When it comes to nostalgia, nothing takes me back to my childhood more than watching the original Muppet Babies:
When it comes to the classic cartoons of the 80s and 90s, it’s the one cartoon I always come back to, it was even the first Do You Remember? post I ever did back in 2015.
So, when I heard that they were reviving Muppet Babies for a new generation of kids, my interest was peaked, it would actually be nice to see how kids of today could envision Muppet Babies nowadays so, I checked out the recently released Muppet Babies DVD featuring some of the newer episodes to find out if the new Muppet Babies is worth it:
Muppet Babies is an American computer-animated television series featuring toddler versions of the Muppets characters that began airing on Disney Junior and Disney Channel on March 23, 2018 and is aimed at a target audience of children from ages 4 to 7. It is a reboot of the original 1984–1991 animated series of the same name.
The show retains several of the younger incarnations of the classic Muppet characters seen in the previous series, including Baby Kermit, Baby Piggy, Baby Fozzie, Baby Gonzo, and Baby Animal. The series also sees the second appearance of Nanny (now known as “Miss Nanny”, short for “Nancette”), and the first appearance of a new Muppet Babies member named Summer Penguin.
Obviously, the biggest changes made to this new version can be seen right away, the fact that it is computer animation this time around is one thing, the main characters seem to be reduced down from the wide cast they had in the original series to about six babies and Miss Nanny, and one of those babies is a new member of the Muppet lineup never mentioned before in prior Muppets projects.
Also of note, Tom Warburton, best known for creating Cartoon Network’s Codename: Kids Next Door, is the executive producer and Eric Shaw, former writer on Nickelodeon’s SpongeBob SquarePants, is the story editor and co-producer. The show is a co-production between Disney Junior, Disney Television Animation, and The Muppets Studio.
With all that said, how does the show fare up?
Well, for the most part, they actually do a pretty good job of modernizing the original series but at the same time, aren’t making it trendy or of the time, it really does feel like the show stayed true to the original format but with a different animation style and voice cast.
The computer animation is nicely done for the most part doing a good job of blending the puppet like felt of the Muppet Babies with the computer animation pretty fluently.
The overall voice cast is pretty good too, Matt Danner (who created Legend Of The Three Caballeros) does a decent Kermit, you’ve also got Eric Bauza as Fozzie, Ben Diskin as Gonzo, Jessica Diciccio as Summer, and even Jenny Slate as Miss Nanny is a nice little touch they put in there.
Obviously, I’m not in the target audience for this new Muppet Babies show but as far as what I’ve seen, they’ve actually done a pretty good job of bringing this show into a new generation, it still carries a lot of the charm that the original show did and it doesn’t do anything to insult the original series or its’ grown up fans showing this off to their children. In a time where we get so many reboots that just feel like they are trying too hard to appeal to what they think kids want, *cough*TeenTitansGo*cough*ThePowerpuffGirls*cough, here you have a show that keeps it simple and sticks to the basics of what the original Muppet Babies show was.
Again, this is not something I myself would watch over and over because I don’t have kids, but for the kids of today, this would be a show that I could easily recommend, this new reboot keeps the spirit of the original series but updates it enough to where it’s celebrating the original while doing something new instead of just simply retreading or trying to appeal to what the kids of today would like. Disney’s Muppet Babies is one kids can easily enjoy with ease.
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