The Muppets film, "Muppets from Space", released by Columbia Pictures in 1999. In 2000, Henson was sold to EM.TV & Merchandising AG for $680 million. However, EM.TV was plagued with financial problems and the Henson family re-acquired the company in 2003, with the exception of the rights to the "Sesame Street" characters, which had been sold by EM.TV to Sesame Workshop. Fourteen years after initial negotiations began, Disney acquired the Muppets intellectual property from the Jim Henson Company for $75 million on February 17, 2004. The acquisition consisted of the Muppets and "Bear in the Big Blue House" properties, as well as
The Muppets Rudman, Vogel and Peter Linz. The majority of the Muppets are designed as hand puppets, with several characters utilizing rods. Common design elements of the Muppets include wide mouths and large protruding eyes. The puppets are often molded or carved out of various types of foam and covered with any felt-like material. Muppets may represent humans; anthropomorphic characters; realistic animals; robots; extraterrestrial creatures; mythical beings; or other forms of abstract characters. The Muppets are distinguished from ventriloquist dummies, which are often animated only in the head and face, in that their arms or other features are also animated. Muppets are