The man behind the new ‘Muppet Babies’ squeaks out

‘It’s in the neck’ says Matt Danner, who voices Baby Kermit and other favourites

TO SAY that Matt Danner is a huge Muppets fan is a huge understatement. Yes, his office is filled with Muppets paraphernalia, just like any good Muppets fan’s would be.

But sitting on top of his computer is a worn-out little stuffed Kermit the Frog. It’s the one his parents put in his cot when he was a baby.

“I’ve been a Muppets fan since before I can remember,” said Danner. “I grew up watching Sesame Street and so Kermit was my first buddy.”

Even before he appeared on Sesame Street, Kermit the Frog, Jim Henson’s most well-known and beloved creation, made his first appearance to the world in 1955, on Sam and Friends.

Originally created out of a discarded spring coat belonging to Henson’s mother, with two ping pong ball halves for eyes, Kermit became a friend to many growing up in the ’60s, ’70s and ’80s.

Just like Danner, children of all ages moved with him through life – from his early beginnings on television through to his career as a movie star and international frog celebrity.

“Over the years, I really got into puppets and cartooning, and started watching The Muppet Show a lot, so these characters have been in my life for a long time,” said Danner.

It was Danner’s fervent love for, and knowledge about, the Muppets that led him and art director Chris Moreno to create a pilot short of what a re-booted series would look like for The Muppets Studio.

“I just wanted to share my love of them with others,” he says, talking about the motivation for the clip they made. Disney loved it and the new Muppet

Babies series, about the adventures of Baby Kermit the Frog, Miss Piggy, Fozzie Bear, Gonzo, Animal, and a new Muppet named Summer, was born.

Initially, Danner had only been involved in the development of the series, bringing his experience from 20 years in the animation industry, working on shows like The Looney Tunes Show, to it. But just as his career in cartooning blossomed, so too did his side-gig of doing voice acting.

“I’ve been doing voices for a while now,” he says. When he started developing the Muppet Babies re-boot, along with other shows for Disney, he was asked to do scratch for them – the term used for the rough voice recording used to lay down the animated images in the right timing before the real recording.

“Everyone kept telling me, ‘Hey, you’ve got a really good Kermit’, and I said ‘Gee, thanks!’” he says, slipping into Kermit’s voice. A member of the Muppet team told him his pipes were similar to Henson’s and so Danner started playing around with his voice.

“It turned out I could do a lot of voices,” he says. “I could do Kermit’s and Rowlf the Dog, as well as Swedish Chef and a few others.” So on top of being the co-producer and supervising director, Danner was invited to audition for the part of voicing baby Kermit, but he didn’t think he would get it.

“They auditioned hundreds of people, and I just kept making the cut,” he says. Danner does all of the voices Henson did for the show when he was still alive, as well as some other characters he says will still be coming into the show later.

So what is the secret to getting Kermit’s voice just right? “It’s really in the neck,” says Danner. “To get there, I really have to go low with my neck,” he says, craning down. “What I realised is, when you look at pictures of Jim puppeteering, he’s always looking at a monitor downwards, and so he’s just almost naturally stretching his neck out that way. So that’s sort of the note I go for.

“If it doesn’t sound froggy enough, the directors always tell me ‘Stretch the neck!’

“There’s a physicality with all of the voices that I’m able to get.” – Supplied

The irrepressible Muppets are winning new audiences as well as keeping the old.