A Law Unto Himself is a new Australian documentary that catches up with Roger Law, one half of Fluck and Law, the dynamic duo who created the long-running satirical British series Spitting Image.

Burned out and at his wit’s end, Roger fled to Australia after Spitting Image ended its legendary run in 1996. There he began a slow process of rediscovering himself and his art. Inspired by Chinese-Australian ceramicist Ah Xian and the breathtaking landscape and wildlife of his adopted homeland he forged a new artistic path for himself that took him all the way to Jingdezhen, a Chinese city renowned for its ceramics where he rediscovered his passion for art.

It’s a fascinating and honest look at a famous artist in the process of rediscovering himself. You watch it online at www.abc.net.au

This commercial for We Buy Any Car (a used car purchaser in the United Kingdom) features a clever combination of puppetry, animation and an annoyingly catchy jingle.

The puppetry in the ad was supplied by Hattie Thomas and Matt Lloyd of Smoking Apples Theatre, who are featured in this look behind the scenes:

Look who’s back, it’s Flat Eric! With a special guest appearance by…William Fichtner?

Via Director’s Notes.

Say, you know what we haven’t done around here lately? A run-down of Michael Jackson puppet acts!

Let’s get started after the jump…

#5 Scott Land’s Michael Marionette

Michael Jackson always seems to be a popular act for marionette puppeteers to spoof and with good reason. Have you ever tried to make a rod puppet moonwalk? (early in my career I had to and I don’t recommend it unless you have a lot of patience). Probably the best Michael marionette you’ll ever see is performed by Scott Land. He’s a really amazing, old school marionette puppeteer who does cabaret shows in the style of legends like Tony Sarg, Frank Paris and Rufus and Margo Rose (it probably helps that he studied under other marionette masters like Tony Urbano, Albrecht Roser and Phillip Huber).

I would love to see this live.

#4 Mini Michael

This is one of the smallest Michael marionettes I’ve seen and it’s performed by a puppeteer in (I think) Comoros, which in case you didn’t know is an archipelago in the Indian Ocean off the eastern coast of Africa.

…and don’t feel bad if you haven’t heard of Comoros before, I had to look it up on Wikipedia myself!

#3 Malaysian Michael

Another thing that Michael Jackson puppet acts seem to have in common is that they’re really popular in Latin America and Southeast Asia (especially the Philippines and Malaysia for reasons that I don’t completely understand). This act from a magic convention in Malaysia isn’t that great, but I give the performer full props for actually singing rather than just lip syncing to a prerecorded track.

#2 Terry-Fator-as-Michael

You know who doesn’t need to lip sync either? Terry Fator. Now intricate, complex manipulation isn’t really Terry’s thing (he’s more of a straight Ventriloquist/impressionist) but, who cares? Is there a better or funnier celebrity impressionist working in puppetry today? I seriously doubt it.

#1 Damon Scott’s Michael Monkey

Our last act is Damon Scott, who nearly won the first season of Britain’s Got Talent. This is a video of his first appearance on the show and watch how he actually makes Simon Cowell grin and laugh out loud. Just accomplishing that alone should win you a cool million on that show!

I hadn’t heard of Titan The Robot until recently, but apparently he’s kind of a big deal.

I wonder who made him? I want one!

Punch is celebrating his 350th birthday this weekend and he’s having a huge party right where it all began.

It was 350 years ago yesterday that famed diarist Samuel Pepys was out on a stroll in London’s Covent Garden and recorded an encounter with “an Italian puppet play that is within the rayles there, which is very pretty, the best that ever I saw…” He was describing a marionette performance by an Italian puppeteer named Pietro Gimonde (who apparently performed as “Signor Bologna”) featuring a popular puppet character from his native country known as Pulcinella. Eventually, “Pulcinella” became “Punch” and a British cultural icon was born.

Punch as a marionette would go on to hit the height of his fame in the early 18th century before evolving in to a hand puppet in the mid-18th century and picking up a wife (Judy), a baby and a large cast of supporting characters along the way. Although not as popular as they once were, Punch and Judy shows are still performed all over England today, although never more so than at the annual Punch and Judy Festival in Covent Garden, which celebrates “Punch’s birthday” on May 9th (the date Pepy’s entry in his diary). This year’s festival takes place May 12-13 in in Covent Garden Piazza, London and will be extra special, as befits a famous fellow who’s been entertaining audiences for 350 years.

Even if you’re not in London this weekend, don’t despair! Events to celebrate Punch’s “Big Grin Birthday” are ongoing throughout the rest of the year, including a special Happy Birthday, Mr Punch exhibit at the V&A Museum of Childhood July 14th through December 9th. You can find more information and a complete listing of events celebrating Punch’s 350th Birthday around the UK at www.thebiggrin350.com.

(Embedded at the top of this post is a brief clip of Geoff Felix’s Punch and Judy show – which I’m told is fantastic – at the 2005 Punch and Judy Festival in Covent Garden)

This is a seriously awesome giant puppet, created by the UK’s brilliant Blind Summit Theatre for a production of Xavier Montsalvatge’s opera El Gato con Botas (“Puss in Boots”) in 2010. Note that the importance of breath in puppetry is mentioned in the audio commentary that accompanies the video.

Puppets play a big role in this fantastic music video for Spider, the debut single for UK singer singer Kirsty Almeida. I especially liked the way human features are motion tracked on to Kirsty’s hand puppet and the video’s titular arachnid.

Via Titerenet.

Is it me, or are we seeing more shadow puppetry than ever before? The latest example is this video for the song Second Nature by British pop band Raising Maisie.

This music video for Small Hands by Keaton Henson is another great collaboration between the singer and UK puppeteer Jonny Sabbagh. They previously worked together on the video for Henson’s Charon.

Found via Krista.