BUT THEN, Kevin Smith and Co. gives us Masters of the Universe: Revelation and, what can I say? I'm neck deep in Mandom now! 'Mandom' of course being the term I just coined for the He-Man fan community and am also instantly retracting because it reminds me of that creepy Charles Bronson commercial. I'm referencing a lot of YouTube on this one.
Anyways, anyone who knows me knows that when I really like a thing I draw cartoon penguins dressed as that thing... and so here you go.
It's been a while since I've visited my rebooted world of Grundo, but I'm back! One of the most difficult characters in this series of redesigns has been Teddy's big furry friend, the Wooly Whats-It, or... as he's more affectionately known... Wooly.
This guy has always been one of my favorites, so maybe that's why I had such a hard time coming up with a new look that I'm happy with. As you can see below, I've given the task several attempts.
Then one day, I thought I'd finally found a winner! I scanned him in, cleaned him up, and even used some artistic techniques that I hadn't ever really tried before. As I looked at the finished product however... it just didn't look like Wooly to me. It was close though.
I decided to take a break from Wooly after that. I was definitely overthinking it. He needed to be simpler. Fast forward a couple of years and simpler is exactly the direction I went. I just started doodling crude shapes and putting eyes on them in hopes that I would find my Wooly Whats-It.
And BINGO! I've got it!
He's big. He's purple. He's fluffy. His hands and feet don't have those nasty spots on them like they did in the animated series, AND he's lovable! I love him at least.
The Premise: It’s right there in the title. The MUPPETS are BABIES. Kermit the Frog and friends hang out in a nursery under the care of their nanny,…Nanny. They play, sing songs and solve problems using the incredible power of their combined imagination.
There have been countless spinoffs, over the years, where characters from a franchise are reimagined as younger versions: The Flintstone Kids, Yo Yogi!, A Pup Named Scooby-Doo, Baby Looney Tunes, Disney Babies, Baby Yoda… okay that last one’s a little on the fence, but still! The idea’s been done! Muppet Babies, however, did it first!
The whole concept spawned from a random scene in the 1984 film, The Muppets Take Manhattan, or rather that random scene spawned from the concept. The actual plot of the film involves the Muppets trying to make it on Broadway, but then there’s this moment where Miss Piggy inexplicably daydreams about the gang knowing one another since birth! It’s jarring and completely out of character, almost as if its only purpose was to plug a cartoon series that would air two months later. I may sound as if I’m saying all of this with a tone of cynicism, but whatever! It worked! The moment is BY FAR my favorite of the film and, what’s more… I loved this show!
Where other preschool cartoons focus on more basic things like shapes and numbers, Muppet Babies was all about using your imagination. One minute the gang are in their nursery, and the next they’re serving cheeseburgers in Jabba the Hutt’s palace! While the situation would constantly bounce back and forth from the babies’ reality to their stock-footage filled daydreams, at no point do any of the characters question what the others are doing. They take the ball and run with it like a preschool improv group made up of bears, pigs, and whatevers. It’s hard to think of another show that more accurately visualizes “playing pretend,” as well as promoting creativity to the level that Muppet Babies does. When you consider that the show is the product of one of the most creative people who’ve ever walked the planet, however, well… there’s no other way the show could have gone!
Kablama Slam! Fun Fact: Most of the main cast appear in puppet form in The Muppets Take Manhattan with the exception of Animal and Skeeter. The puppet version of Baby Animal later appeared during a scene in A Muppet Family Christmas, while Skeeter, in one of the largest failures of the human race, has yet to appear in puppet form ever!
