Damaged Puppets?

[Frogpuppeteer]

im confused as to how Freddy J Frog ended up here...he isnt damaged at all...and carefull calling him Kermit....im ok with the pics of him being shared

but next time mind PMing me before you post them

 

[Gerbert]

I know he's not Kermit For the last time. I'm merely saying Don't wet your Puppets unless You have 9 Backups like The Muppet Studio. I for one Has wet a Puppet or too and Damaged it Too much.

 

[Frogpuppeteer]

Well I wouldn't agree entirely...if you know what you are doing with your puppets sticking them in water can be very simple.

And as a bit of trivia, the Freddy in the water shot is a much smaller and lighter version of the J Frog, and I actually stuck him in the tub first to see how the water would affect his fleece. Then I went out to the lake.

As for Freddy in the snow it was nothing. I never actually stuck him fully into the snow, he just sorta sat on top and fiddled with it.

 

[Puppetainer]

I don't believe that Kermit is actually covered in ice cream. I would guess that is shaving cream. Shaving cream has often been used in movies and TV to stand in for cream pies, and other things. I would guess it is a good deal easier to clean off the puppet. I think there are many tricks like that you can use to avoid damaging a puppet too severely. But sometimes you just have to have a "stunt double".

 

[Slackbot]

I don't have photos, but remember the twisted-nose Gonzo in "The Great Muppet Caper"? And in "The Muppets Take Manhattan" Joan Rivers painted Miss Piggy's face with thick makeup. I was flinching as I watched that, wondering if it would be possible to restore the puppet, or whether they had a whole batch of Miss Piggy heads for her to trash if that sequence required multiple takes.

 

[Melonpool]

I think that the Gonzo head was a specific build for that gag -- probably trimmed to that specific twist and never used again. The one cool thing is that once shot, parts of that Gonzo probably ended up in other puppets (since the bodies are typically a separate piece) and the eye mechanism could be cut out and grafted onto another head.

As far as puppets being disposable, think of it this way. Remember in "Total Recall" when Schwarteneggar's head was about to explode towards the end of the film? It changed shape and bulged out the eyes? That wasn't some sort of facial contortion -- it was a special effect head (probably several special effect heads, actually) that were used for maybe 30 seconds in one film, then thrown away (or put in a Planet Hollywood someplace). That's the same way something like Piggy's makeover or Gonzo's nose tweak should be regarded: those puppets were built for a specific shot and gag of a film and then they're discarded. It's really no different than a specially-crafted mannequin for an action sequence or a stuntman that falls off a 20-story building -- at least in regards to filmmaking.