings us something that everyone will witness upon coming to The Muppet Mindset--something I'm sure all of you have already noticed--a brand new header! Yes, take a look at that! Or this...

There is so much right with this picture I don't even know where to start. It is gorgeous and features every single Muppet I'd want it to. What fantastic picture choices, too! Look at cute little Robin sitting there on the logo--and isn't Piggy magnificent? I love the Electric Mayhem there... and that's an awesome picture of Sam. Even Angus McGonagle managed to sneak in there! (Is THAT where he's been hiding?) Really, there's nothing I don't love about it. I'm so proud to put this at the top of the site for all to see. I'll miss Kermit, Gonzo, and Pepe... but that header will forever live on in our "About Us" page--and besides, how could I pass up on such an awesome new header like this one?

Thanks again to James Carroll for the magnificent new header! It's already one of my favorite birthday presents this year!

The Muppet Mindset by Ryan Dosier

How to Draw Pepe in 10 Easy Steps!

Greetings, Muppet fans! We have an insanely cool treat for you today from our good friend James Carroll. James has had a silent hand in The Muppet Mindset since day one. He designed the incredible logo used in our header on the site, he has provided countless hi-res Muppet images for articles, and now he's designed an incredible, interactive experience for Muppet fans. So, without further ado, The Muppet Mindset proudly presents...

How to Draw Pepe in 10 Easy Steps!

(An Unofficial Guide by James V. Carroll)

 

James V. Carroll - Pepe is one of the most notoriously difficult Muppets to draw, yet his drawn image is heavily featured on many official products these days such as t-shirts, travel mugs, and comic books. I became aware of the many subtleties of his construction several years ago while working on Palisades Toys’ unreleased tutu clad Pepe action figure. It appears that many of today’s artists have been using the original figure as the maquette instead investigating the beautifully constructed puppet. I have seen various photos and style sheets of the character, but haven’t seen an official guide. There hasn’t yet been a truly definitive representation of everyone’s favorite king prawn.

 

I recently spent a day doodling to devise an iconic Pepe likeness akin to the famous Kermit head emblem. This 10-step tutorial isn’t perfect. It’s merely one devoted fan’s simplified line art translation of the puppet’s portrait into a character logo. Remember–this is just a guide. Get creative, enjoy, and submit your Pepe art to The Muppet Mindset (ryguy102390@gmail.com) and Ryan will post the results!

 

(Helpful Tips: A degree of symmetry is employed for this sort of logo, but complete perfection will result in a lifeless prawn so don’t be afraid to go a little off the diagram to tweak things like eye and pupil placement. The antennas are evenly placed on this model in order to contrast the wild, stringy hair feathers. Refrain from being too literal with the hair giving him a thick mop-top. The Muppets have elegant simplicity to the design. Less is always more.)

How incredible is that? The entire Flash setup, the Pepe design, and everything in that tutorial was done by James. I am beyond honored to host this beautiful piece of work and I sincerely hope James has something else up his amazingly talented sleeves for us soon. Oh, and by the way, Muppets Studio folks, if you're reading this... hire James Carroll! Thank you, thank you, James for this awesome, awesome post.

And like James said earlier, do attempt Pepe for yourself and send in your drawings and we'll host them all on here!

We've got another hugely exciting surprise from James coming in tomorrow's post--so be on the lookout for that!








The Muppet Mindset by Ryan Dosier