Steve Whitmire, the puppeteer and voice actor who has been performing Kermit the Frog since Jim Hensons death, has been fired by The Walt Disney Company.
Reportedly, Whitmire made obnoxious demands and was being a jerk for awhile. I don’t have any inside knowledge or commentary on that, but I was not a fan of Whitmires interpretation of Kermit which was much more of a bland pushover in a constant state of struggling dissatisfaction and unhappy stress he has to mitigate. Hensons Kermit had only hints of those qualities under a more steadfast, dreamy, and sharp witted observer in his managerial duties. Whitmires Kermit has been a neurotic punching bag for more aggressive characters which often makes him more spiteful and grumpy than Hensons portrayal of a sometimes-frustrated but overall more of a Jim Halpert type that, while affected by the chaos on screen, is more than anything else a wink to the audience to be like “can you believe this sh*t you guys??”. Whitemire’s Kermit is often naive and oblivious while Hensons Kermit was a humble and helpful soul but wouldn’t put up with being taken advantage of, wasn’t above passive aggressive barbs and putdowns, and was always a sharp observer of his surroundings.
While some of this Micky-fication of Kermit could be blamed on Disney (since after all, the productions the characters exist within set the tone of how the characters act much more than the performers themselves), this change in Kermit existed throughout the 90s and Disney only acquired the Muppet franchise in 2004.
Brian Henson, Jim’s son, agrees with me, saying:
“Kermit has, as a character, flattened out over time and has become too square and not as vital as it should have been.” He continued, “What my dad developed was that Kermit the Frog is a little bit of a prankster, he likes to put an act on stage that will shock you and is kind of weird. But, Kermit the Frog, when push comes to shove, is loyal and believes in the family of friends. Kermit believes you should love and respect the being most different from you because of how different they are.”
Matt Vogel has been hired to voice Kermit the Frog after Whitmire’s firing and Brian Henson thinks he “can access that energy really well.” Henson directed The Muppet Christmas Carol (one of the best movies ever made) and Muppet Treasure Island (only an “okay” movie) in the 90s but did not continue working with the Muppets after the Disney acquisition and is only commenting as an outsider but he went on to say:
“Matt is a very good performer. And I believe in protecting Kermit going forward, Matt will do a really wonderful job,” he continued. “I think the fans should not be so scared of change. Steve did Kermit for a very long time — I would say far too long. And the character was no longer being serviced by Steve performing Kermit.”
“My dad’s No. 1 thing was don’t repeat yourself. Innovate. Do something new,” Henson said. “He is the guy who canceled The Muppets Show when it was the No. 1 show in the world after five seasons because he was worried he was going to start repeating himself.”