Tag Archives: The Puppet Master

Thunderbirds are GO!!! – But are they as good as the original series?

Posted on by Collette Knowles
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Despite my initial suspicion, given the lack of puppets, the new reboot of Thunderbirds for ITV (Thunderbirds Are Go) has a lot of merit and is great fun to watch.

I tend to find in general that films and television that use CGI rather than puppetry are just not as effective.  You can always tell when something is CGI rather than animated or using live puppetry and it does tend to feel a bit cheap, fake and disappointing.  There are obviously exceptions.  The work of Pixar for example does not attempt to make CGI look naturalistic but instead uses caricatured visuals which are much more effective.

Puppets have a character and expression all of their own and unlike CGI where every action is programmed a puppeteer can be surprised by the things their puppet does.  A puppeteer does not impose a set of actions and movements upon the puppet, rather the puppeteer uses the natural movement and rhythm of the puppet as a physical object in real space, (with real gravity etc.) to create the character and these determine what movements the puppeteer has the puppet make.

A lot of directors/producers recognise the unique quality that physical models, practical effects, puppets, prosthetics and animatronics can give to a film and use these techniques in their work (often in combination with CGI as well).

Indeed the “Thunderbirds Are Go” series has tried to be very respectful to the love that people have for the original Thunderbirds and the old and new Thunderbirds share a great many common elements.  Not least of these is the decision to use model work and some physical effects in combination with the CGI characters.  These models have been made by Weta Workshops in New Zealand – the same team who created the truly stunning model work for Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings films, (the films which coincidentally brought the use of CGI in film forward in huge leaps and bounds).

I watched a “making of” documentary of the “Thunderbirds Are Go” series and was delighted to hear that Weta had been taking inspiration from the original Thunderbirds sets by incorporating everyday household objects (such as a lemon squeezer and part of a Dyson vacuum cleaner) into the sets and models.  I am a big fan of re-purposing everyday household objects and waste to create new and fabulous things.

I was also amazed to discover that they were able to engage the same voice actor from the original Thunderbirds to play the ever popular “Parker” (Lady Penelope’s chauffeur).

The things we all loved about the original Thunderbirds – exciting plots, great music, suspense, explosions, ingenious machines, humour and the elaborate and fantastic ways the Tracy brothers get into their uniforms and vehicles are all still there in the new series.  Some of the plots are better than others but in the main – highly entertaining.

So what are the differences?  Gerry Anderson tried very hard to keep the “puppetness” of the characters to a minimum.  They wanted the strings to be as little noticed as possible and, to avoid the funny, unnatural walk the characters had being on view, the plots had the characters sitting down a lot or used close ups of the faces or top halves of the characters.  The puppets had sophisticated mouth moving mechanisms and features that were very realistic.  Captain Scarlet continued this quest for realism and away from caricature by reducing the size of the heads of the puppets to be closer to the proportions of a real human being.

I am not by any means criticising the puppeteering skills of the Thunderbirds team as the problems with the puppets’ gait were not necessarily their fault.  The use of long strings kept the puppeteers out of view but also diminished control compared to a short stringed marionette.  To minimise the visibility of the strings, a lesser number than is usual were used which made natural movement difficult too.  I understand there were also difficulties with weighting the puppets correctly to produce a natural walk due to the materials used.  For those who are interested – you can find out more about this in John M Blundall’s article page 19 of volume 16, Number 7 Autumn 2009 issue of The Puppet Master (The Journal of the British Puppet and Model Theatre Guild).

Despite these difficulties audiences found the puppet performances charming, fascinating and no bar at all to whole-hearted immersion in the stories that the puppets were telling.  I believe young children who watch marionette shows (even live where the strings are more visible) do not even notice the strings, as the life of the puppet and the story are all absorbing.  I heard a great many people, including Paul O’ Grady on his Radio 2 show, bemoaning the lack of puppets in the new series and saying “it’s not the same without the puppet is it?”.

While the puppets managed to tell their stories perfectly well, the CGI characters (despite lacking the charm of the puppets) are able to do things (or be seen doing things) which the puppets could not.  The sequences with Parker as the “Grey Ninja” in one of the episodes of Thunderbirds Are Go, have him leaping and sneaking about in a way the puppet Parker never could.  These movements may not have been awfully realistic for a man his age but that made it funny!

Lady Penelope’s radically altered appearance is something I find difficult to forgive and of all the CGI characters her appearance looks the most fake.  Her hair (and indeed the hair of all the characters looks solid like it has been carved out of something) and her face has none of the effortless cool and sophistication of the original Lady P. (who I’m told was modelled on the appearance of Sylvia Anderson).  The addition of a pug to her entourage is however, perfectly acceptable and it is very cute.  The new look of the pink Rolls Royce is also acceptable and pretty damn snazzy.

The look of the faces of the Tracy Brothers and the other characters is meant to be a nod to the original “eggshell” finish of the puppet faces but I can’t help wondering if this just makes the CGI look cheap and shoddy, as it looks like a mistake.  The solid-look hair would also make the characters quicker and easier to animate.  On the other hand – I do like the fact that the characters (apart from Lady P.) are very similar and recognisable from the original puppets and I have already admitted that I prefer my CGI stylised rather than realistic.

The greatly increased role of Grandma Tracy in the new series is a good change too as she adds a lot of extra humour and of course it is always good to address the male/female balance a bit.

The new series has also tackled some of the less PC slightly cringe-worthy elements of the original series (though it was of its time so some slack can be cut, I feel).  I refer to the fact that in the original series the Hood (the bad guy) has an east asian appearance and the Tracy family servants are also East Asian (so either sub-ordinate or evil hmmm!).

In the new series the Hood does not look or sound Asian (he sounds English) and Brains, who is a positive character possessing great intelligence and a member of the International Rescue team, has become an Asian character and is voiced by a British Asian actor.  It makes sense to me that “International Rescue” has taken this opportunity to become a bit more International than they were before (they only had Americans and English people originally).

I am, however, greatly disappointed that the Hood has not the same level of cheesy villain-ness as before, (I would like to see more maniacal laughing and I miss his glowing mesmeric eyes trick).

Despite the shortened running time (another new series drawback) the character interactions are given more prominence and subtlety and in many episodes are more important than the rescue scenarios.

So which is best?  I am going to sit on the fence and say I like them both.  There is nothing to stop Thunderbirds fans old & new from enjoying the original series in all its Supermarionated glory and then tuning in to find out what the latest emergency facing International Rescue is on ITV at the weekend.

At Stone Puppet Festival on the 8th and 9th of August 2015 there will be a free interactive exhibition of “classic” Thunderbirds Marionettes by Supermarionation Recreations.  A great chance to discover the puppets the new series is based on for young viewers and a nostalgic stroll down memory lane for those of us who remember and love the original Thunderbirds series.  CLICK HERE to find out more and don’t forget Stone Festival’s Crowd Funding campaign still needs your support.  Tell all your friends and pledge some money if you can please 🙂  We will be performing our Alice in Wonderland show at the festival, CLICK HERE for more info.

Meanwhile please vote in my poll below 🙂

Ted Hawkins Treasure Island Video at long last!

Posted on by Collette Knowles
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Those of you who read my two previous posts about our visit to Ted Hawkins in Blackpool may remember that I was going to attempt to put a video of Ted’s Treasure Island toy theatre show on this blog for everyone to see.  I hit a technological wall as I could not find any way of transferring the video from the DVD onto my computer.  I have now worked out how to do it, so it is my great pleasure to present Ted’s lovely version of the tale to you below.  Click here to see the previous posts “Treasure Island, Hansel & Gretel and 4 Generations of Toy Theatre Enthusiasts!” and “Treasure Island, Hansel & Gretel and 4 Generations of Toy Theatre Enthusiasts cntd.!”

 

 

Ted has also given me permission to include the text from his article for the PuppetMaster (The Journal of the British Puppet and Model Theatre Guild).  It is from the Volume 16, No.9 Autumn 2011 edition and tells all about his making process for the show:

 

 

“Not another Pirate play !     Yes, but this one is the ultimate, the essential, the first and foremost, and everybody’s favourite.    It is of course, Robert Louis Stevenson’s

 

TREASURE ISLAND.

(not another “yo ho ho, and a bottle of rum !”  ?)

 

Last year I had begun to consider that perhaps my toy theatre days were over… a serious worsening eye problem, and nearing 80, but then in October I saw the PUFFIN 1953 publication of TREASURE ISLAND, as a children’s toy theatre cut-out book.   Ten scenes, and a full cast of characters, – Jim Hawkins, Long John Silver, Squire Trelawney, Doctor Livesey,  and all brought to life with a brilliant script adaptation by Geoffrey Robinson.  

 

This could be fun !  I thought…  Keep it fairly simple, and possibly I could even make it in ‘pop-up’ form, so that there would be no scene changing.   Everything would just pop up !     Or would it ?     The first problem was the sound-track, and even that went unbelievably easy.    Enid, my wife had a hair appointment, and while she was out, I decided to read the script book into my Apple’s ‘Garage-band’…  straight off, page after page, taking the characters ‘ad lib’  as they presented themselves, and surprisingly finished the whole play just before Enid returned.  I listened to it…

and it wasn’t bad, I thought.     Music and sound effects followed.    

Perhaps I could do this as a play, and in time for Harry Oudekerk’s Festival at Harderwijk in the Netherlands in early June… ?    – as long as my eyes held out.     

 

The end of last year was therefore taken up with making the scenes.   Joining each one to the next one, so that when one was lowered backwards, it pulled the next one up into view, and so on…   The first two or three, or even four were no problem, but as the ‘book of scenes’ got thicker and thicker, and of course heavier and heavier, there were problems.   Also the fact that the wings of each scene had to fold forwards, thus causing the back-scene to be further away than normal from the front of the stage, the angle of the audience’s width of view was quite narrow.   Nobody sitting to the side would be able to see the full scene.   

 

What to do ?     I eventually decided that there was nothing left, but to expose myself !  – and my co-performer,  and to put everything in full view of the audience, – warts and all ! 

We would stand in front of the proscenium, to operate the characters and to lift the scenes, so that they would be ‘held’ within the open proscenium, and then each scene as it finished would be lowered behind the proscenium, and the next one would take its place.   The audience would therefore see us ‘fumbling’ with each character as it was placed onto the stage, and would also see it removed.   No convenient wings would hide our short-comings !  

 

Originally I had thought of operating the characters single-handed, – thinking that my wife could ‘feed’ the characters appearing from her side, into sunken shallow runways, and I could just pull the end of the strip of wood, or whatever, that showed itself protruding from its ‘slot’ and the character would magically move towards me…  no rods, or wire holders showing, – just the characters feet, as if ‘walking on water’ with no visible connection to its hidden strip of wood. ?

 

The problem was to try to keep each ‘stage-floor’ as thin as possible, as with ten scenes, the total thickness of the ‘book’ would get too heavy and thick.    This was only made possible when I bought a roller-blind in the sale at a furniture shop, for just £5, and found it consisted of a couple of hundred extremely thin strips of bamboo, – conveniently painted black.    These bamboo strips are no more than 1mm thick / 7mm wide. 

They do not break, (?)  they can be bent or twisted, and a slot can be made into each piece, allowing a short vertical insert of bamboo, – with the character attached to it, to be glued to it, and thus moved along the strip,   A gap of approx 3mm has to be made between the hidden base strip, and the feet of each character so that they do indeed seem to be ‘walking on water’ !       These bamboo strips with each character added, are amazing.  They can be inserted into the various slots, and easily support the character… even though these were up to 15cms or 6 inches high, and yet are as pliable as plastic. 

 

Further difficulties, that seemed almost impossible to overcome at the time, were that some characters had to be in place as the scene was lifted… for instance Long John Silver sitting on a barrel as the Blockhouse scene opens.   It is night, and Jim has returned to find the Pirates have taken possession, and his friends have gone.   This scene would be set up normally with the curtain down, but of course we have no curtain, and Long John Silver could hardly be pushed on, – riding a barrel.    To make matters worse, this figure has to be removed when night changes to day.   So no fixing or lifting methods can be permanent.   Israel Hands is also seen sitting propped up on the deck of the Hispaniola, as scene eight lifts up, bottle of brandy in his hand, ready for Jim to confront, – this figure also has to be easily removed halfway through the scene, yet has to be fixed firmly enough to be in place as the scene is first shown. 

 

I made the characters in three dimensional ‘decoupage’ style, keeping to added layers of card, for a change, – instead of aluminium, and in many cases, found that I could cut the clothing to stand proud from the figure, and to bend and shape the limbs.    Main characters were animated such as Israel Hands holding the knife, and crossing the stage in menacing manner on his way to kill Jim… or the Captain in the first scene after being given the final warning by Blind Pew, clutches his heart and staggers backwards into his room, to die.     

 

So the ‘keeping it fairly simple’ idea, did not exactly work out.  As you can see.

We finished up with my daughter Wendy assisting me, on the other side of the stage, and Enid helping behind scenes, to take our many discarded characters.   As many will remember. Wendy’s daughter Rachel assisted me in the Forest of Bondy six years ago, so we are keeping it ‘in the family’ !    

 

Harry’s Festival, – the third, – proved to be a huge success, with perfect weather once again, wonderful hospitality from the various ‘open houses’ and a really memorable and heart-warming experience for all those taking part.   Other performers from England were, Brian and Pat Hollins, with HIGH TOBY, – another Puffin production, strangely enough,    This was their first-ever public performance, and they handled it like pro’s.

The third from GB were ‘Rough Magic’ A young promising couple, performing a very modern HANSEL & GRETEL.

All in all, there were twelve of us, – performers, from Austria, Germany, The Netherlands, and England. With performances ranging from a Dutch Gilbert & Sullivan’s RUDDIGORE to a German Mark Twain’s ADVENTURES OF TOM SAWYER.     

A most unconventional eye-catching back-projection pop-up ICE BOOK,  and conventional stories from writers like Hans Anderson, such as BIG KLAUSS & LITTLE KLAUSS, by Ab Vissers.    Too many to mention in detail, but a Festival to remember, and one that I never thought I would be able to attend, but one to be so thankful for being present.”

 

Ted will be performing his own pop-up version of a Hansel & Gretel at the Vischmarkt Papierentheater Festival in Harderwijk (the Netherlands) which is on the 13,14 & 15th May this year.

Our own version of Hansel & Gretel is available for bookings too – for more information and a video CLICK HERE

If you are interested in receiving a copy of The Puppet Master, (which is a fantastic high quality magazine with lots of great photographs) then you might be interested in becoming a member of the BPMTG.  You can find out more on their website http://www.puppetguild.org.uk/