Why in the jolly green FUCK does disney own the muppets???

Genuine question. Why did the house of mouse even bother? All they did was make like two movies and then let the little guys rot for a decade.

Every other one they did makes sense.

Pixar was a pioneer in 3d animation. Something that would become the norm for the animated movie scene. And not only that but they already had multiple verified successes at the time of the purchase in the form of Toy Story, The Incredibles, and Finding Nemo

Star Wars is fucking Star Wars

Marvel had Spider-Man along with a whole multiverse of recognizable heroes including the Avengers which would become a major player in the big D's repertoire.

buying Fox put back together the broken up Marvel ip rights and game them big names like the Simpsons and James Cameron's Avatar

Investing in Fortnite is a sound decision as it is a proven success and seems that it's here to stay

What genuinely did the Muppets bring to Disney at all?

They had plans the Iger lost his mind chasing imaginary rivals. Which ironically those are now the actual rivals.

Why did the house of mouse even bother?

Because Disney wants to own everything. They fundamentally misunderstand the muppets and think they're for children. They also unironically bought the brand because they thought it would give them access to sesame street and were pissed when it didn't. They want to own sesame street so badly.

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they thought it would give them access to sesame street and were pissed when it didn't.

Ha, fuck them.

This is the best thing to happen to Muppets in years
They are taking puppetry seriously as an adult medium with having it theme an intense coaster targeted to adults. This is exactly what Jim intended

with having it theme an intense coaster targeted to adults

At the cost of a whole section of a theme park. That the mouse already wasted money on.

the vast majority of people do not care about the muppets. that's probably why.

this, probably people only know kermit because of the memes

It wasn't about the IPs they wanted Jim Henson studios, with it and Lucasfilm they have a monopoly on special events. It's why today's live action movies that are CG heavy look like shit to compared to movies from the 00's or even 90's.

Disney did absolutely nothing with the muppets during their ownership, whereas Jim, Frank n Co kept them relevant in the public eye for like 30 years.

Why did a big media company swallow a successful brand only to sit on it

It's either
A) Just to increase the company's valuation
B) An exec had an ambitious plan for them but then got fired/moved
C) Both

Sadly this, people say they love the muppets then never show up for it.

They've had their eyes on the Muppets for a while before they finally bought them. I think they originally wanted sesame street as well

Jim Henson?!?!

He wouldn't sell! HE WOULDN'T SELL!

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the vast majority of people do not care about the muppets

True, but also disney hasn't given people a reason to care about the muppets because they all but hollowed the people who made it special.
The muppets were never supposed to just be one thing but disney doesn't understand that on a fundamental level.

They lost the Aerosmith branding? But it was so kino to see so many children go on a ride that honors pedophiles.

Fun fact: The Rock'n Roller Coaster is the only Disney ride that goes above 48 mph.

Eisner bought them on his way out of running the company and they got lost in the shuffle when Iger came in because he didn't give a fuck about Muppets and wanted to focus on buying Pixar and all that other stuff.

see

Henson had plans to give them to Disney back before he died.

Muppets 3D was the last thing henson worked on before his death. This is the end of an era.

they all but hollowed the people who made it special.

They also replaced kermits voice actor because he got vocal with the direction disney was taking the franchise, and replaced him with someone who doesn't sound like kermit at all.

They lost the Aerosmith branding

Steven Tyler said they wont be touring much anymore, so there's really not much point in keeping it.

Is this like when they bought Marvel and then said internally, "I have good news, I just bought Superman!" Only to be told, "No you bought Spiderman," and then desperately wanted to back out of that deal?
Of course that story could be false.

Disney was salivating over getting Sesame Street during the original 90s deal even though Jim was adamant that it wasn't part of the deal since he wanted the show to remain an educational nonprofit. It was the main "Unrelated to his death" reason it never happened back then.

By the time Disney bought the Muppets for real, the Henson kids had given full custody of Sesame Street to CTW (which rebranded as Sesame Workshop) and they only sold the Muppets and Bear in the Big Blue House while keeping everything else.

Wasn't there a conspiracy theory that they killed Jim Henson

Ah so it was just greed and wanting other people to sell when they never were going to and not utter retardation.

Iger just sold $42.7 million dolars worth of his personal Disney stock...something is going on behind the scenes and it's not good. I'm guessing whoever they're picking for his replacement as CEO must be even worse than Chapek and Iger is trying to cash in now.

Could be he's just battoning down for the oncoming rising costs of living.

What an accurate picture.

There is a confirmed story about that from the Jim Shooter days.

Shooter got a call from upstairs and an exec said "I got us a great deal for Wonder Woman licensing in Europe!" Jim said "Great! Go tell Jenette over at DC, cuz we don't own Wonder Woman!" and it took him another 10 minutes to explain to to them they really didn't own them.

In another example of executive disconnect, an Imagineer buddy of mine was tasked to give an instructional lecture about Star Wars and it's history to Disney execs who didn't know anything about it when it was bought and he was shocked at the amount of them who thought Disney had bought Star Trek.

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Jesus tapdancing Christ. Disney execs through the ages must be the most ignorant sonsofbitches in the world.

Also, removing competition when you're on a downward trajectory.

All stock valuations are inflated by absolutely staggering factors, and the financial regime propping this up took a poison pill they can't regurgitate. Are you ready?

Muppets was only really culturally relative in the 70s and 80s. That's about it.

It got some life support in the 90s for a bit with a couple movies. But the repeated failed Muppets reboot shows a decade ago proves that their popularity has gone.

They fundamentally misunderstand the muppets and think they're for children.

Pretty much. They bought a property that was designed to make fun of hippies, acid rockers and general 70s counterculture and thought it was Sesame Street for kids older than 6.

What they really wanted was Sesame Street

Well sort of. Muppets might be one of the earliest things that was made for kids, but filled with enough references and jokes for the parents to love it too. That kind of thing was incredibly rare in kids shows until the 90s.

I feel like Disney would have fucked up Trek even worse than Starwars.

All Disney wanted from that was the merchandising. Sesame Street is a fucking merch monster that can slap Bigbird or Elmo on anything and sell it.

Disney could fuck up chocolate flavored sex robots nowadays.

Probably getting ready for the new DOJ head that will be picking up where DeSantis left off and Disny will be under fire for political bullshit fir the next few years.

earliest

I'm not an expert, but I believe Howdy Doody predates Muppets by at least two decades.