the revolution has begun!
So, I found this myspace profile yesterday for a puppet show on MTV ONE in the UK and it just made me think about the recent influx of puppet shows in the past 5 years or so.
It began with Henson. And on the 6th day, Henson did make Sesame Street and The Muppet Show and yea, he saw that they were good. and then we flash forward quite a few years to what i believe started this most recent rash of puppet programs. Avenue Q. For those of you who don't know what Avenue Q is; it's the story of a puppet, young and fresh out of college, who moves to Avenue Q in Manhattan. Now, Avenues A, B, and C are on the very East side of Manhattan in what it known as Alphabet City when you get farther down. suffice it to say it's mostly hippies and hipsters. Anyway, he moves in, falls in love, meets a bunch of other puppets and they all work together to make some dreams come true. but the catch is, it's an adult puppet show complete with songs like "Everyone's A Little bit Racist," "The Internet is For Porn," and "You Can Be As Loud As The Hell You Want (When You're Making Love)." I haven't had the fortune to see it myself, but i've heard the songs and it's pretty freaking funny. So then after this, Brian Henson gets the brilliant idea to take puppets for adults to a new level and starts his own touring puppet improv show with puppeteers from his various shows on a tour around the country. It's called Puppet Up and is also freaking hilarious. But adults aren't the only ones who have new puppet shows to watch. In the kids arena, a show came out about a year or two ago called Mr. Meaty which is the story of two pretty freakish looking puppets who work in a fast food joint in the mall. i saw one episode of it, only about as funny as any other kids cartoon out there but i give it points for cleverness and cool puppets. they're made out of some sort of high density foam or something that is actually molded so you can see the wear and tear that they incur during the show such as the corners of the mouth. then, there is this awesome show on PBS called The World Tree. It's about a bunch of animals that live in or around this giant tree in the rainforest and they learn things about each other, basic educational kids stuff, but it's done in the same way that creepy Winnie the Pooh puppet show on Disney was some time ago. It's all green screened except for a few props and set pieces and there are as many as 4 or 5 puppeteers in green working the puppets so you get total movement for each character without sacrificing the set. but what makes it cool are the design of the puppets.
off to work, more to come later...
It began with Henson. And on the 6th day, Henson did make Sesame Street and The Muppet Show and yea, he saw that they were good. and then we flash forward quite a few years to what i believe started this most recent rash of puppet programs. Avenue Q. For those of you who don't know what Avenue Q is; it's the story of a puppet, young and fresh out of college, who moves to Avenue Q in Manhattan. Now, Avenues A, B, and C are on the very East side of Manhattan in what it known as Alphabet City when you get farther down. suffice it to say it's mostly hippies and hipsters. Anyway, he moves in, falls in love, meets a bunch of other puppets and they all work together to make some dreams come true. but the catch is, it's an adult puppet show complete with songs like "Everyone's A Little bit Racist," "The Internet is For Porn," and "You Can Be As Loud As The Hell You Want (When You're Making Love)." I haven't had the fortune to see it myself, but i've heard the songs and it's pretty freaking funny. So then after this, Brian Henson gets the brilliant idea to take puppets for adults to a new level and starts his own touring puppet improv show with puppeteers from his various shows on a tour around the country. It's called Puppet Up and is also freaking hilarious. But adults aren't the only ones who have new puppet shows to watch. In the kids arena, a show came out about a year or two ago called Mr. Meaty which is the story of two pretty freakish looking puppets who work in a fast food joint in the mall. i saw one episode of it, only about as funny as any other kids cartoon out there but i give it points for cleverness and cool puppets. they're made out of some sort of high density foam or something that is actually molded so you can see the wear and tear that they incur during the show such as the corners of the mouth. then, there is this awesome show on PBS called The World Tree. It's about a bunch of animals that live in or around this giant tree in the rainforest and they learn things about each other, basic educational kids stuff, but it's done in the same way that creepy Winnie the Pooh puppet show on Disney was some time ago. It's all green screened except for a few props and set pieces and there are as many as 4 or 5 puppeteers in green working the puppets so you get total movement for each character without sacrificing the set. but what makes it cool are the design of the puppets.
off to work, more to come later...