While we wait to find out if Light Wire will advance to the next round of America’s Got Talent, take a peak at Keiran Arthur’s audition for the Australian version of the international “Got Talent” franchise, which is currently airing on the Seven Network down under. Keiran is a primary school teacher in Sydney Australia who uses puppets to teach children and has developed a line of educational puppetry DVDs. Unfortunately he didn’t make it past the next round of the show, but you can see more of Keiran’s work on his website.

Hat tip to Naomi for spotting this!

(Monday Morning Inspiration will return next week)

This British ad for Weetabix Chocolate Spoonsize cereal was made last year and features 10 year old dancer Arizona Snow (who’s apparently become something of a dance phenom thanks to YouTube) and a bunch of dancing teddy bears. The bears were brought to life as both full size costumes worn by dancers as well as rod puppets. The matching between the different scales bears is really well done, a difficult feat to pull off, as any one who has ever tried surely knows!

Have a look behind the scenes:

The rod puppet versions of the bear were performed by Molly Freeman and Matt Lloyd of Smoking Apples Theatre, who also worked on another UK spot featuring a similarly realized dancing bear not too long ago.

A Law Unto Himself is a new Australian documentary that catches up with Roger Law, one half of Fluck and Law, the dynamic duo who created the long-running satirical British series Spitting Image.

Burned out and at his wit’s end, Roger fled to Australia after Spitting Image ended its legendary run in 1996. There he began a slow process of rediscovering himself and his art. Inspired by Chinese-Australian ceramicist Ah Xian and the breathtaking landscape and wildlife of his adopted homeland he forged a new artistic path for himself that took him all the way to Jingdezhen, a Chinese city renowned for its ceramics where he rediscovered his passion for art.

It’s a fascinating and honest look at a famous artist in the process of rediscovering himself. You watch it online at www.abc.net.au

This commercial for We Buy Any Car (a used car purchaser in the United Kingdom) features a clever combination of puppetry, animation and an annoyingly catchy jingle.

The puppetry in the ad was supplied by Hattie Thomas and Matt Lloyd of Smoking Apples Theatre, who are featured in this look behind the scenes:

I just absolutely love Colosse – A Wood Tale, a new short film by director Yves Geleyn.

Here’s what he has to say about the film:

“I’m a huge fan of Jim Henson’s work. I have always wanted to work with puppets but never had the chance to do so before. I’m also a huge fan of robots; they were in all my childhood movies, cartoons, and comics. The robot from Paul Grimault’s The King And The Mockingbird; Brad Bird’s Iron Giant; and Goldorak, a Japanese cartoon, were inspirations for me. It was these two passions of puppetry and robots that drove me to create this short film, with a bird in it of course (can’t lose my bad habits).”

The short was produced by stop motion animation shop Hornet, Inc. who have a behind-the-scenes video and a photo gallery from the shoot available on their site. The film’s wooden marionette was built at Hornet with the assistance of Steve Widerman, who along with Billy Barkhurst also performed it.

Via Motiongrapher.

Look who’s back, it’s Flat Eric! With a special guest appearance by…William Fichtner?

Via Director’s Notes.

America’s Got Talent kicked off its summer series earlier this week. The popular televised talent show has proven to be a nice showcase for puppetry acts like Fighting Gravity and (most famously) Terry Fator. This season’s premiere episode featured black light puppet/dance troupe Light Wire Theater, who seemed to have made an early impression on the show’s judges. They were voted through to the next round of the show, which will be taped in Las Vegas.

You can watch America’s Got Talent Monday and Tuesday nights on NBC in the United States and on CitvTV in most Canadian markets (check your local listings).

Via Unreality TV.

Warrick Brownlow-Pike – who performers several popular puppet characters on the BBC – made this nice video tribute to Jim Henson, whom the world sadly lost all-too-soon on this day in 1990.

Say, you know what we haven’t done around here lately? A run-down of Michael Jackson puppet acts!

Let’s get started after the jump…

#5 Scott Land’s Michael Marionette

Michael Jackson always seems to be a popular act for marionette puppeteers to spoof and with good reason. Have you ever tried to make a rod puppet moonwalk? (early in my career I had to and I don’t recommend it unless you have a lot of patience). Probably the best Michael marionette you’ll ever see is performed by Scott Land. He’s a really amazing, old school marionette puppeteer who does cabaret shows in the style of legends like Tony Sarg, Frank Paris and Rufus and Margo Rose (it probably helps that he studied under other marionette masters like Tony Urbano, Albrecht Roser and Phillip Huber).

I would love to see this live.

#4 Mini Michael

This is one of the smallest Michael marionettes I’ve seen and it’s performed by a puppeteer in (I think) Comoros, which in case you didn’t know is an archipelago in the Indian Ocean off the eastern coast of Africa.

…and don’t feel bad if you haven’t heard of Comoros before, I had to look it up on Wikipedia myself!

#3 Malaysian Michael

Another thing that Michael Jackson puppet acts seem to have in common is that they’re really popular in Latin America and Southeast Asia (especially the Philippines and Malaysia for reasons that I don’t completely understand). This act from a magic convention in Malaysia isn’t that great, but I give the performer full props for actually singing rather than just lip syncing to a prerecorded track.

#2 Terry-Fator-as-Michael

You know who doesn’t need to lip sync either? Terry Fator. Now intricate, complex manipulation isn’t really Terry’s thing (he’s more of a straight Ventriloquist/impressionist) but, who cares? Is there a better or funnier celebrity impressionist working in puppetry today? I seriously doubt it.

#1 Damon Scott’s Michael Monkey

Our last act is Damon Scott, who nearly won the first season of Britain’s Got Talent. This is a video of his first appearance on the show and watch how he actually makes Simon Cowell grin and laugh out loud. Just accomplishing that alone should win you a cool million on that show!

I hadn’t heard of Titan The Robot until recently, but apparently he’s kind of a big deal.

I wonder who made him? I want one!