'I don't think they respected the characters.' He later doubled down on those criticisms at a 2019 panel at the SXSW Film Festival, dismissing that latter-day Muppet movie as 'smarmy. 'I wasn't happy with the script,' Oz told the U.K. In fact, he famously turned down the opportunity to reprise his characters in Disney's 2011 film, The Muppets, due to concerns about the screenplay by Jason Segel and Nicholas Stoller. Oz hasn't been shy about expressing his disappointment about the current state of the Muppets before. 'They never understood, with us, it’s not just about the puppets, it’s about the performers who love each other and have worked together for many years.” 'There’s an inability for corporate America to understand the value of something they bought,' Oz continues. But Jim was not a dealer, he was an artist, and it was destroying him, it really was.' LOS ANGELES - NOV 12: Nancy Grace arrive at the Muppets World Premiere at El Capitan Theater on Novemin Los Angeles, CA.

' Eisner was trying to get Sesame Street, too, which Jim wouldn't allow. LOS ANGELES, CA - MARCH 11, 2014: Muppets characters at the world premiere of their movie Disney's Muppets Most Wanted at the El Capita. 'The Disney deal is probably what killed Jim. Oz continues to target Disney in the interview, suggesting that tension over the studio's earlier attempt to acquire the Muppets may have contributed to the illness that claimed Henson's life. Jim Henson and Frank Oz model Bert and Ernie puppets in a still from the Sesame Street documentary, Street Gang (Photo by Robert Fuhring/Courtesy Sundance Institute)

The muppets characters with pictures