May 16 - Muppet*Vision 3D

Image courtesy undercovertourist.com

On this day, in 1991, the Muppet*Vision 3D attraction opened for mayhem at the Disney MGM Studios in Walt Disney World. Starting in 1989, Jim Henson began to negotiate a merger between his entertainment empire and the Walt Disney Company. As part of those negotiations, several shows and attractions were planned to capitalize on the new partnership. Only three ever came to fruition and two of them didn’t last very long. What happened to all that potential, all the youngins might ask? We don’t like to talk about it, but Jim developed pneumonia, didn’t get medical help in time and suddenly died from toxic shock syndrome on May 16, 1990, late in the production of Muppet*Vision and exactly one year before it opened. His unexpected demise threw every Muppet-filled plan out the window except the ones that were already nearing completion and brought negotiations to a grinding halt.

Image courtesy muppet.fandom.com

Just nine days after Jim’s passing, on May 25, 1990, the first Muppet show opened in a little theater in the Animation Courtyard area of the Disney-MGM Studios. Called Here Come the Muppets, the show utilized life-sized versions of the characters rather than the puppet sized ones you might be used to. This show was kind of thrown together to give the Muppets a presence in the park until Muppet*Vision was ready to open, but you wouldn’t have known it was supposed to be temporary looking at it. Here Come the Muppets actually ran for four months beyond the opening of its sister attraction, closing in September 1991 to make way for Voyage of the Little Mermaid, although savvy observers can still claim to see a small piece of it running on a daily basis. The mechanism that moves the rock Ariel sits on to sing Part of Your World is the same one that made a monorail crash the stage of Muppets (if you squint just right, you can almost see it happening).

Image courtesy muppet.fandom.com

Two weeks after Here Come the Muppets closed, a second live show opened. Muppets on Location: The Days of Swine and Roses (could they have possibly come up with a longer title?) once again used the life-sized versions of the Muppets, but this time in an outdoor setting that was much more interactive with the audience. This Muppet show ran for three years before it too closed to be replaced by an Ace Ventura show of all things (What can I say, to paraphrase Groucho Marx, they can’t all be good folks).

Image courtesy guide2wdw.com

Which leaves us with the one Muppet attraction from that era that still runs today, Muppet*Vision 3D. A version of the attraction did also run (somewhat intermittently) in the theater that currently shows Mickey's Philharmagic on the West Coast in Disney's California Adventure between 2001 and 2014. It’s the last project that Jim ever worked on and one of the last that Richard Hunt, another beloved Muppet performer, was a part of (Richard died in January 1992). Putting that tragic history aside, it’s easy to see what could have been had the merger continued when you see Muppet*Vision. All the classic Henson humor is there, coupled with what was then cutting-edge technology. A combination of puppets, computer graphics, live characters, animatronics and special effects that culminate in a glorious three hour finale (just kidding, it’s only ninety seconds) is enough for any Muppet fan to go weak in the knees. The bittersweetness of hearing Kermit’s original voice is mitigated by the delightfulness of the whole presentation (and for those of you saying what does he mean Kermit’s original voice? When did it change? you can find your own way out, thank you very much).

Image courtesy youtube.com

Of course in the end, we aren’t left with just Muppet*Vision 3D. Fourteen years after the first deal fell apart, Disney finally did acquire all the characters from The Muppets and Bear in the Big Blue House. A live stage show featuring Bear ran for two years around the turn of the 21^st century and guests can currently see a full on puppet show every day in Liberty Square at the Magic Kingdom, The Muppets Present… Great Moments in American History (again with the paragraph masquerading as a title). The current show is Muppet mayhem at its finest and enjoyed the input of several classic Muppet performers during its development, including Dave Goelz and Steve Whitmire (before he was abruptly fired). So there is hope that we will continue to get new doses of the Muppets from time to time and I think that is something that most of us can agree that the world sorely needs right now.