Was Jim Henson a puppet master or a Muppet pastor? This pun question, posed by writer and Muppet enthusiast Aimee Knight, has stayed with me since the two-day symposium on the legacy of Henson’s work was held at the University of Bristol – and online – on September 16th and 17th 2022.
Read MoreWhen it comes to the subject of the relationship between fantasy and animation, few bodies of work are as pertinent to the conversation as the special effects of Ray Harryhausen. The Ray Harryhausen: Titan of Cinema exhibit was set to open in Edinburgh in the summer of 2020 at the National Galleries of Scotland.
Read MoreAlthough Nicole Brending’s feature animated film originally toured festivals as early as January 2019, Dollhouse’s general release coming in the wake of the #FreeBritney campaign feels somewhat auspicious. The film rides a satirical wave over US celebrity-centric media, focusing on the abuse and exploitation of a child singer, told through the medium of plastic dolls and puppets.
Read MoreIn around 1957, Jim Henson travelled through Europe, as Michael Davis describes in his book Street Gang: The Complete History of Sesame Street and “took in puppet performances throughout Europe…impressed at how appreciated the art form was outside the United States” (2008: 83). It was this commitment to the form of puppetry and its capacity for emotional expression and innovation of technology and technique that finds such full realization in The Dark Crystal (Jim Henson, 1982) as a vividly authored high fantasy film.
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