Why…

Updated on December 17, 2008 By Ken Begg 7 Comments

…can I watch a hundred different actors playing Sherlock Holmes, or James Bond, but I can’t accept Kermit el al since Jim Hensen died, nor the Looney Tunes sans Mel Blanc?

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  • Pip

    It’s time to light the candles!
    It’s time to say the rights!
    It’s time to summon Satan
    On the Muppet Show tonight!

  • Pip

    That’s ‘rites.’ I knew that. Just testing you. Yup.

  • fish eye no miko

    My theory: By the time you knew of Holmes and Bond, they’d alr4ady been done by at least a few different actors. Kermit and the Looney Toons were done by the same man while you were growing up.

  • Voice is everything. With Bond or Holmes, the entire physical appearance changes so you can accept the different person in the role. With animated characters or puppets, the only thing to change significantly is the voice so it seems… wrong…

    I haven’t been able to watch any of the new Scooby-Doo cartoon movies for the same reason even though the story and production values are much higher than the original – it just doesn’t seem right.

  • OTL

    Partly, it may also be because Holmes and Bond were originally in books, not movies; any actors portraying them weren’t the original versions, even if you never read the source material. But Jim Henson was the original Kermit. Mel Blanc was the original Bugs. It’s easier to accept a replacement actor when their predecessor wasn’t the original version, but harder when they were. (Or something like that.) (Which, I suppose, is going to be the major hurdle for the new Star Trek movie…)

    Or maybe I have no idea what I’m talking about…

  • Soul.

    Bond was created by Ian Fleming. Holmes was created by Doyle – they were already adaptations of characters first embodied by other people.

    Mel Blanc, on the other hand, was in many ways the soul of the Looney Toons, and Henson was *definitely* the driving force behind Kermit and the Muppets.

    Kinda like a lot of the problems Disney has been developing… without Walt, the company’s lost some of the magic that made it original, just like Bugs and Kermit have lost some of their ‘heart.’

    (Okay, so I’m a little sentimental about some things… like ellipses, apparently.)

  • Simple: Bond and Holmes aren’t based mostly on a voice. Bugs and the Muppets are, and we’re trained to hear differences in voices from an early age. Which, incidentally, is when most of us discover Muppets and Looney Tunes. (Well, back then, anyway.)

    Bond and Holmes are far, far looser in their portrayals, and it’s generally accepted and understood. Both also have tremendous longevity, which results in inevitable cast changes.

    Really, simple as that. Notice how you can tell when Mel Blanc took over as Elmer Fudd from Arthur Q. Bryan, and when Daws Butler ghosted as Barney Rubble while Blanc was in the hospital.