I’m an independent filmmaker and puppeteer in Toronto, Canada who blogs about puppetry and film.
Star Wars is coming to Blu-ray on September 12th and as we've come to expect, it's arriving with a few new tweaks. one of the most extensive is the replacement of the animatronic Yoda puppet in Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace with a new CGI...
This clip from Classic Creatures: Return of the Jedi provides a glimpse of how one of the original Star Wars trilogy's famous aliens, Admiral Ackbar, was brought to...
The concept behind Star Wars Uncut is one of those seemingly preposterous ideas that can only flourish online. Vimeo developer named Casey Pugh challenged Star Wars fans around the world to collaboratively make a crowdsourced, shot-for-shot remake of Star Wars in short fifteen seconds chunks using any style of filmmaking they wanted. Fans sent in...
I was doing some animatronics research the other day and I came across the YouTube channel of veteran FX artist Greg McKee, who has lots of great videos posted on YouTube....
Action figures are used as puppets in Star Wars in 3 Minutes. I’ve written about the phenomenon of “Action Figure Videos” before (previously posted examples include I’m A Marvel / I’m A DC, The Eyes of Darth Tater and The Eye of the Tiger), which I find really interesting because they’re a form of found...
Mark Hamill reminisces about working with Yoda in this clip from the documentary Legends of Film and Fantasy. Here is Luke Skywalker himself, Mark Hamill, talking about the difficulties of working with small green animatronic puppets that have exceptionally high midi-chlorian counts. It’s a five minute clip from an upcoming documentary called Legends of Film...
Some seriously dedicated Star Wars fans have built an incredible full-scale Star Destroyer set for the fan film Tydirium. This morning’s inspiration was going to be an amazing 60,000-Piece Lego Star Wars Hoth Diorama (complete with LED lights!), but never mind that. Who wants a Star Wars diorama when you can build a full-scale Star...
In the latest Ask Palpatine, the Emperor wants the rebels to stop stealing his pie. Depending on your feelings towards/knowledge of Star Wars, you may or may not enjoy Ask Palpatine. If you fall in to the first category, check out its latest wonderfully surreal...
Ask Palpatine is a new Star Wars-themed puppet podcast from Hoggworks. From the such-a-good-idea-you-wish-you’d-thought-of-it-first file comes Ask Palpatine from Hoggworks (let’s hope no one tells the Ninja…he seems like a testy sort of...
Darth Vader + Puppets = one crazy commercial. This has got to be one of the most surreal (and cute) puppet commercials I’ve ever seen…two puppets help Darth Vader get a toaster. It’s one of a series of commercials in the UK for Woolworth’s featuring their mascots Wooly and Worth. The puppets in the ad...
“Bubo Fett” is a design by artist Ben Balistreri. Simple, clever and don’t try to tell me that this design wouldn’t make a great puppet (click here for the full-size uncropped version). From Ben Balistreri’s...
“Rise Lord Tater, Rise!” The annual Star Wars Fan Movie Challenge Awards were handed out last night. I think my favourite award winner is The Eyes of Darth Tater, a clever fan film that combines puppetry and animation to re-enact the finale scenes of Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith using Mr. Potato Head figures....