Jim Henson worked magic on whatever project he was working on, so it’s without any offense to him or to his family that I say this: thank the gods that he never got hold of Predator or Terminator, or appeared to have any real interest in either movie. It was jarring enough to hear that Jean Claude Van Damme was considered for the part of the Predator to start with since that feels as though it would have been a mess considering that the creature had a very different appearance to start with. But when JCVD decided to split because he couldn’t be featured in all his muscled glory things only got better. Just imagine if Henson had been able to put Kermit in the jungle and that the friendly, green-skinned puppet had been armed with the Predator’s weapons and ability to blend into the jungle. Yeah, it sounds silly as hell, but the clips are funny enough to take a look at since someone had the foresight to think that they might be enjoyed by others. But seeing Dillon taken out by a dual-blade-wielding Kermit is enough to make a person wonder whether someone was up too late at night or just an abundance of free time and a really odd sense of humor that came together at exactly the right moment.
The only thing that would have been better is if Animal had been inserted instead of Kermit, as this would have made a little more sense. It likely wouldn’t have made the same impact though given that Kermit’s coloring and ability to blend in were definitely better for this particular moment. But the whole point is that of course, it would be silly and of course, it’s a good thing that it never happened even if it had ever had a chance in hell of ever being a reality. The only downfall now though, the irony really, is that now Disney owns the Predator franchise thanks to the Fox merger, and has owned the majority of the Muppets since 2004. The Mouse House still doesn’t own the Terminator franchise, but this is kind of irrelevant thanks to the fact that Dark Fate kind of dealt a lethal blow to the franchise that it can possibly recover from, even it will take a while. Disney isn’t that into making R-rated movies that have plenty of violence and gore, which is ironic since some Disney movies really push the idea of violence and even show a bit of it sometimes whether it’s implied or actually happening. What a lot of people are worried over when it comes to Disney taking on the Predator franchise though has to do with the movies becoming PG-13, which isn’t entirely innocent for a movie but is still considered to be a lot less graphic and/or problematic. The one concern a lot of people have when it comes to some of their favorite movies is that Disney will force them to become a little more family-oriented, which wasn’t how these movies were created in the first place.
But to be serious here, if the Terminator had ripped the skin off of his arm and revealed Kermit, it might have been a lot freakier and have given people nightmares, unlike anything they’d ever known. Let’s be clear that there’s nothing saying that Disney is going to ever get desperate enough to try and toss a Muppet into a Predator or Alien movie, but it’s funny to think about all the same and it’s something that one can’t help but think that someone was thinking about while just sitting around and pondering over what they could slap together next. Boredom or idle thoughts, or both, definitely come together to create some strange creations, but every now and then something really interesting comes out of it and one can’t help but be impressed. But the reality of worrying over what might happen to the Predator franchise should Disney get it in their heads to tone down the violence, the bloodshed, and everything else is kind of disturbing since it would indicate that things might very well become a family-friendly version of what people have enjoyed for years. It’s paranoia to a certain degree, there’s no doubt of that, but it’s also something that speaks to a lot of people about how the Mouse House is here and is going to start setting its affairs in order so that it can do things the way it wants. That part is kind of unnerving.
Some folks might tell the rest of us to calm down and just accept that things are going to change and that both franchises needed to evolve anyway. But where they’re wrong is in assuming that any change is going to be just fine. Change isn’t a bad thing, but changing for the sake of change causes a lot of problems.
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