How were the large monsters performed?

[JaniceFerSure]

You operated Audrey 2 Jinx,way cool.My best friend just went to see that show,he loved it.

 

[ravagefrackle]

never ever thought I'd say this name in a sane conversation...) Barney. *shudder*

Barney's mouth and head is all animatronic, so Sweetums definitely has that going for him.

while i agre with the shudder part, i can tell u that barneys head is not loaded with animatronics, the performer has what is called a "BITE" bar that he uses to open and close the mouth, wierd i know, but that is how he did it, (its also the reason he has a nice set of new teeth in his head)

as for sweetums, the hero puppet has no animatronics at all,
but thier is a RC head that they use sometimes, but the original , is all simple non electronic puppetry,

 

[MrsPepper]

How about Big Bird? It always seems he's moving his arms and talking, and at least to my untrained eyes, I would never think that he's just switching his arm from controlling the arm to controlling the mouth. Is that how Big Bird is worked, like Sweetums?

 

[minor muppetz]

Big Bird

Carroll Spinney perform Big Bird with his right arm in the head and his left arm controlling his right arm. a very invisible wire is connected from both hands into his neck. when he moves his left arm, his right arm can go up.

Big Bird has moved his right arm more easily in the last few years, but all of those times have been either in scenes that used a blue screen (with an extra puppeteer covered in clothes that matched the background), in close-ups, or if big bird is behind something.

 

[minor muppetz]

I don't know for sure, but I think Gorgon heap was performed using one hand for the mouth. However, I think that behemoth required his performer to use both hands for the mouth, and another performer for the hands. I have noticed that behemoth wasn't used much, so perhaps that is why. Maybe these questions will be answered in the Muppet Morsels on the complete first season.

 

[minor muppetz]

Sweetums

I think the mouth of Sweetums was performed using the performers right hand, which could go into the right hand. there are two scenes with sweetums that I think makes this obvious.

At the beginning of the great muppet caper, when sweetums is running and falls into the sewer, he talks but his mouth doesn't move. both his hands move though.

In the john cleese episode, during the "we got each other" number,it looks like his right arm hangs down and drags, but in the middle of the number, he starst dancing and moving both arms, but his mouth is closed the whole time. His right arm starts moving a few seconds after he shuts his mouth, and in the same take, so I guess it is easy for the performer to switch the arm from being in the mouth to being in the other arm.

 

[minor muppetz]

if anybody is interested, I just started my own thread about how full-body characters are performed, including what I know and what I think. it is in the puppetry section.