Does anybody else miss Mystery Science Theatre 3000? I know that I do.

Puppet Trailer Review is a riff on the same basic idea as MST3k. In the YouTube era no one has time for a full length film of course, so instead they’re wisely sticking to something more internet-friendly – movie trailers. They’ve also dispensed with the idea of having a somewhat hapless human co-host and are just going with a couple of snarky puppets.

Their first installment features the soon-to-be-released Fast and Furious 6. I’m kind of hoping that we get to see more of these soon.

Glove and Boots announced today that they’ve hit 100,000 subscribers on YouTube. That’s a pretty amazing milestone and – aside from Potter Puppet Pals (which benefits from the popularity of the Harry Potter franchise) and Sesame Street (which is, well, Sesame Street) – no other puppet series on the web has amassed that kind of following. I think that the fact that they’ve done this from scratch largely by themselves is pretty amazing.

To celebrate they’ve produced this epic video, which clocks in at over two and a half hours long (!) and features every single one of their YouTube subscribers profiles scrolling by (I didn’t have time to watch the whole video this afternoon, but I’m going to take their word for it).

They actually hit 100,000 earlier this month, but it took them two weeks to make this video. I would not have the patience to make this. Kudos, gentlemen, kudos.

If you want to be part of their next 100,000, subscribe to Glove and Boots on YouTube!

Jim Henson with his most famous creation, Kermit the Frog, on the set of The Muppet Movie in 1976.

I’m part of the generation that basically grew up on the work of Jim Henson.

The Muppets were a near constant presence in my house when I was young. We watched Sesame Street daily during the week and on weekends three generations of my family frequently gathered around the TV to watch The Muppet Show (and later Fraggle Rock). It was watching actual Muppet performers do a demonstration during a visit to The Art of the Muppets – which conveniently stopped in Toronto during production on Fraggle Rock – when I was five years old that partially inspired me to become a puppeteer. Although I never met the man, like so many other people, his work has really touched my life in a number of profound and meaningful ways.

Jim passed away twenty-three years ago today. Remembering and celebrating his life and work every May 16th has become something of a tradition. The Muppets Henson Blog has put together a really wonderful collection of thoughts and memories from a cross-section of Jim Henson colleagues, friends and fans.

It’s a lovely tribute to a man who left behind a remarkable legacy.

I just spotted this new commercial for Old Spice shaving gel features puppets built by Swazzle and performed by Artie Esposito, Brett O’Quinn, and Carla Rudy.

Also, is it just me, or is that guy a little intense?

Hakanaï is one of the more unconventional examples of a digital puppetry performance I’ve discovered (although, is there anything truly “conventional” about any form of digital puppetry?). It was created by the French Company Adrien M / Claire B, who describe it as a “haiku dance performance taking place in a cube of moving images projected live by a digital performer”.

The performance involves a dancer performing live, whose movements are tracked in real-time and used as the basis for an interactive, digitally animated environment that is projected around them:

Very cool. no? You can learn more from the video’s description on Vimeo.

Cross-posted from Machin-X: Digital Puppetry.

Following up on the image released last month, here’s another still from PuppetVision: The Movie the feature length documentary I’m producing that is loosely based on, well, the blog you’re reading.

Look for an update with lots more here over the weekend!

A green skinned puppet named Lenny stars in a new campaign for LendingTree. If he looks a little, well, “Muppety”, that’s with good reason. He was designed and built by Jim Henson’s Creature Shop. Lenny is performed by Patrick Johnson, assisted by Artie Esposito.

Via Ad Week.

Giant Bunraku-style puppets are brought to stunning life by a team of puppeteers in this amazing Lexus commercial, Steps. Ad Week reports that it was directed by Daniel Kleinman, who is probably best known as the designer of every James Bond opening sequence since GoldenEye excluding Quantum of Solace (a fact that I think just further solidifies his reputation for having excellent taste).

Both puppets featured in Steps were designed digitally so that their shells could be 3D printed (the puppet’s rods and underlying structure were made of light weight carbon fibre). The result were two puppets standing over 11’0 tall that weighed under 7 kg.

The performance of the puppets is extremely well choreographed, but actually fairly conventional. The core weight of each puppet was supported by a central puppeteer using a backpack/shoulder harness. Another puppeteer was responsible for controlling a puppet’s head and torso while two others performed its arms and legs. The result is a testament to what can be achieved by traditional puppetry techniques with good, old fashioned real-time puppetry.

Bravo Lexus. This is supposed to be the first in a series called Amazing in Motion so please, Lexus, make more things like this.

Special thanks to everyone who sent this in!

The Nerdist Channel series Blood and Guts pays a visit to the SFX wizards at Spectral Motion (see previous post). Among other things, we get a closer look at that amazing animatronic troll from Hansel and Gretal: Witch Hunters.

Burma (also known as Myanmar) is one of the most culturally rich countries on Earth, but tragically its people have been subjected to decades of suffering and international isolation under a brutal military dictatorship.

Thankfully, after years of struggle, that is finally coming to an end and the Burmese people have new hope. A transition to democracy has begun and the Burmese people are in the early stages of re-taking their rightful place on the world stage. Against this hopeful backdrop it’s sad to see this report about traditional Burmese puppetry – one of the countries most famous cultural traditions – struggling to survive.

One of the most interesting comments in this report comes from a puppeteer who mentions that even as local enthusiasm for their traditional art fades, foreigners enjoy it tremendously. I’ve heard similar very comments from traditional puppeteers in other parts of Asia. They struggle to survive despite puppetry’s resurgence and international interest in their work.

What can we do to help support and promote traditional art forms like puppetry in places like Burma?