The feel-good movie of the holiday season is taking a cue from the self-proclaimed “feel-bad movie of Christmas” for the latest round of its marketing campaign. Yes, the new poster and trailer for The Muppets have been released and you can check out both below this article.
There have been several trailers and posters for The Muppets since earlier in the year when the now-classic “Green with Envy” teaser that lured unsuspecting viewers into thinking they were watching a trailer for some new turgid romantic comedy (only to pull the rug out from under them nearly a minute in by bringing on Jim Henson’s iconic creations) was first released.
Since then there have been trailers for the movie spoofing the ones for The Hangover Part II and Green Lantern. These spoof trailers worked perfectly because they nailed the look, tone, and sound of the trailers they were making light of.
The latest trailer and poster for The Muppets turns a comedic eye to the upcoming David Fincher-directed remake of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. The poster features Kermit the Frog and Miss Piggy striking a similar pose to one by Daniel Craig and Rooney Mara on the Tattoo teaser poster, but Miss Piggy thankfully keeps her chest covered. Meanwhile the spoof trailer, cheekily titled “The Pig with the Froggy Tattoo” (um…okay), replicates the Dragon Tattoo trailer’s hyperactive editing style right down to the flashing title cards and hiring some musician to parody the Trent Reznor/Karen O cover of Led Zeppelin’s “Immigrant Song.” The new trailer also includes a quick plug for the recently released Muppet song covers CD The Green Album.
So far I have to say that the marketing campaign for The Muppets has really been kicking ass. It’s clear that the people at Disney are determined to prove that Henson’s beloved characters are timeless and cool, but they don’t need to sell me on how utterly awesome the Muppets are. When I go to see this movie it will be reuniting with a few old childhood friends, something I wish I could actually do. However, I am not representative of the average holiday moviegoer and therefore not the target audience for this campaign. With me and other longtime Muppet fans the studio’s marketing division is obviously preaching to the converted. But a lot of love and care went into the making of this movie and it deserves all of the marketing muscle Disney can muster. Let’s just hope it doesn’t backfire on them like their efforts to sell Tron: Legacy last year.
The Muppets opens on November 23, 2011.
Poster
Trailer
GLEE is featuring a Muppets song on the Nov. 1st episode. That can be really cool.
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