BlogalongaMuppets: It’s Time To Play The Music
When the history of mankind comes to be written, and man’s greatest achievements come to be listed, it won’t be fire, or the Pyramids of Giza, or the indoor toilet that stand proud at the top of the list. (It’ll probably be the iPhone, won’t it.) But standing in such illustrious company will be two things that could be the greatest combination since bread and slicing: James Bond films, and Blogalongabond. Illustrious and industrious blogger The Incredible Suit had one of those life-changing moments of inspiration in January of this year, upon realising that the release of Bond 23 was but 23 months away, and that blogging about all of the films would result in an average of precisely one a month.
Since then, BlogalongaBond has averted many potential tragedies, including (a) being called BlogalongaBond, which is a silly name, but no-one seemed to actually mind; (b) Bond 23 being brought forward by a month, which caused two days of mild panic before Mr Suit took the sensible decision to ignore it and carry on regardless; and (c) the fact that ITV are currently showing the films at the rate of one a week, which is generating lots of traffic now, but in about three weeks will create an unrealistic expectation in the readership of about two dozen varied bloggers. Well, I’m not writing one a week, you can forget it – it’s enough of a struggle writing one a month.
Despite this calendar based challenge proving such a struggle that I lasted precisely six months before I missed my first deadline, I always had a feeling that if a similar excellent film series lent itself to a similar calendar-based challenge, that it would be a shame to miss the opportunity. As if by chance, I found myself watching The Muppets Take Manhattan on the Bank Holiday last week, and got to wondering how many Muppet films there’d actually been. If you can’t see what’s coming next, then you’ve really not been paying attention…
Yes, The Muppets, the confusingly titled seventh theatrical release featuring Jim Henson’s creations arrives in theatres in America in November this year, but isn’t unleashed onto the British public until February 10, 2012. Just as many great TV series had their spin-offs, so has BlogalongaBond spawned another, which makes this the Frasier of cinematic blogging endeavours – or possibly the Joanie Loves Chachi of cinematic blogging endeavours if it all goes horriby wrong. You wouldn’t let that happen, would you?
What with us being in September now, that means that the BlogalongaSchedule looks like this:
- September – The Muppet Movie
- October – The Great Muppet Caper
- November – The Muppets Take Manhattan
- December – The Muppet Christmas Carol
- January – The Muppet Treasure Island
- February – Muppets In Space
- Also February – The Muppets
Which works out nicely as one a month, as long as you don’t mind doing what the Bond bloggers must do and writing about the new one in the same month as the last old one. But surely a little detail like that won’t let you stand in the way of the chance to watch all of the Muppet movies, will it?
In case you’re new to this, follow these simple steps to become part of the collective:
- Watch the movie for the month in question.
- Write about that movie on your blog.
- Post a link to that blog post on the Facebook page, which you’ll find here.
If you’re feeling industrious, and particularly into the Muppets, you could also share your thoughts on any of the following in addition to the regular schedule:
- The Muppet Show regular episodes
- Sesame Street
- Fraggle Rock
- Muppet Babies
- It’s A Very Muppet Christmas Movie (TV movie)
- The Muppet Wizard Of Oz (also TV Movie)
or the host of other Muppet related TV and video events from The Tale Of The Bunny Picnic to Kermit’s Swamp Years. But mainly, the point is to blog about the films. So you’ve got 24 days to track down and watch The Muppet Movie. You up for it?
Just in case you’re still not entirely convinced, allow me to present some clips, both classic and modern, to help seal the deal.
The Swedish Chef
Bunsen And Beaker
Pigs In Space – With The Cast Of Star Wars
The Muppet Movie – The Rainbow Connection
OK Go sing The Muppets Theme
Go on, you know you want to!
The Movie Evangelist 