I really like this animated spot that John Kelly directed for Chipotle. It’s about a farm losing its way by because of industrialization…and then reverting back to a sustainable, happier path.

Have a behind-the-scenes look at the making of it:

Via Director’s Notes.

The Panda Rabbit is a really cool mash-up of puppetry, stop-motion…and a giant panda suit. It’s the debut film of Randy D. Rosario and, if this film is any indication what he can do, he’s a filmmaker who is really worth keeping an eye on.

Here’s a fascinating look behind-the-scenes to see how he made The Panda Rabbit:

Via Motiongrapher.

Although the independent feature film Bunraku has little or no connection to puppetry, its brilliant opening titles are filled with it. The sequence takes the audience from the creation of the earth, to the dawn of human civilization and up to the present day. A key theme in the titles is the increasingly rapid development of human warfare and different styles of puppetry and animation are used to represent each passing era.

It’s a brilliant piece of work by Guilherme Marcondes, who is probably best known for Tyger (see previous post), a really popular short film that was made about five years ago using a combination of animation and Bunraku-style puppetry. The Art of the Title has a fascinating interview with Guilherme about the process of creating the titles that includes lots of great sketches and behind-the-scenes material.

Bunraku is currently playing in select U.S. cities; it will hopefully have a wider release in the near future.

Part of the legacy of Spitting Image is that it inspired a series of similar (some would say copycat) shows in other countries around the world. One of the better known examples is Les Guignols de l’info (News Puppets) in France, but there have been many others in countries ranging from Russia (Kukly) to Kenya (The XYZ Show). A fairly recent production is ZA News, a web series that pokes fun at politics in South Africa, a country that has a tradition of politically minded puppetry.

Here’s a look behind the scenes at the making of ZA News:

ZA News is currently in its fourth season online and now appears weekly on South Africa’s TopTV on Sundays nights as well.

Back in 2005 The British Film Institute hosted a special tribute to the series that included a panel discussion with several members of the Spitting Image creative team, including co-creator Peter Fluck, voice artist Steve Nallon and puppeteer Louise Gold. The BFI has a partial transcript of their discussion (sadly, the first part of it appears to have been lost), which provides some fascinating insights in to the making of the series. You can also read a review of the BFI event with some additional information here.

Something Left, Something Taken is a very cool little hand-crafted film by Tiny Inventions, an animation studio in Brooklyn, New York that consists of Max Porter and Ru Kuwahata. Together they primarily produce animated commercials and produce their own short films on the side. They have an incredibly extensive (and somewhat technical) “making of” for Something Left, Something Taken on their blog that walks you through their unique workflow for mixing real-world models with computer animation.

You can watch Something Left, Something Taken in its entirety on Vimeo.

One of the more unconventional uses of puppetry I’ve seen…believe it or not, this video was made by puppeteering real, live, kittens.

Have a look at how they did it:

Via Wired Underwire.

How To Train Your Dragon Live is a new $20 million arena show that opens next March in Melbourne and Sydney, Australia. It looks pretty incredible; all of the dragons in the show were created by the Creature Technology Company, which was previously responsible for the internationally touring arena show Walking With Dinosaurs (see previous post).

Here’s a behind-the-scenes look at how the animatronic dragons in the show are being created:

Videos via Kari and Cartoon Brew (lots more can be seen in CTC’s Vimeo profile).

Remember Dot, the world’s smallest stop motion film from back in January? Well, now Aardman Animation has gone in exactly the opposite direction for Gulp, which has broken a world record for the world’s “largest stop-motion animation set” at over 11,000 square feet and like Dot was shot using Nokia N8 smartphones.

Here’s a look behind the scenes of this really impressive project:

Via Cartoon Brew.

Earlier this year Nokia decided to launch a pink version of their Nokia N8 smartphone with a nicely done music video starring a dancing puppet/doll.

Here’s a look behind-the-scenes at the making of it:

I don’t have a full list of credits for this commercial unfortunately, but Jonny Sabbagh (see previous posts) was the lead puppeteer.