All five seasons of “The Muppet Show” are coming to Disney+ on February 19. The classic show originally premiered in 1976 and the final two seasons have never been available via home entertainment.
“It’s going to be great to welcome back longtime fans, and to give a new generation of fans a chance to see how we got our start, how Miss Piggy became a star and so much more,” Kermit the Frog said. “Today, I’m proud to say: ‘It’s time to play the music, light the lights and meet the Muppets on Disney Plus tonight!’ And as for Statler and Waldorf, the two old guys in the balcony, I can only add: ‘Sorry, guys, but….here we go again.”
We have been waiting for a while on Sister Act 3 and now we know it is in development which makes us super joyful. Whoopi Goldberg will be coming back as will Kathy Najimy who recently talked about the film to Sirus XM.
“For a long time, they kept saying no one wanted to see [Sister Act 3]. And then quite recently, it turns out, that that may not be true. People may want to see it. So we’re working diligently to try to figure out how to get the gang together and come back… It’s a really fun movie and it feels good. And you know, nobody’s mad. It’s just, listen-bad singing, great singing, okay singing and then nuns. What’s better than that?”
We have been reporting on the Lizzie McGuire Disney+ reboot for nearly 18 months. News of the series was first reported in August 2019. By October 2019, the cast and crew were preparing for the first episodes. Things began to fall apart in January 2020 when show creator Terri Minsky left after just two episodes.
Star Hillary Duff took to Instagram in January 2020 to announce the show’s cancellation. Now other stars are sounding off regarding the circumstances around the reboot’s demise.
In an interview with Vice, actor Robert Carradine questioned why Disney approved the show’s more adult themes.
When we did the read-through of the first two scripts, there were literally three rows of chairs and in each chair was some kind of a Disney executive. I mean, there were 25 of them in there. And they were laughing their asses off. Every single step of that trajectory had to be greenlit by somebody who’s high up in the organization. So, you go to all that trouble and they decide at the last minute, out of the blue, that it needs to be more kid-friendly? I don’t get that.
Robert Carradine to Vice
Carradine seems confused as to why the project even made it to the table read. Hallie Todd, who played Lizzie’s mom, enjoyed the brief reunion. She did not directly comment on Disney leadership.
I’m sad. We had the best time when we got together for those two episodes. It felt like no time had passed, except that all of a sudden these kids were adults. It just seems ridiculous. There’s always more to it than you hear, and I certainly am not privy to those conversations in the back room.
Hallie Todd to Vice
Jake Thomas, who played Lizzie’s brother, Matt, feels that the original series’ fans have been let down.
Fans always tell me how watching the show was a staple of their childhood, and honestly, I was right there with them running to the TV every week to watch the latest episode. When I walked onto the set of the rebuilt McGuire house for the reboot, it felt like such an unreal homecoming, an overwhelming childhood nostalgia. It saddens me greatly that the fans don’t get to share in that feeling.
Jake Thomas to Vice
Disney has not officially announced the reboot’s cancellation. In a statement, Disney wrote that Lizzie McGuire fans have “high expectations.” The reboot won’t move forward “unless and until we are confident we can meet those expectations,” Disney stated.
The latest film from Disney and Pixar, “Soul” was released on December 25th, 2020, and was met with a generally positive reaction from audiences. Many praised the film for its writing and storytelling, its emotional musical score, and the art of the characters and environments.
To give us a look into what went into bringing “Soul” to life, several artists from Pixar took to their personal Twitter accounts to share a few examples of the art processes and break down what went into creating some of these massive environments, such as The Great Before.
The Twitter account @JunHanCho1, who was the Set Supervisor for the film, began with sharing some inspiration behind some of the New York sets, such as a house seen in the background being inspired by a shading artist from Pixar!
For example in the scene where Joe rushes towards his audition towards the subway, the yellow house to the right is inspired by the shading artist, Jamie’s grandmother’s house. #PixarSoul#PixarSoulSets
He also goes onto share one of the modeling guides the artists used, making sure to note that a “sense of Jazz” should be incorporated into the prop and set pieces.
The "astral plane" world operates by different rules, obviously. For one thing, everything is translucent, which meant many, many things were volumetric. That was fun. Especially the Hall of Everything.
However, the lighting in the astral plane also bent some physical rules. Watch the colors around the characters in particular. pic.twitter.com/lFrc0v0lCI
While the thread gets a bit technical, if you happen to be interested in 3D art, it’s fascinating to read about how the team went about lightning a volumetric set.
And if you do happen to interested in the nitty gritty and want more detail, @RyanMichero, a Lighting Lead for Pixar, followed up with his own thread discussing the tech behind the movie.
And now we're in the Great Beyond, first look at the soul chraracters! #PixarSoul This movie's preproduction played out as if we were working on two completely different movies at the same time: the NYC human world movie and the soul world movie.
The soul characters are made almost entirely of volume primitives (at Pixar, saved in the f3d format), with the sole (ahem) exception of the eyes. We did experiments with volumetric eyes, but we were concerned we would never be able to get the eyes looking "right" #PixarSoul
@JunHanCho1 was even kind enough to share an early working version of the walkway to The Great Beyond.
Here’s a look at an early version of the Great Beyond Walkway done by shading artist Peter. This is done not with volumes but with a fancy shader that we could change in real time. #PixarSoul#PixarSoulSetspic.twitter.com/ZuzOEnFs7L
It takes a small army to create a 3D film, and Pixar employs some of the best artists in the industry. It’s exciting to see how many of them took time to share a “behind the scenes” look into what went into creating the movie, and we’ll be sure to pay extra attention to those details next time we watch “Soul.”
If you haven’t watched the season 2 finale of The Mandalorian on Disney+ yet, you’ll probably want to close your browser now. If you’re still reading with that being said, let the countdown begin to the next Disney+ Star Wars offering featuring Beskar-clad stars…
Announced in a post-credits scene as viewers were still recovering from the incredible closing moments of the episode, Boba Fett and Fennec Shand will apparently return in “The Book of Boba Fett” in December 2021.
The shocking announcement comes across in text after a post-credits scene where Fett and Fennec dispatch of Bib Fortuna and his entourage in the former palace of Jabba the Hutt on Tatooine. Fortuna seemed as surprised to see Boba Fett as we were just a few weeks ago.
Further clarification from Disney and LucasFilm is still being awaited, but until then, we can speculate as to if “The Book of Boba Fett” will be an entirely new reoccurring series, a limited run series, a streaming-exclusive movie, or even the basis for the 3rd season of The Mandalorian. Either way, it’s nice that the surprise was kept, even after a laundry list of Star Wars series and such were announced for Disney+ just last week.
