Jim Henson Legacy Day 1
Posted By Kathleen David on August 11, 2007
The Muppet Fest in Huntington is very nice. I have met some of my fellow puppeteers there. Fran Brill (Zoe) introduced “Dog City” and took questions afterward. I think she was happy to get a couple of puppet questions in terms of operation and how she got into the business. David Goelz (The Great Gonzo/Dr. Bunsen Honeydew) introduced Dark Crystal and took question afterwards. He commented that he hadn’t seen the film in a while and didn’t really know when he was doing it how much Fizzgig was in the film. He thought of it as a throw away character but now having seen the film again he realized how central that little fur ball was. He also told us about the puppets. These were before radio controlled servos so everything was done with cables. It took 6 puppeteers to operate one Skesis, two inside the puppet and 4 outside the puppet to get all the expressions and “life” of the puppet. It was doggone interesting. The only spoiler of the evening had to be a fan that said he wrote a sequel to Labyrinth and wanted to discuss it with David. I give big kudos to the staff at the cinema for shutting this guy down quick considering how belligerent he was getting.
Today there is a discussion with various Muppet folk, a showing of commercials and Jim’s really early work, and Labyrinth. Should be fun.
I am grateful that I went yesterday even with the weather.
Thoroughly enjoyed Sat and Sun Aug 8 and 9 at Huntington’s Cinema Arts Centre’s tribute to Jim Henson and The Muppets. Loved seeing excerpts from The Muppet Show, early commercials and industrial videos. Great fun to talk to Elmo, Gonzo, Chloe, Jane Henson. Sure wish Disney would accelerate its release of Muppet videos and speed up its work on new Muppet releases. Life is so much better when The Muppets are part of it.