{"id":14651,"date":"2018-07-13T09:51:23","date_gmt":"2018-07-13T13:51:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvkids\/muppet-babies-tom-warburton\/"},"modified":"2018-07-16T10:10:16","modified_gmt":"2018-07-16T14:10:16","slug":"muppet-babies-tom-warburton","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvkids\/muppet-babies-tom-warburton\/","title":{"rendered":"Muppet Babies\u2019 Tom Warburton"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tom Warburton, executive producer for the reimagined <\/em>Muppet Babies, talks to <\/em>TV Kids\u00a0about the show, which follows the playroom adventures of such iconic characters as Kermit the Frog, Piggy, Fozzie Bear, Gonzo and Animal, as well as the brand-new Summer Penguin.<\/em><\/p>\n

Earlier this year, Disney Junior began airing an animated remake of Muppet Babies<\/em>, with the original having debuted some 30 years ago. The CGI series is co-production between Disney Junior, Disney Consumer Products and Interactive Media\u2019s (DCPI) Content & Media group and The Muppets Studio. There are a number of nonlinear extensions supporting the reboot, including books from Disney Publishing Worldwide and an exclusive toy line from Just Play. Muppet Babies<\/em> will also become available on Disney DVD as of August 14.<\/p>\n

\"***Image***\"TV KIDS:<\/strong> What led to the decision to reimagine Muppet Babies<\/em> and how did you become attached as an executive producer?
\nWARBURTON:<\/strong> Disney, when they acquired The Muppets Studio, had been looking to do some projects with these classic, iconic characters, and they realized that for the younger audience, kids don\u2019t know who these characters are; they haven\u2019t had any shows for them. So a group at Disney Interactive did a little test, and they said, What if we make the Muppet Babies look like real Muppets? We have the technology to do that, to give them that great fur and the tennis ball texture on Kermit. So they did a little test and it really wowed Disney Junior. I had been working on another project for Disney Junior that was winding down called The 7D<\/em> and I got a call from Nancy Kanter [general manager of Disney Junior Worldwide] at one point and she said, I\u2019ve got this show and I think you\u2019d be perfect for it. And I said, OK, what have you got? And she said, We\u2019re rebooting Muppet Babies<\/em> and you\u2019ve got to see this test that Disney Interactive did. And she showed me the test and I was like, Oh my gosh! I could do something with this; this would be amazing. To have the opportunity to bring these characters to a new audience\u2014what a thrill and what an honor!<\/p>\n

TV KIDS:<\/strong> What are some of the themes and lessons in the show?
\nWARBURTON:<\/strong> It\u2019s all about kid stuff with a Muppet twist to it. One of my favorites is when Gonzo becomes best friends with a potato. The other Muppets are like, You can\u2019t be best friends with a potato, but Gonzo absolutely does that. And so they try to include Potato in some games, like tag, and they try to put on a play with Potato, but it\u2019s a potato, and they\u2019re like, This isn\u2019t any fun. And so Gonzo is hurt; he\u2019s like, \"***Image***\"Well, if you don\u2019t want to be friends with me and Potato we\u2019ll go play by ourselves. And the kids realize, Oh, now we feel bad! And the message\u2014aside from being silly that Gonzo is friends with a potato\u2014is about inclusion. Not everyone can do the things you can do, but you can still find a way to play with them. And in the end, they find that they can all play hot potato together. [Laughs<\/em>] So, it\u2019s messages like that. For another example: it\u2019s Piggy\u2019s birthday tomorrow, but she can\u2019t wait until tomorrow, so they decide to build a time machine to get to tomorrow. And she learns that good things come to those who wait and patience is a good thing. So all of our stories have these great little messages without being super didactic and preachy; they\u2019re just fun, silly things that have this great core moral message.<\/p>\n

TV KIDS:<\/strong> It\u2019s been more than three decades since the original show premiered. How are you making it more relatable to viewers today?
\nWARBURTON:<\/strong> The original show was for an older audience; it kind of captivated everyone, no matter what age you were. But our thing is it\u2019s a preschool audience, so we have to tell stories that these kids will understand and at the same time, tell them so that adults are entertained. I think we\u2019re doing that; we\u2019re finding ways to get everyone involved. We work very closely with The Muppets Studio; we run stories by them and they\u2019ll tell us, Kermit really wouldn\u2019t say that. And when we were originally working on the show, they actually let us go to the real puppets and take pictures of the textures so we could get them right with our computer animation. The show is made by people who love the Muppets and want to do right by them. And so far, The Muppets Studio has been thrilled with what we\u2019ve been doing.<\/p>\n

TV KIDS:<\/strong> Why do you think the Muppets have been such evergreen characters over the years?
\nWARBURTON:<\/strong> They\u2019re just a lovable bunch of weirdos who have big hearts. There are certain characters in this world that just have this magnetism. When we would go to preschools\u2014we test all of our stories with preschool audiences\u2014when we would introduce the characters, show them a picture of Kermit or a picture of Animal, their eyes instantly lit up. There\u2019s just something about these guys that draw people in. The Muppets are about positivity, and right now we need a lot of that in this world, so that\u2019s what we strive to do. It\u2019s not a show that\u2019s mean-spirited or about put-downs; it\u2019s about six friends. There are no villains in the show. There are just silly problems that the characters get themselves into and then find imaginative ways to solve.<\/p>\n

TV KIDS:<\/strong> What\u2019s in store for the future of the Muppet Babies<\/em> reboot?
\nWARBURTON:<\/strong> Hopefully [a season two renewal] will be announced soon. We\u2019re preparing; it\u2019s not official or anything, but we\u2019re hoping.
\nWorking on Muppet Babies<\/em> is a dream come true. I\u2019ve always been a Muppets fan. We\u2019ve put together this team of unbelievably creative writers, musicians and artists, and it\u2019s really one of the most fun projects I\u2019ve ever been on. I can\u2019t wait for people to see the rest of the episodes coming out this season and hopefully more seasons to come.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The executive producer talks about the reimagined animated show, which is currently airing on Disney Junior.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":479,"featured_media":14652,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pmpro_default_level":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[15,21],"tags":[112,1995,3845],"class_list":["post-14651","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","","category-interviews","category-top-stories","tag-disney-junior","tag-muppet-babies","tag-tom-warburton","pmpro-has-access"],"yoast_head":"\nMuppet Babies\u2019 Tom Warburton - TVKIDS<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvkids\/muppet-babies-tom-warburton\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Muppet Babies\u2019 Tom Warburton - 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