Heart and Mind

Muppets Need Arms Inside Them

The descriptive side bar here at Heart & Mind indicates that the topics of discussion are "often quirky, often serious... A little of everything." It's totally true, and that's totally what I want it to be in this "anything goes as long as I want it to" mentality the rules here. So it's only fitting to follow up a post like the previous one, which was sort of an inspirational piece about how multi-faceted we humans are, with one that is just absolutely ridiculous. Thus, it's time for my brief musing on a Muppet bone of contention that I have.

Now that I've got kids around the place, I spend a lot more time doing something that I, myself, loved as a child: watching Muppets. I don't want to get into a huge discussion about how great I think Muppets are, so I'll be uncharacteristically brief here. I think what Jim Henson and his crew did with puppeteering and how Sesame Street used them is brilliant. I watch Muppets these days—especially when re-watching classic skits that I originally watched as a First Sesame Street Generation Kid—and pick up little nuances in the performances that are just so well done. It's amazing how they come to life in the hands of the skilled puppeteers/actors that control them.

Anyway, here's my complaint. Whereas Muppets used to always be shown from the waist up or in back of some kind of wall so as not to reveal that there's a guy with a hand sticking up the Muppet's crotch, they now have technology that allows the display of a Muppet doing things in the middle of the room (like Elmo riding a tricycle) with nothing "connecting it" to its behind-the-scenes human. It's probably a green screen sort of thing, computer animation, remote wireless operation, or a combination of several technologies. And I don't like it.

Why don't I like it? Because it seems too easy and, in my mind, takes away from the artistry of the old-fashioned way of doing things. There was something great abut how they always were able to write such cool stuff, DESPITE the fact that they were limited to keeping the characters behind walls. It kind of begs the question now: outside of financial reasons, why not just ditch muppets and animate everything through computers so you could have no limitations? That would be a reasonable place to go with things, but if that happens, it will come at the cost of eliminating a great puppeteering art that I think is worth keeping.

posted by Steve @ 11:47 PM