Throughout the '70s and into the first part of the '80s, it was hard to ignore singer/songwriter/actor/sometimes talk show host and best-friend of the Muppets Paul Williams. He won Grammys and even an Oscar for hits he wrote including "We've Only Just Begun,", "Rainy Days on Mondays," "Evergreen," "Just an Old Fashioned Love Song" and "Rainbow Connection." Barbra Streisand, The Carpenters and even Kermit the Frog are among the artists he wrote super-hits for. Below, Paul Williams gives us his top ten movie songs of all time and dishes insight on Stephen Kessler's documentary about him, Paul Williams Still Alive, about his raging ascent and crashing fall and return to form...
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Nick Stoller took a moment while promoting his Five-Year Engagement to fuel speculation about the forthcoming (and Jason Segel-less) Muppets sequel, which he says Disney rather unrealistically wanted to release next summer. "It is a comedy caper," he spilled to Collider. This sounds familiar -- next stop Manhattan, Treasure Island and then, perhaps... space?
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With Universal's colorful animated tale The Lorax, "the President's liberal friends in Hollywood [are] targeting a younger demographic using animated movies to sell their agenda to children," claimed an outraged Lou Dobbs this week on Fox Business Network. Animated movies! A liberal agenda! HOW DARE THEY. What's to blame for allowing this "insidious nonsense" into the vulnerable minds of our nation's youth? Bad parenting, of course. As conservative radio host Matt Patrick bellowed from the commentator pit, "We are creating Occu-toddlers!"
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If this isn't a good reason to go support The Muppets in its post-opening weekend theatrical run, I don't know what is: Watch as a Fox News anchor and two right-wing pundit accuse Disney's The Muppets of brainwashing children with its anti-capitalist message. Then rejoice as Professor Caroline Heldman of Occidental College drops science and keeps her cool in defense of the Muppets, President Obama, and reasonable thinking in general.
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Breaking Dawn sparkled to the top slot yet again on the quietest weekend of the season, but just take a gander at the healthy size of Shame's art house opening! Meanwhile, the latest offerings from Martin Scorsese and Alexander Payne enjoyed a boost. But I've got to ask: What happened to the Muppets' mojo?
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Ah, Thanksgiving. A time for gathering with the fam, eating turkey, and violently disagreeing with Aunt Sue about the validity of Justin Bieber's paternity suit and a cornucopia of other assorted pop culture-related topics while passing around the cranberry sauce. We're here to help make sure those awkward lulls in conversation don't devolve into interrogations into your actual personal life with 15 movie-related topics to keep the relatives squawking, bickering, and debating... at least 'til the pumpkin pie.
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If Billy Crystal's Twitter is to be believed, the funnyman has been tapped to replace Eddie Murphy as host of the Oscars in the wake of RatnerGate, as the comedian Tweeted today. "Am doing the Oscars so the young woman in the pharmacy will stop asking my name when I pick up my prescriptions," read Crystal's post. "Looking forward to the show."
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It's been roughly 13 minutes since Eddie Murphy departed as Oscar host, and already we have a strong frontrunner to replace Brett Ratner's comeback kid: The Muppets. Supporters rallied on Twitter for their consideration, and now an official "The Muppets Should Host the 2012 Oscars" campaign has been launched on Facebook. We offered up the idea of a Muppet-emceed Oscars in our possible host roundup yesterday, but would the reality of Kermit, Miss Piggy, and Gonzo at the dais be as enchanting as we want?
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Of course The Muppets begins with a happy-clappy street symphony that looks like an outtake from Bjork's "It's Oh So Quiet." It's The Muppets, dammit! Perkiness on tap, puppetry on parade. Here, in this opening scene from the new movie, Jason Segel and his Muppet brother Walter don matching suits and sing about lovin' life. Because they do.
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In addition to giving the Gaddafi assassination the ol' Taiwanese 'toon treatment, the good folks at Next Media Animation have processed the recent Avengers trailer through their kooky CG filters. The result? One and a half minutes of hilarious superhero (and gyrating ScarJo) action that imagines the titular crime fighters are called to assemble to battle the evil, cell phone-hacking, nude pic-distributing Loki. There's no way the actual movie will be this entertaining. Stick around for more Buzz Break!
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It has been a long, wonderful, trailer-laden lead-up to The Muppets big screen comeback. We've enjoyed clever promos of the Green Lantern parody, Girl With the Dragon Tattoo send-up and straight-forward varieties. And now, for the final hurrah before Kermit, Miss Piggy, Jason Segel and the gang storm theaters November 27, here's the latest (straightforward) preview. Beware! Uplifting spoilers ahead.
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The beloved muppet characters of Jim Henson's 1980s series Fraggle Rock entertained a generation of kids with their emphasis on friendship, their penchant for cooperation, and the subtle socialist messaging that made being part of the Fraggle Rock fandom so darn infectious... and strangely compulsive. And if those blue Commie Smurfs are getting their own big screen update, why not Red, Gobo, Boober and the gang?
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