Wow! You're a Cartoonist

[muppetfan89]

Does anyone know where I can see this show? I've been looking for it for a while now.

 

[CensoredAlso]

I think there's some copies at Amazon being sold by third party sellers. Good luck!

 

[minor muppetz]

This video was recently on YouTube for about a month, then the uploaders account was terminated. I didn't realize the whole thing was online until a week ago, the upload date was a month earlier (and it got removed a week after I found it).

Though we currently can't watch it again (well, those of you who have the video can), I'd like to make some observations after watching it again for the first time since about 1994.

* The scenes with PJ and Kai-Lee kinda feel like a less-technology-advanced precursor to The Jim Henson Hour. They pretty much stay in front of a white background, kinda as if they are inside paper (well, the two start out being drawn and become their usual selves). They look at video of Picklepuss and Pop in what seems like a projected screen, while when they interact with Jonathan Frith, they turn around and appear in a television screen as opposed to appearing in person with Frith.

* Picklepuss kinda sounds different from other Caroll Spinney voices I can identify, but at times his voice seems to have hints of a young Oscar the Grouch (particularly when he makes his "Samata" pun) or a scratchy Big Bird voice.

* Pop's mouth movements seem limited. I wonder if Caroll Spinney used the techniques done at Sesame Street live, where the performers have a control in the characters hand to make the mouths move. Though I think I've heard the mouth was radio-controlled, when I think of that I think technology like what was done with the Gorgs faces, but if it was done with a Waldo, then it's a surprise that the suit performer was still doing the voice (I would think for Waldo-technology faces the voices were either done by the performer controlling the face or a non-puppeteer voice actor).

* On a similar note, during most of the scenes where Pop draws, we don't really see his face as he talks, we just see his hands while his voice is heard. Even when his drawing comes to life and the two converse, we don't really see Pop (no cutting back and forth or anything). Makes me wonder if Spinney was wearing the head in those scenes, though the first time we see Pop draw, we do see his head in the shot.

* This was my favorite of the Play-Along Videos, yet I do not remember Artie at all (I have seen him mentioned on the wiki and seen the pictures). I'm surprised there was so much of him in this, because I also don't remember the "Face Challenge" or "Line Game" (I also don't remember Stella). Even seeing it again after all these years, none of the Artie stuff rings a bell to me.

* When Kermit draws animals, was he really a live-hand puppet like the wiki says? We only see the live hands in first-person shots of him drawing, we never see the puppet and live hands at the same time, in wide shots of Kermit he clearly has arm wires as usual (though we don't really see his hands much in the wide shots). I think the performer just wore gloves resembling Kermit's hands, separate from his body.

* I like how Caroll Spinney receives top billing in the credits. He deserved it. Also interesting to see Jonathan Frith credited among the Muppet performers (though that credit doesn't list them as "Muppet performers", the credit says "featuring") since he has an on-screen scene, but technically he was a Muppet performer since he performed Kermit's hands when he drew animals.

*Most of the familiar Muppets only make brief cameos, and the credits don't credit Frank Oz or Dave Goelz at all (I wonder how I didn't notice as a kid). Jim Henson is really the only TMS performer to have a sizeable part. This means not getting many familiar characters, but during the period between The Muppet Show and The Jim Henson Hour, this video (and many of the others) gave performers who didn't have their own Muppets characters like Kevin Clash, Camille Bonora, and David Rudman a chance to have their own characters.

 

[D'Snowth]

Aww, I missed it? Darn. I was hoping to see that surface on da interwebz one day.

* On a similar note, during most of the scenes where Pop draws, we don't really see his face as he talks, we just see his hands while his voice is heard. Even when his drawing comes to life and the two converse, we don't really see Pop (no cutting back and forth or anything). Makes me wonder if Spinney was wearing the head in those scenes, though the first time we see Pop draw, we do see his head in the shot.

Probably not. Kind of like how when we saw Big Bird adding Kody in his drawing of his grown-up friends, we see Big Bird's right hand (which is usually stationary) in-frame sketching the baby, and nothing more. Those are more than likely separate shots taken to give the illusion that the characters Caroll is performing is drawing.

 

[minor muppetz]

Aww, I missed it? Darn. I was hoping to see that surface on da interwebz one day.

Well, good news, it's back online!

Actually, I think this is the same upload, judging by date (I should have been able to have seen this when it was missing from search) and the same image for the video. But enjoy!

 

[minor muppetz]

* The scenes with PJ and Kai-Lee kinda feel like a less-technology-advanced precursor to The Jim Henson Hour. They pretty much stay in front of a white background, kinda as if they are inside paper (well, the two start out being drawn and become their usual selves). They look at video of Picklepuss and Pop in what seems like a projected screen, while when they interact with Jonathan Frith, they turn around and appear in a television screen as opposed to appearing in person with Frith.

I thought it was a little weird when PJ and Kai-Lee interact with Jonathan, appearing in a TV set as opposed to appearing in person in his studio. But then I remembered that it's kinda like at the beginning of Hey, You're as Funny as Fozzie Bear, where Kermit talks to some kids watching the video, he appears on a TV being watched in a room with kids. But that kinda makes a bit more sense than this does.