Muppet Tuesday

Next Wednesday The Muppets will be released by Walt Disney Pictures. I figure
that, since the countdown to the film was the impetus for this series of Muppet memories and memoranda, now is a good time to share looks at the numerous posters and links to the various trailers produced to date.


Still and promotional images © 2011 and characters TM/® The Muppets Studio LLC.

The Muppets’ first trailer debuted May 20th online and in theaters. As the mock
Green with Envy poster below right suggests, it appears to be pitching a romantic comedy starring Jason Segel and Amy Adams until the voiceover stumbles when reaching co-star Kermit the Frog; breaking the fourth wall, the narration then stops altogether as Segel — a writer/producer on the film as well as its leading man — asks, surrounded by felt and furry critters, “Are there Muppets in this movie?”




A week later came the next trailer, referencing The Hangover Part II’s so-called Wolf Pack, with its own enigmatic poster. June brought yet another parody trailer on the 16th — code-named Being Green and mimicking Green Lantern, like the poster above left that accompanied it, until Jason Segel pipes up again — and the film’s first official trailer on the 20th. The poster above right of patriotic Sam the Eagle dressed as the title character of Captain America: The First Avenger was released in July to coincide with that film’s opening; it had no concomitant trailer but plenty of corporate synergy — even using the Marvel logo, replacing its usual M with the one in the Muppets logo that (weirdly) sports Kermit’s lily-pad collar — given that Disney purchased the Muppets in 2004 and Marvel Entertainment in 2009 (as I noted here at the time).



July also saw the release of conventional posters advertising the film in the US and internationally, seen directly above and at the very top of this post respectively.

In August, TV spots hawking the film began appearing. It’s no surprise that the unofficial, awesome Muppet Wiki, source of most of the information in this post, has a comprehensive page devoted to the commercials that have aired to date and numerous promotional videos unspooled on various channels in the Walt Disney family. Come September we got still another parody trailer and poster, both inspired by the much-buzzed-about campaign for the English-language version of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo; said trailer also hyped the recent release of The Green Album (whose remake of the classic Muppet Show theme song by OK Go I linked to in a Muppet Monday last month).




At the end of September and into October, a Muppets “Fan-a-Thon” was held pleading for “likes” on Facebook through a series of promotional videos starring Miss Piggy, Kermit the Frog, Fozzie Bear, Gonzo with Pépé the King Prawn, and Animal. October also brought the second official trailer, with new scenes from the film that also appeared in certain of the sneak-peek TV spots noted earlier, plus two groups of character posters, seen above and below.




The Muppets’ final parody trailer appeared at the end of October, goofing on the previous parody trailers, the Shrek spinoff Puss in Boots, and the latest installments in the Paranormal Activity, Happy Feet, and Twilight franchises, with a trio of posters aping the latter just released today.




If you’ve clicked on any of the above links to the trailers, you’ll have noticed that the Muppets 2011 playlist at The Muppets Studio’s YouTube channel also features a bunch of clips from the film. Enjoyable as the trailers are, I don’t want to have any more of the movie spoiled for me. As some wise... uh... things once said, “It’s time to play the music. It’s time to light the lights.”




Related: Muppet Monday (Oct. 17th) • Heart + Felt • Muppet Monday (Nov. 28th)