Disney Plus and New ‘Muppets Now’ Boldly Take On Modern Diversity!
By: Colin Munro Wood
Tags: Television, Entertainment, Disney, Diversity, Life

Ru Paul is center stage.

Photo by pan xiaozhen on Unsplash

Muppets Wikimedia Publicity Photo

I hesitantly pulled up my Disney Plus account upon receiving an email that a new Muppets series had been undertaken and its first episode released.

Original Show Stickler

Yes, I am one of those people…sometimes. I just can’t get myself to appreciate remakes, new voice artists doing old characters, and constant new show concepts of entertainment products that were perfect the first time around.

I just can’t get used to someone else doing the voices Jim Henson and his crew made famous to my generation when we were kids.

I understand that Jim Henson Jr. took over some of the voices at one time, including Kermit, of course. Many of the characters probably sound exactly the same to many of my generation, and certainly they sound normal to the new generations of Muppets fans.

But, as a singer, and voice artist, I have a keen ear for even the slightest changes in a voice.

I’ve still watched anything and everything Muppets related all my life, even if the newer voice talents might irk me a little. Certainly, they are very talented, but with my ear, I simply miss Jim Henson, and some of the originals who are no longer with us.

Back To Its Roots

All of that being said, Muppets Now tackles its original format, but with an updated modern format and its always bold representations of the times we live in. Virtual entertainment, and Ru Paul take center stage.

I’m unsure whether there has previously been an outwardly gay Muppets character, prior to Muppets Now. If not, you will meet your first.

I’m aware there have been characters in previous shows and movies who vaguely showed possible gay qualities in their personas, but you’d have to be a long-running fan to recognize which characters they were.

Following a soft start to the show, it really begins to take off with a Miss Piggy virtual “show-in-show”. The old-style slapstick humor returns full force in a scene that should have you laughing hardily, out loud.

Muppets Now bravely returns to the roots of its original show by a few of today’s major social topics. Putting gender and personal diversity at the forefront.

The show takes on the #Metoo topic without mentioning the hashtag title in Miss Piggy’s scene. Then, to my amazement and thrill, we are gifted with a Kermit interview, like the old Muppets Show, but in a typical modern sit down interview set-up.

This is when Muppets Now truly shows what this new and fun episodic creation by Disney Plus is going to represent and celebrate… All people of the world.

Kermit interviews Ru Paul, and the hysterics take over again, as Kermit, Ru Paul, and the new gay character unabashedly represent the #LGBTQ nation.

As usual, this new Muppets format, just as the original in the 1970’s did, tackles the beauty of being unique and who you really are inside, and shows the new younger (and older, I hope), that being different, or who you want to be is a wonderful aspect of being human.

Muppets Now and the long-running homo-phobic Disney are no longer afraid. Disney has been finally tackling diversity in the modern age, and in order to represent to the younger generation, they invited Ru Paul, a national idolized figure in the gender-equal fight for rights.

Ru Paul is, as always, graceful, beautiful in his words, heart, and appearance and without any attitude, or anger, shows everyone who will hopefully, and luckily, start watching the new Muppets show that being who you really are, is truly awesome and the most perfectly human form of existence, without fear.

Muppets Now Makes One Mistake

This is a short section. I have to point an error in a choice Disney makes, in the Ru Paul interview scene with Kermit and the gay character, who’s name slips me now due to my early dementia.

Kermit seemingly gets annoyed with and talks down to the gay Muppet. This kind of pissed me off. At the same time they are using Ru Paul to prove to the new generations that they are hip to what’s right in the world, and are finally “woke”, they ruin it with an old-fashioned attitude from Kermit, because the gay character is disrupting the interview and answering questions for Ru Paul.

The exchanges of this character are funny as heck, but I just couldn’t easily forgive Kermit’s attitude toward him. Surely, we have all seen Kermit give other characters the same attitude for the same type of reason. He was “ruining” Kermit’s big interview, but I still couldn’t help feeling a tinge of anger toward that choice of direction and writing in the scene.

Without a doubt, Ru Paul had to take notice of this while filming, but just as the beautiful human being he is, he takes it all on with that amazing grace that makes him so popular and someone most everyone would love to have as a friend.

Muppets Now Hits A Homerun

Despite my opinion about that one point in the entire short first episode, Disney and Muppets Now definitely hit a homerun (maybe an inside the park one, for now).

I laughed through most of the episode, and felt like I had returned to my childhood a few times with that oh so warm feeling of reminiscing about a time when a show was my only escape from a torturous life.

Thank you Disney for bringing back what the Muppets were always meant to be. A very good representation of current world views, politics, and topics with no shyness, at all.

Jim Henson would be proud!