Of all the various worlds and characters owned by Disney, The Muppets have had a more difficult road than most. While they've seen some recent successes, like the 2011 movie The Muppets, they've also had some failures, like the 2015 TV series The Muppets. The most recent franchise entries, like the Disney+ series Muppets Now were met with positive response, but not with a massive audience. But a couple of comedians may have found the perfect way to bring back the Muppets, a live-action movie with Josh Gad and Ben Schwartz as Bunsen and Beaker.
Ok, so yes, the idea sounds absolutely insane, but maybe that's why it's perfect. Ben Schwartz started the whole thing off by claiming on Twitter that he had "accomplished nothing" until he played Beaker in a live-action origin story of the Muppet Labs sidekick. Of course, this idea leads to an obvious question, who would play Dr. Bunsen Honeydew? Schwartz put out the call and got a very enthusiastic response from Josh Gad.
I'm not saying we need a live-action Bunsen and Beaker movie. I'm just saying that if we were to get one, we could do a lot worse than Josh Gad and Ben Schwartz in the lead roles. They could absolutely pull it off, and if Ben Schwartz thinks he looks like a real life Beaker, then Josh Gad would fit equally well as Bunsen Honeydew. And Gad has never met a Disney project he didn't love. And his previous Muppet series idea fell apart, so he has probably been waiting for this.
Of course, a live-action Muppet movie is sort of a wild idea to begin with. Being puppets, the Muppets are that much closer to being live-action as it is, and since actual human actors appear with them all the time, recreating Muppet characters as human would just feel weird. This movie idea isn't really going to happen, but it still does make one want to at least get an idea of what it would look like. You can picture it quite easily, and it sounds amazing, or possibly terrifying. Even Ben Schwartz seems to understand just what a monster he has created.
But of course, if you were doing a live-action movie about Bunsen and Beaker, you'd probably need to include a few more Muppet characters, which would mean even more actors playing Muppets. The whole thing might work as a short or some sort of comedy sketch. But perhaps as a full on origin story movie, it might outlast its welcome. But I still want to see Josh Gad and Ben Schwartz as Bunsen and Beaker. Even if they just dress up as the characters for Halloween it could be great.
