The Muppets and Disney feel like a match made in Heaven. At least, that’s how their creator – Jim Henson – must’ve seen things when he began the process of selling his beloved troupe of puppets to the company in 1990! Even back then, Disney Imagineers ran rampant with ideas for how Kermit, Piggy, Gonzo, Fozzie, Rizzo, Rowlf, and hundreds of other weirdos could make their way into Disney Parks via a never-built Possibilityland: Muppet Studios! But of course, Jim Henson’s unexpected death that year froze the partnership for good…
It wasn’t until 2004 that Disney finally acquired The Muppets – a bucket list item for then-CEO Michael Eisner months before he stepped out of the company. Unfortunately, that acquisition was pretty quickly overshadowed by Pixar, Marvel, and Star Wars, leaving the old-fashioned Muppets mired in the middle of a rapidly-inflating entertainment company’s IP-obsessed era. Films and television shows starring the troupe were met with various levels of critical and financial success, but even still, it was clear that Disney just wasn’t quite sure what role the Muppets played in the modern world…
Muppets Haunted Mansion appears to have been the kind of spark the Muppets deserve: a delightful (if niche) television-length Disney+ special that finally embraces Disney’s ownership of the brand by plopping Gonzo and Pepe into the middle of a beloved Disney ride. Drawing deep from the lore of both the attraction and the characters, Muppets Haunted Mansion was warmly received, even if it clearly lacked the budget and scope of a big-screen feature. And that got us to thinking… What other crossovers with Disney Parks classics might become the Muppets’ next big streaming hit? Here are a few of our ideas… but what other rides would you like to see adapted into Muppet specials?
6. The Muppet Tower of Terror
If there’s one thing we wish Muppets Haunted Mansion offered more of, it would be the chance to wedge all of the Muppets together into a haunted place where they could get picked off one-by-one, And Then There Were None style. While Gonzo and Pepe surely standout as comical stars, half the fun of the Muppets is seeing the colorful cavalcade of characters continuously undermine each other’s solutions to problems and all the conflicts and conversations that arise. One place that would rachet up that action? The Hollywood Tower Hotel.
Imagine the Muppets convening on the once-grand hotel on Halloween night for its grand re-opening banquet at the Tip Top Club… Kermit and Piggy for a romantic stay in the Honeymoon suite; Fozzie to cover supposed hauntings there; Dr. Honeydew and Beaker as paranormal investigators; Swedish chef as a caterer; Electric Mayhem as the club’s headliner… Somehow, a Muppet Tower of Terror feels like the perfect way to bring all the characters together on a “dark and stormy night” – and one packed with celebrity guest stars eager to see and be seen inside the legendary icon of Tinseltown on its grand re-opening.
What mysteries and music might await in the Muppet Tower of Terror? One thing we know for sure: it would be good.
5. The Muppets Jungle Cruise
If the Muppets work best when they’re together as one big, loud, chaotic troupe of clashing personalities with heartfelt moments in between, there seems no better place to bring out those extremes than the romantic rivers of the Jungle Cruise! In fact, there’s something so “right” about the image of a Jungle Cruise boat packed with the colorful Muppet crew, binoculars in hand and ready for a globe-trotting, travel-by-map safari.
Both the beauty and the difficulty of adapting the Jungle Cruise is that it’s already funny, and has some of the most engrained-in-pop-culture setups of any attraction anywhere. Frankly, it’s hard to beat the perfectly-staged setup of the “trapped safari” or the Elephant Bathing Pool. If anyone could do it, though, it’s the Muppets, whose commentary on the famous foibles of the Jungle Cruise would no doubt give any Skipper a run for their money.
Given that Disney’s own big-screen Jungle Cruise film is still so fresh in the world, it’s probably unlikely that the company would return to the Jungle Cruise and restage many of its famous scenes again. Double-dipping into the content pool so quickly might give viewers a little too much deja vu. But at least in theory, Disney ought to file this one away for resurrection someday, because seeing Miss Piggy react to the “circle of life,” Animal stalk through the jungle underbrush, or Swedish chef cook up fresh-caught piranhas is just too much fun.
4. Pigs in Space Mountain
Among the library of the Muppet Show’s most legendary recurring skits, few are as beloved as “Pigs in Space” – the variety show’s spoof of the sci-fi space operas of the ‘60s and ‘70s. Following Captain Link Hogthrob, First Mate Piggy, and Dr. Julius Strangepork aboard the starship Swinetrek, the sketch is filled with Star Wars send-offs, light-up computer stations, sequins space suits, Space Age melodrama. (A season 4 episode actually co-starred Mark Hamill and the real C-3PO, R2-D2, and Chewbecca… a pre-Disney collision of The Muppets and Star Wars!)
There’s a reason that “Pigs in Space” looks drawn from the same cloth as Space Mountain… it is! In fact, Star Wars, Space Mountain, and “Pigs in Space” all debuted within the same six-month period in 1977 – when flashing computer consoles, sleek white space stations, and monumental ‘70s architecture really felt like the future.
For that reason alone, “Pigs in Space Mountain” seems like an obvious connection and a sci-fi masterpiece waiting to happen. We’d offer that Disney even has a proof-of-concept in a 2016 YouTube reboot of “Pigs in Space” with episodes skewering more modern sci-fi films like Gravity and Alien (a must-see skit, above). Seems like “Pigs in Space Mountain” would be an absolute showstopper!
3. Muppets Carousel of Progress
Once you picture Kermit kicked off his first chorus of “There’s a Great, Big, Beautiful Tomorrow” and then the special’s showstopping finale reprise with the entire cast, it’s hard to stop thinking that the Muppets Carousel of Progress would be anything but a dream come true.
Like the Muppets themselves, Carousel of Progress is a clever mix of earnest optimism and playful joy. The attraction carries a literal rhythm: basically. everyone thinks things couldn’t ever be better than they are now, and time and time and time again, they’re wrong. Things do get better; things always move forward; and thanks to technology, dreams become dreams come true. And if the ride’s tempo remains true (which it will!), the things we consider groundbreaking will one day look downright laughable to our descendants.
There’s a brilliance to the idea of a TV special that begins with Kermit and his “extended family” living life at the turn-of-the-century, with iceboxes and gas lamps as Piggy’s domestic bliss; then, with a sing of the song and a WandaVision style transition, we’re on to the ’20s… No one but the Muppets could present such a delightful, hopeful, and historic look at American life and the technological and social progress that’s made it better and better. While perhaps not as flashy as other Muppet specials, Muppet Carousel of Progress would be a deep-cut fan favorite.
2. Big Muppet Mountain
Back in 2013, ABC actually did order a drama series based on Disney’s Big Thunder Mountain to pilot. Reportedly, the show would’ve followed a “modern” (that’s late 19th century) doctor who relocated to the bustling gold mine town of Big Thunder, run by a mysterious tycoon. A mix of Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman, Westworld, and the Modern Marvel: Phantom Manor, the show sounded intriguing. Unfortunately, it was scrapped and production never went forward. (Probably in part because Disney’s big gamble on making the Old West cool again was 2013’s The Lone Ranger… Yikes.)
However, do you know what makes any canceled pilot better? Replacing its characters with the Muppets. There’s a brilliance to dropping the beloved troupe into an Old West town opposite a human lead (can we get back Michael Caine?) who arrives and never seems to think twice about the outlaws, sheriffs, and miners being pigs, bears, and frogs. Obviously, a Big Thunder starring The Muppets wouldn’t be the serious drama ABC once hoped for, but it would be a very fun world to explore.
1. Muppets of the Caribbean
Bar none, there’s no Disney ride quite as perfect for the Muppets as Pirates of the Caribbean. It makes a lot of sense. Like the Haunted Mansion, this 1960s classic has a cast of dozens of recognizable characters that Muppets could easily step in for. Like the Jungle Cruise, it’s filled with comical setups just waiting to be “Muppet-ized.” Like Big Thunder Mountain, there’s a deep lore waiting to be explored. And like the “Pigs in Space” / Space Mountain connection, there’s already precedent thanks to Muppet Treasure Island, proving that the characters can deftly step into a piratical world to great success.
Muppets Haunted Mansion proved just how skillfully Disney could activate two of its most die-hard fandoms in a perfect crossover. Muppets of the Caribbean would do the same. And boy would it be a fantastic thing to see…
What do you think? What other attractions would be perfect for a Muppet mashup? Better yet, which rides do you think could have Muppet makeovers for seasonal or celebrational overlays? How do we get more Muppets into Disney Parks, and more Disney Parks into the Muppets? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!
