The Muppets should go back to adaptations like Christmas Carol and Treasure Island, with human main characters and a Muppet supporting cast. Lean on "the Muppets as actors" trope, it could reinvigorate the franchise.

The Muppets seem to be once again fading into obscurity.The 2011 revival with The Muppets returned them to the spotlight briefly but Muppets Most Wanted, while good, didn't seem to draw audiences and the momentum started to putter out. The ABC show was cancelled before it could really find its footing, and then the Henson Company spent an exorbitant amount of time and energy on The Happytime Murders which was just a train wreck.So where do the Muppets go from here if they want to stay relevant? I say they need to go back to the 90s.The audiences that grew up with the original Muppet Trilogy and the Muppet Show are not the only audiences anymore. Millennials are more likely to have fond memories of Muppet Christmas Carol and Muppet Treasure Island because those were the Muppet movies we were familiar with.Also, one of the best things about the Muppets to me has always been the way they get billed as themselves. The Muppet Christmas Carol marketing lists "Micheal Cain, Kermit the Frog, Gonzo the Great" etc. I always thought that was such a neat idea. These aren't just characters, the Henson Company goes out of the way to make them feel consistently real off-camera. They appear as guests on talk shows, they show up as themselves on SNL, everyone speaks of them as if they are any other celebrity. I think they should lean into that more.So start doing more adaptations again. Have a star as the main character, another as the main antagonist, then use the Muppets "as actors" to fill out the rest of the cast and "Muppetize" the story. I feel like that sort of sillyness is something audiences will be more receptive too right now than attempts to tell more modern day Muppet stories.What did you guys think? via /r/movies http://bit.ly/2Sd5gjz