I was fortunate enough to run across this very cool puppet project that proposes to teach kids a variety of educational concepts using puppets and rap music called The Kids Block.  Now I have seen many show ideas that have tried to use this approach and have failed.  One of the biggest strikes against other show concepts is that the rap music has clearly been a secondary consideration and is often written and produced by artists that are trying to use a very unappealing style of rap (let’s call it “bubblegum rap“) to appeal to children.  Now the truth as I see it is that children who like rap know the difference between good rap and poor rap.  Up until now it has been the latter.  The Kids Block has made sure that the rap music is well produced and appealing by having the songs created by Poke and Tone of Track Masters.  If you don’t know who they are you probably know one of the amazing artists they have helped make successful.

I think that the potential of this project is quite high and the production quality of the pilot (specifically the 3D graphics) are nothing short of awesome:  the website is fantastic too.  I do have my personal opinions on some of the things that I hope they focus on in the future.  One thing is that a unique property like The Kids Block should have unique puppets.  They have opted to go with cookie cutter puppets from Puppet Productions called Innova puppets.  Don’t get me wrong the puppets are basically fine (and I am sure they chose to do this based on costs, seeing as how each puppet costs under $200) but I hope that if/when the show gets picked up that they decided to make each character more original.  With a wealth of puppet building talent in New York (in North America even) there are tons of builders to choose from.

My second observation is on the puppeteering (you can see the promo video on You Tube here).  I don’t have anything bad to say about it, but there are a few things that I would like to see addressed.  The first is the puppet’s eyelines are usually off and this makes the characters less believeable in my opinion.  The second is the lifting of the puppet’s heads when they are talking.  This is a basic puppeteering no-no and I would like to see that be corrected to add to the believeablity of the puppets.  And finally, I wanted to address the use/over use of the puppet’s arms when they talk and sing.  I am sure that it might seem more animated and lively to move the puppet’s arms around to a wonderful lively rap song, but the impression I am left with is that this character is not as beliveable as it could be. I feel that one of the reasons that Sesame Street (among other shows) were so successful, was that the puppets were beliveable as characters.  They were not pieces of fabric that were shaken at the screen, but rather seemingly real people.  With some minor tweeking, in my opinion this property has a very good chance of making it to television screens.

You can read more about the project here and here.

Look for the DVD to come out in February of 2007 and the plan is to get it on television from there.

Great job to all involved!

Last friday, the 18th of February, Avenue Q had it’s Scandinavian premiere in Stockholm. I haven’t seen it myself yet but I am really looking forward to it.  The puppets were created by Effektstudion, a company that specialized in special effects, puppets, animatronix etc.  For those of you that are curious about the puppets, please check this interview with Jacob Stadell, one of the lead actors. It’s in Swedish, so you might not understand it all, but I think it may be fun to see anyway. The hostess introduces the show with the wrong title, Avenue X, but Princeton corrects her later.

To see pictures of the puppets visit this site.

Okay, so Greg The Bunny has been playing on television very regularly here in good old Toronto, Ontario, CANADA.  The truth is that it looks like a great show, but I have not been able to get into it.  I don’t know why.  I’ve tried.  But it just hasn’t happened.  Now the one thing that I can get into is the puppet performances.  They are great.  It is amazing to me how original some of these characters and performances are.  There are several that I think are outstanding.  But the one character that just blows me away is The Wumpus.  First of all the way he talks is so amazing that I hang on his every word.  I honestly think his performer is a genious. 

As I have watched more and more I can see that the character is a bit violent, but I really do think he is an outstanding character.  I remember a while back seeing the website of the person who built the puppet, but I don’t have that information anymore.  Also, I couldn’t find out who the performer was.  If anyone knows please drop me a line so that I can update this post.  If you want to see what an amazing character he is, you can go to The Wumpus’ My Space website or see a great clip of him on You Tube here.

Enjoy.

Who’s Mr. Puppet? Well, if you stroll on over to www.mrpuppet.com you’ll find that Bob Abdou, Editor for the Houston Puppetry Guild, has taken the title. Though Bob resides in Austin, Texas at the moment, if you check out the Celebrity Gallery page, you see he’s quite the world traveler.

If you’d like to see Bob in action, take a gander at the Videos section of the site. One of his favorite acts is from Fiddler on the Roof performed by Bob with a marionette made by Fred Cowan. Enjoy!

‘Alfie’ is the latest single by British singer Lilly Allen. The video features a rather ugly looking puppet playing Alfie (Alfie Owen-Allen - Lilys younger brother - refused to appear in the video), who Lily takes drugs away from, as well as catching him doing rather unsavoury things over Barbie pictures and stopping him taking beer from the fridge.

Can’t imagine Alfie is very pleased with his older sister.

Watch the video at youtube if you’re not easily offended.

Thanks to Cliff for the info.

I wrote about Michael Ziegfeld a while back in a previous post.  It would seem that he continues to be busy; in a very exciting way.  Michael lends his puppeteering and acting talents to a new movie starring Winona Ryder.  The movie is called The Ten and it premiered at the Sundance Film Festival this past January.

In it, Michael plays “Harlan Swallow” a ventriloquist who is desperate to be in show business.  After several encounters with a newlywed couple (played by Winona Ryder and Mather Zickel), something unthinkable happens to his “friend”; a defenseless vent puppet.  To read more about the movie make sure you read Michael’s official press release.

Thanks to Michael for the info.

Dinosaurs: The Third and Fourth Seasons DVD box set (the remaining 36 episodes from 1992-1994) is due to be released in May 2007. It is suppose to be packed with special features including “I’m the Baby” music video. 

The Muppet Show: Season Two is due to come out in the next 120-200 days from now.  Our luck is that they both come out at the same time! 

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