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Movie Meltdown - Episode 553 We finally venture back out into the world - and thankfully it’s for our coverage of WonderFest! There we sit down once again with Kirk Thatcher to hear his continuing amazing stories of working in the industry - in particular, his years working with The Muppets. Listen as Kirk tells us stories about meeting Jim Henson, working on Dinosaurs, being a Gremlin, sitting in the writer's room, directing humans on The Kids are Alright, putting together a live puppet show at the Hollywood Bowl and how he ended up in Spider-Man: Homecoming.  And while we’re currently writing a children’s book entitled, “My Sharkleberry Adventure”, we also bring up… A Quiet Place Part II, The Bad Batch, horseshoe crabs, Joe Dante, The Raft, whatever yogurt was in German, Matt Groening, the Marvel connection, Red 40, Waldo C. Graphic, had his arm eaten off, Michael Giacchino, working in a writer’s room, Baby Yodas to Justified, keeping weird celebrity mementos, they are always so murky, the democratization of creativity, it’s like doing a big dance, Wilkins and Wontkins, there are Muppet people and non-Muppet people, a rat fink, things from your childhood that they discontinued, like the Clone Wars but it would like Baby Yodas, walking around and looking at stuff, Greg Nicotero, you are a crazy science experiment, the food is revolting, The Simpsons, mom talking to Jim Henson, flying forks banging into red circles, Kevin Feige, Halloween 3, you’ll see how the sausage is made, Timothy Olyphant, sticking creepy bug shells on her, misanthropes, Gremlin helmets, the Koozebanian mating ritual, doing voice work, Jimmy Jim Jim Jim Jim, marketing, Bobby Moynihan, I want a 3D printer, Phoebe Cates belly button and blocking for puppets.   “...you could only pretty much get away with that with The Muppets and Monty Python. Which, I always thought The Muppets were… to me they were not… heartfelt little funny creatures that learned about friendship - they were nuts. They were Monty Python… they were absurdists.”  For more on WonderFest, go to: https://wonderfest.com/