I don't know why everyone is changing there pupils on there Animal. I look at pictures and I don't see that he is cross-eyed at all. Also, Terry told me that his pupils are suppose to be a half inch and no smaller. It just looks odd to me to see that Animal looks like he is cross eyed.
Part of the Jim Henson "magic triangle" of making Muppets is pupil placement. There is a specific measurement for them, but ultimately the pupils are individually placed and "eyeballed" by the puppet builder as to what is correct. Jim himself said that the Muppets eyes were to be "slightly crossed" and not "straight ahead" in order to create the illusion that the character is focussed and looking at something rather than ever having a blank stare. This applies even to Animal, but...it the key word here is "slightly". Over the years the Muppet builders have altered eye placement on some key Muppets (Miss Piggy's seem to change all the time) and the placement has evolved.
The one thing I have noticed is some modifications are shrinking the pupil size too much. That and the fixed -extreme- widening of the eyes doesn't look right to me. But I'll have to look at mine when it comes several weeks from now. I hope to be very conservative with alterations. I'll likely style around his mane with a minimal amount of water, sharpie the exposed plastic, change the pupils (if absolutely needed) and shade (but not replace) the tongue.
I hope his mouth can at least not be extremely wide-open. Does anyone know
how far (in inches or cm) it is possible
to close the mouth from top of mouth to top of bottom teeth as in
this diagram?