News

November 26th, 2011

Muppets & Animation

Well, I just got out from watching The new Muppets film. What a beautiful ride. I laughed my ass off, I cried several times and best of all, I had a totally amazing time at the Theater. The crowd was up there, clapping, laughing, etc. And what a reminder of why growing up with the Muppets / Sesame Street is one of the best things that ever happened to me while growing up, and later in my life as an animator.

Growing up it was one of the best things, for so many reasons. I just simply smile while watching them be so alive. Always have and I’m pretty sure always will. It’s the magic of puppeteering and animating. When I’m watching, I’m always involved on the character and not the performer behind them. To this day, I’m still blown away that so many scenes in the film I watched today, affected me emotionally or made me laugh to the point of snoring on my laugh. Yes, I said it.

As an animator, the Muppets have influenced in ways not many other things have. To this day I still use the following Mahna Mahna clip as an example of how you don’t need fancy facial controls, elaborated spine overlap or even IK, to make a character be alive, and feel for him/her.



This is all timing, spacing, contrast…and very creative choices of staging and directing the viewer’s eye. I must of watched this clip hundreds of times, no joke. It never gets old, and it never ceases to entertain me. A great example of simplicity.

Another favorite of mine, you can’t miss. Rowlf’s Piano Sonata moments:





Simplicity is quite an amazing thing. I believe Toy Story 1 was animated to a great extend without leg IK contraints…and to this day is still one of my top animated films I’ve ever watched. So true the expression “The magic of film”. Back to the Muppets. I think I’ve always secretly wanted to be a puppeteer. I just sucked at it. Didn’t take me long to realize that. Same as with stop-motion. I tried, I failed, but I tried. I even tried some Muppet tests on my own a few years back. Warning: some pretty bad film-making ahead. I was learning…I had no friends…no life…

I even recycled the same audio…awful. Anyways. However, I loved doing these tests. No matter how much I suck at it, still have a kick ass time and love anything Muppet related. Watching today’s Muppet film, made me realize that I’ll always love the Muppets.



Go see the film. It’s beautiful, funny, smart and will make you be a kid all over (not that we are not).



Carlos, a huge Muppet fan.