Revenge of the Muppets | Kirsty Lang

From Kermit

War Horse, low-tech digital art is created improved

We have all heard of aging rock stars making a comeback, but what about the Muppets? Kermit the Frog, which first took shape in a school class American art in the mid-1950s, is back on the chatshow circuit. The last film of the Muppets won five star reviews on both sides of the Atlantic and an Oscar nomination for Best Song. And yet, still bears irregular Gustavo, green felt collar that looks like something off a child in a craft shop.

suspect that the current success of the Muppets is largely nostalgia. Those of us who grew up on Sesame Street and Muppets will be happy to assist our children to the movies where you laugh at satire postmodern script. But you also like the fact that the Muppets are simplistic yet touching, low-tech? Disney could have bought, but the Muppets are a triumph of felt and foam in CGI.

The art of puppetry in general knows something of a renaissance thanks to the huge success of the National Theatre with the workhorse. The stage show - which is now a worldwide success -. He has horses size puppets of sugar cane, wood and mesh that are handled by three actors on stage

shouted at the National Theatre, and yet can not cope with the sentimentality of the film. Puppet allows us to fill gaps with our imagination instead of having our emotions manipulated by the sunsets and ominous orchestral music. Call me a Luddite, but I want to take my vegetables delivered in a box directly from a farm in Devon, I love knowing that the puppets of war horses are handmade in a workshop in Cape Town. There is also wide. I want to know small businesses can still make it big with a little wood glue and string.

• Adrian Kohler and Basil Jones, founder of workhorse South African Handspring Puppet Company behind, I reinvent daily puppets in a powerful way. "It's the little things we do. If you place a cup puppet of another puppet, which has an intensity, an epic quality that is difficult for an actor to find," said Kohler. "It's almost like if they see with the eyes of a child. This is a poem in praise of everyday life. "

We used to think of puppets as entertainment for children, but that is no longer the case. Even the Royal Shakespeare Company is using. Two recent productions, the storm and a staging of Shakespeare's Venus and Adonis epic poem, were collaborations with London Little Angel puppet theater.

The Angel - founded by John and Lyndie Wright 50 years ago - still make their puppets on the site. Upon entering his studio is like stumbling in the first scene of Pinocchio. There are people sitting on wooden saddles cutting a small head. The craft is magical. Venus puppet used in the production of the CBC was made of foam calf skin softer inside for erotically could sink into the arms of hard wood Adonis.

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