Trivia / Muppet Babies (2018)

• Acting for Two:
  • Matt Danner and Eric Bauza voice a whopping five characters. The former voices Kermit, Beaker, Waldorf, Rowlf and Chef while the latter voices Fozzie, Statler, Bunsen, Robin, and Sam The Eagle.
  • Ben Diskin voices Gonzo and Rizzo.
  • Dee Bradley Baker voices Animal and Sweetums.
  • Melanie Harrison voices Piggy and Camilla the chicken. ^note  Though she was only credited for Camilla starting in season 2.
• Billing Displacement: The end credits in the first episode go like this: main voice cast listed in alphabetical order, and guest cast also listed in alphabetical order, hence why Dee Bradley Baker is the first voice actor credited. Averted in the second episode onward, where Matt Danner is credited first, then Melanie Harrison, and then everyone in alphabetical order.
• Casting Gag:
  • In the Latin American Spanish dub, Piggy is voiced by Diana Galvan Santos, who is the daughter of Diana Santos, who played the same character in the original series. Oddly enough, Arturo Mercado Jr., who voices Fozzie, is the son of Arturo Mercado, who voiced both Kermit and Rowlf in the original series and also voices Waldorf here.
  • Also in the same dubbed version, we see Kermit playing with a sword, which is pretty hilarious by itself, if we take into account his voice actor, Luis Leonardo Suarez, voiced Kirito, the Black Swordsman.
• Channel Hop: Starting with season 3, new episodes have aired on the Disney Junior channel, rather than the programming block on the Disney Channel.
• Children Voicing Children: The only instance of this is with Rozzie, who's voiced by Charlie Townsend, who was 8 at the time of the Season 3 premiere.
• Cowboy BeBop at His Computer:
  • A minor point, but one article mentioned how the show would have 11-minute episodes for every half hour. While that is true, it was said to be like that of Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, which used 22-minute stories for every half hour. The spinoff series, Mickey and the Roadster Racers, which has a roughly identical production crew to its parent series, is the one with 11-minute stories.
  • The description for "Sparkly Star Switcheroo" mentions Summer creating a shooting star picture for Rizzo when she actually made it for Rowlf.
  • The description for "Run Fozzie Run" says that he accidentally broke the swing set when he actually broke a flowerpot.
  • The description for "Spoon In The Stone" mentions Rowlf telling a story about the titular spoon when the opening story was told by Rizzo, and Kermit narrates the story. Also, the description mentions Animal, Piggy, and Gonzo, but forgets to mention Summer, who also wants to be a knight.
• Cross-Dressing Voices: Averted here.
  • Miss Piggy is voiced by a woman (Melanie Harrison in this case) like Laurie O'Brien in the original series, but unlike her adult counterpart. (That said, Harrison's Baby Piggy voice is far more clearly based on Frank Oz and Eric Jacobson's virtually identical voices for her as an adult than O'Brien's was, in a way that makes it very easy to imagine her aging into having the typical Miss Piggy voice as she grows up.)
  • Ditto in the Latin American Spanish dub, and for a good reason: Due to Disney's Executive Meddling, she was previously voiced by men just like in English and Japanese since The Muppets (2011), when she was voiced by women before that film when the franchise was still previously owned by Jim Henson's Creature Shop.
  • The Japanese dub is a rather bizarre case. Miss Piggy, a female, is voiced by Ayumi Tsuji, rather than either Mitsuru Ogata, the character's official Japanese dub voice, or any other male voice actor.^note Just like English, Miss Piggy, with some exceptions, has normally being voiced by males in Japanese, being this show an exception on the rule. The bizarre part comes with the fact that all the male Muppets are voiced by males, and in a rather extreme example, Kermit is voiced by Kermit's regular voice actor who normally dubs his adult self, despite the voice actor himself is a middle-aged man.
  • Gonzo and Rowlf are both voiced by adult males (Ben Diskin and Matt Danner, respectively), whereas in the original series they were respectively voiced by Russi Taylor and Katie Leigh.
  • Eric Bauza voices Kermit's nephew Robin, unlike Russi Taylor in the original series.
  • Camilla also averts this due to being voiced by Melanie Harrison, unlike most other Muppet projects, including the original Muppet Babies, where she had male performers.
  • It's actually averted with Skeeter. Unlike the original series, where she was voiced by adult men (first Howie Mandel and then Frank Welker), she's voiced here by an adult woman, Cree Summer.
• Dawson Casting: Just like the original series, almost all the baby characters are voiced by adult actors.
• Descended Creator: Supervising director Matt Danner voices Kermit in this series, as well as Waldorf, Beaker, and Rowlf.
• Early-Bird Release: The season 2 premiere "Froginizer/My Fair Animal" came out on Watch Disney Now on August 2, 2019, while its tv premiere is a week later on August 9.
• He Also Did:
  • As mentioned on the main page, executive producer Tom Warburton is known for creating Codename: Kids Next Door, as well as serving as supervising director and executive producer for both Fish Hooks and The 7D.
• Marth Debuted in "Smash Bros.": A very odd example happens with the Japanese dub: The 2018 version of the show is the first dubbed version based on the Muppet Babies spin-off, since the 1984 version was never broadcasted there. The odd part comes with the fact the 1984 series was one of the very few parts of the franchise which were never brought to Japan.
  • The same is for Romania, where the 2018 series was broadcast while the classic was never brought or dubbed there in any form.
• Meaningful Release Date: The episode "Mystery On The Muppet Express", which focuses on Animal and Summer, aired on November 15, 2019, which is National Drummer Day.
• Non-Singing Voice: During the song I Gotta Be Me , Rizzo's singing voice is done by Dee Bradley Baker instead of Ben Diskin.
• The Other Darrin:
  • Naturally given that the original series premiered over 30 years ago, but the inevitable was with Miss Nanny, whose original voice actress, Barbara Billingsley, passed away in 2010.
  • The octopus shown in "Card Shark" was voiced by Dee Bradley Baker. In "Frog Scouts", he's voiced by Matt Danner.
• The Other Marty: The Muppet Babies Playdate shorts had the puppetry and voice work done by the Muppet performers, with the show's voice cast dubbing over them in the final product. ^note  To go into more detail, Matt Vogel does the puppetry for Kermit, but it's Matt Danner's voice in the finished product. Alice Dinnean handled the Summer puppet, with Jessica Di Cicco voicing her like always. Eric Jacobson once again does Animal, Fozzie, and Piggy, with Dee Bradley Baker, Eric Bauza, and Melanie Harrison voicing them. Drew Massey did the puppetry for Gonzo, and is voiced by Ben Diskin.
• Permanent Placeholder: In this article released the day before the show's Canadian premiere, it was revealed that Matt Danner just did scratch work for Kermit before a notable voice would be cast, but the higher-ups liked his performance, and cast him in the role proper.
• Playing Against Type: Jenny Slate's characters are usually sarcastic, sassy, or outright crazy. Here, she plays the sweet, down-to-earth Nanny.
• Production Posse: With Tom Warburton serving as co-showrunner and an executive producer for this series, several voice actors from his previous series Codename: Kids Next Door are reunited such as Benjamin Diskin, Dee Bradley Baker, and Cree Summer.
• Real-Life Relative: Two examples of this happens in the Latin American Spanish dub:
  • Fozzie is voiced by Arturo Mercado Jr., who is the son of Arturo Mercado Sr., who voices Waldorf. He previously also did double-duty as Baby Kermit and Baby Rowlf in the 1984 series.
  • Statler is voiced by Francisco Colmenero, who is the great uncle of Diana Galvan Santos, who voices Piggy, and he is also the uncle of her mother, Alicia Diana Santos Colmenero, who was Piggy's previous voice actress in the 1984 series.
• Recycled Script:
  • The basic plot for "Upside Down Day" bears many similarities to the Puppy Dog Pals episode "Hissy's Big Day". Both episodes involve cheering up a purple character voiced by Jessica DiCicco.
  • "Mystery on the Muppet Express" uses the same basic plot as the Rugrats (1991) episode, "Murmur on the Ornery Express" and the Baby Looney Tunes episode, "The Dolly Vanishes". In all three episodes, the favorite toy of one of the babies goes missing during a train ride (Buddy, Wawa, and Edna, respectively), and the other babies search the train for it.
  • "Mr. Manny" is similar to the Dragon Tales episode "Hello Ms. Tipps", which also involves someone temporarily coming in to take care of the main characters, making one of them feel uneasy.
  • Another episode with a plot similar to one previously done by Rugrats (1991) is "Meatball Mayhem" to "Cooking With Susie". In both episodes, someone cooks a treat for their friends, but the friends dislike the treats and try to spare the cook's feelings by telling them they really do like them. The cook believes what their friends said to be true and make more treats, which their friends try to hide, but to little avail. Eventually, the friends tell the cook the truth and realize it's what they should have done in the first place.
  • "The Friends of Zorna Club" uses a similar plot to both the Rugrats (1991) episode, "Tommy and the Secret Club" and the Baby Looney Tunes episode, "Leader of the Pack". In all three episodes, one character (Gonzo, Angelica, and Daffy, respectively) starts their own secret club, and makes their friends do certain tasks for them in order to join.
  • "Animal and the Little Accident" borrows a similar premise to the Little People (Egmont) episode, "Potty Ahoy!". In both episodes, one character (Animal, Jack) needs to use the bathroom, but doesn't want to miss out on something exciting involving lots of water (hearing a whale's song, discovering the lost city of Ratlantis) and ends up learning that it's important to stop a fun thing in order to take care of yourself. However, the outcomes are different. Animal ends up wetting his pants, while Jack successfully makes it to the bathroom.
  • The show has even recycled a plot that was previously used in the original 1984 series; in this case, "Animal Gets the Sneezies" to "Dental Hijinks". In both episodes, one character has an ailment (Animal can't stop sneezing, Fozzie gets a toothache), but is afraid to go to a medical professional (the doctor, the dentist) to get their ailment treated, and spends the episode trying to get out of going. In the end, they go and find out it wasn't as scary as they thought it would be, and they get a Post-Treatment Lollipop, which inspires the other babies to pretend they have an ailment so they can go.
• Role Reprise:
  • In "Muppet Rock", there's a live-action segment where an adult Dr. Teeth offers to have Animal join the Electric Mayhem, with Bill Barretta, who currently plays him, reprising the role.
  • In the Latin Spanish dub, Francisco Colmenero (Statler) and Arturo Mercado (Waldorf) reprise their roles.
  • In the Japanese dub, Mitsuaki Madono returns as Kermit.
• Screwed by the Lawyers: In October 2020, Jeffrey Scott, the developer of the original show, sued Disney for copyright infringement and fraud, saying that they didn't offer him a chance to work on the reboot or pay him for his original ideas. Thankfully, it didn't stop season 3 from premiering in January of 2021, but it did result in it being on the Disney Junior sub-channel instead of the Disney Junior block on Disney Channel. However, on April 1st, 2021, a federal judge threw out the case.
• Voices in One Room: Except for Jenny Slate, voice of Nanny, the principal voice cast records their dialogue together.
• What Could Have Been:
  • Early reports mentioned that the new character would be a baby sheep named Bobbi Baba, while the reports that came out two months before the show premiered said that Summer Penguin is the new character.
  • In this article released the day before the show's Canadian premiere, it was revealed that Matt Danner just did scratch work for Kermit before a notable voice would be cast, but the higher-ups liked his performance, and cast him in the role proper.
  • At 38:40 in this podcast, Matt Danner mentioned how they did want to incorporate more classic Muppet characters in season 1, but time and budget threw a wrench into things. He did say there will be more characters for season 2.