Apr 03 2012
Five Great Performances (Given by Puppets)
Audrey II — Little Shop of Horrors
One of the most important features a puppet possesses is its eyes. That’s typically where the most intense emotion comes through, so it makes sense that expressive eyes are even more crucial in a character made of plastic and gears than in a typical human character. Just look at Gizmo up there. Would he be nearly as likable or interesting with a different set of eyes?
In this movie, the singing, man-eating plant Audrey II has no eyes. Which is a hurdle on its own terms, but it meant the two dozen (!!) puppeteers working on Audrey II faced the additional challenge of putting the audience’s focus on the mouth of the puppet. And lip-synching in puppetry is hard. That’s where otherwise great creatures like Neverending Story’s Falcor or Labyrinth’s Hoggle don’t quite cross the finish line. How does Audrey II fare?
Yeah, I buy that. Holy crap.
Yoda — The Empire Strikes Back / Return of the Jedi
Yoda. What can I say? This character is a true filmic icon; people know who he is and can quote pieces of his advice even if they haven’t seen The Empire Strikes Back. And unlike other iconic puppets like Kermit or Miss Piggy, most people don’t think of Yoda as a puppet at all. He’s just Yoda.
I almost don’t know what else to say about him. You have what amounts to a little green frog who not only comes across as a believable, sometime humorous person, but even resonates on a spiritual level. You all remember this scene:
That’s not a puppet. I don’t care what anybody says.
One of the things that saddens me about the rise of CG characters is the lack of movie puppets. There’s really something special captured when they share the silver screen with live actors. As always, sound off in the comments if I missed anybody important.
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No Dark Crystal? These are great tho.. I loved Teddy in AI.
Yoda in the prequels was so frustrating. No matter how many millions of dollars were thrown at the CGI, the Yodas produces are pathetic compared to the one in Empire.
@Mandy
Same thing I first thought. How can you have a list likes this and not mention the Dark Crystal.
And let’s also not forgot the likes of Chucky or the little balls of hair from Critters.
Nice article. Wanted to add this pretty cool video…not so much in the same vein as yours here, but just puppets and pretty talented dude:)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QYXKaAzEJrk
I think Yoda was still a puppet in Phantom Menace, but they got his eyes wrong with that one. Too bad they couldn’t figure out how to make puppet Yoda fight as well as the CGI one, but even if they could’ve, they wouldn’t have out of laziness.
In his rightful place, Yoda is.
Totally agree with you on the puppets. There’s just a certain artistry and ambience that comes along with wood-and-felt puppets that CGI just can’t match. It’s obviously labor intensive but so worth it.
Let us not forget Jabba the Hutt, who was controlled by 5 puppeteers at once and still looked hella realistic.
(Also, Kermit made some amazing expressions by contorting his face. I still laugh when I see them.)
Dominar Rygel XVI. If you’ve not seen Farscape you owe it to yourself to watch one of the better SciFi shows to come along in a while. All of the puppetry was provided by Jim Henson’s shop.
Labyrinth…
Shame on you for not including anyone from the Labyrinth.
Although your article is about individual characters, I think any character coming from the mind of Jim Henson is a #1 pick. This would satisfy votes for Dark Crystal, Labyrinth, etc.! Well foxed!