Mouth plates

[scandell]

I used wood. Works great.

 

[Buck-Beaver]

I've always liked to use wood or another rigid material for larger mouths (like Ernie's). Flexible materials work best for mouth plates that are about the size of hand. If they are much bigger than that, you will start to notice that they "droop" a bit.

The material you use for a mouth can influence it's character too. A stiff, rigid material can help convey the personality of a stiff, rigid character. Likewise, a more flexible mouth can be used for a more excitable, dynamic character. This is not a hard and fast rule, just something to think about and experiment with when you're building puppets!

 

[Slackbot]

I always thought that Scooter's mouthplate was rigid. It would have to be, considering he's got a pac-man mouth. But in Six String Orchestra he grimaced, bending his upper mouthplate. Ever since then it's bugged me. Did they make a special head with a flexible or jointed mouthplate for that shot?

I'm currently working on the skull for a Wembley puppet. According to the extras on one of the Fraggle Rock season sets, the Wembley puppet doesn't have a pair of mouthplates, but a continuous one that is scored along the back to let it bend and flex. I'm currently playing with that, trying to get it to make the kind of expressions he did on the show. It's a fun experiment.

 

[Animal31]

I was surprised to see that Bert originally had a flexible mouthplate, I know they use wood for Elmo, I would assume they do the same for Ernie and Count as well...

Scooter's mouth is about the size of an adult hand, so I could see, as Bert, him having a flexible mouthplate that would not be noticed.

 

[Slackbot]

Scooter's mouth is about the size of an adult hand, so I could see, as Bert, him having a flexible mouthplate that would not be noticed.

Richard hunt must have had enormous hands.

 

[D'Snowth]

Well, he appears to be leaning Scooter towards the camera, so that may cause him to look bigger than he actually is?

I don't know, but it's rather surprising (and we even have a thread about this too) when you find out just how big, or how small, certain puppets actually are, when they really don't seem that size on screen. Like the Jim, Frank, and Jerry Muppets appear to be only slightly bigger than some mini-AMs (like Prairie Dawn, Roosevelt Franklin, etc.), but then Fraggle puppets appear to be rather large when you see them in comparison with their performers.

 

[Slackbot]

I've seen the Jim puppet in person at the Center for Puppetry Arts, and he's not a little bitty thing like Prairie Dawn. As for Scooter's head not being that big...

...it's nearly twice as wide as Kermit's. Even if Hunt had hands the size of catcher's mitts, that lower mouthplate would still need extra support to keep it from bending around the thumb.

 

[Animal31]

I have a pic where he looks much smaller than that, but even so, it would still stay pretty stiff with half inch foam under it while still able to bend with force. I'm in no way saying that's how he is made, only that its possible...

 

[Animal31]

This was the pic I was looking at, it is funny how angles really can play a part in how we perceive the sizes of these puppets...

 

[Slackbot]

That picture does show how long his head is from front to back, but it doesn't account for how wide it is. It's the width that makes the extra support necessary.

Foam beneath the mouthplate? That's an approach I've never tried.