The Walt Disney Company



The Walt Disney Company acquired the Muppets and Bear in the Big Blue House franchises in 2004, forming The Muppets Holding Company, LLC.

In the early 1980s, Jim Henson considered purchasing the company which was then under the management team of Ron Miller and Roy Disney. The idea never went as far as negotiations, but a few years later when Michael Eisner, Frank Wells and Jeffrey Katzenberg took over, the idea was revived. Due to lack of activity with the Muppets after The Muppet Show’s run, Disney decided to pass on a merger.

Another aspect unattractive to the deal was that the Sesame Street franchise was untouchable. Joan Ganz Cooney recalled that "In the end... at the end of his life, when he was being pursued by Disney, and very close to being bought by Disney... they had tried to get control of the Sesame Street product as well as the Muppet franchise, and Jim said 'that's a deal breaker'... they should remain entirely separate... He said to me 'I intend to leave with you... in my will.' He wanted it to go on in perpetuity."

Jim Henson again had a desire to sell the company to Disney in 1989, and this time Michael Eisner was more willing to buy the company without getting the rights to the Sesame Street cast (though Eisner did still want to have the rights to the Sesame Street Muppets ). Many projects were planned, but very few were actually made, and even fewer released to the general public. In 1990, Jim Henson died during the week that he was to sign the contract, and his family decided to keep the company private.

Among the Disney/Henson collaborations that have been seen are the special The Muppets At Walt Disney World, the stage show Here Come The Muppets, and the theme park attraction/film Muppet*Vision 3D. Among the projects that were made but never shown to the public are the proposed TV series The Little Mermaid's Island, and a segment for The Mickey Mouse Club about puppeteering (this sequence was filmed while Jim Henson was making Muppet*Vision 3D). Jim Henson had also pitched the series Dinosaurs, which Disney developed and released after Henson died.

The Walt Disney Company also produced and released The Muppet Christmas Carol and Muppet Treasure Island, the first two Muppet movies made after Jim Henson died, and for a time in the early 90s, controlled the video release rights to The Muppet Movie, The Great Muppet Caper, episodes of Fraggle Rock and Muppet Babies, and other properties, released through their Buena Vista Home Entertainment label (under a label titled Jim Henson Video). Disney had already distributed Muppet videos back in 1983, under the "Muppet Home Video" label. At present, the company has full ownership of the The Muppet Show and related characters and all the theatrically-released Muppet films, except for Muppets Take Manhattan and Muppets from Space.

Recent DVD releases of certain properties currently outside of Disney's domain, such as Emmet Otter's Jug-Band Christmas, have been compelled to remove scenes featuring Kermit the Frog. The main exception, however, are DVD releases of Sesame Street productions featuring Kermit. Sesame Workshop currently has permission to include old Kermit segments in new episodes of Sesame Street, and DVD releases of past videos featuring Kermit have been released, uncut.

Disney-Owned Properties
Many Muppet productions are in fact owned, and controlled, by outside companies. This had been true even prior to the Disney sale where The Jim Henson Company owned the characters, but outside companies controlled the films or specials.

For example, Columbia TriStar has retained the rights to The Muppets Take Manhattan and Muppets From Space, which were produced by TriStar Pictures and Columbia Pictures, respectively. Unlike The Muppet Movie and The Great Muppet Caper, which were independently produced and merely distributed by Columbia, these two remain in the Sony library and unless Disney purchases the film rights, Sony has control over distribution. Prior to the sale of the Muppets to Disney, Disney owned The Muppet Christmas Carol and Muppet Treasure Island in a similar fashion (with character rights belonging to Henson). After buying the Muppets the company gained full control over these two films, as well as gaining control over The Muppet Movie and The Great Muppet Caper. Other productions, such as early commercials, talk show appearances, The Great Santa Claus Switch and others, are owned by outside groups, i.e., Sam and Friends is now owned by NBC Universal, via their ownership of WRC-TV, the station that produced Sam and Friends many years ago - whereas the characters are owned by The Muppets Holding Company.

The Walt Disney Company gained rights to the productions with Sesame Street and Fraggle Rock crossovers featured in the Muppet film library, (i.e. A Muppet Family Christmas and The Muppets: A Celebration of 30 Years).

Dinosaurs has always been owned by the Walt Disney Company and was not purchased through the 2004 Muppet acquisition.

A complete list of ownership rights is not available, as more production ownership is not as clear-cut. Disney, the Jim Henson Company and Sesame Workshop can work, and have worked, to clear the ambitiously owned and cross-over properties for release and use.