Air NewZeland’s Rico (see previous post) strikes again…this time he’s interviewing David Hasselhoff.

Tomorrow would have been the 75th birthday of Jim Henson. To help celebrate his life and career Google has teamed up with the Jim Henson Company. If you visit the Google Homepage tonight or tomorrow you’ll see a special “Google Doodle” featuring six digital puppets that you can perform using your mouse and keyboard.

It’s pretty neat to see digital puppets on the homepage of Google, but what I especially love about this is the way that it seems to be unleashing people’s creativity. Within hours of the Google Doodle’s appearance videos of digital puppeteering began popping up on YouTube. So far most of them seem to be making “digital puppet karoke” videos.

Here’s one of the Black Eyed Peas’ Boom, Boom, Pow:

…and one of Earth Angel:

Pretty neat, huh?

Cross-posted from Machin-X: Digital Puppetry.

There was lots of Muppet-related stuff to see at Disney’s D23 Expo this past weekend. Brian Henson accepted a Disney Legend award – which recognizes people who have made “an extraordinary and integral contribution to The Walt Disney Company” – on behalf of his father Jim. Afterwards, Brian treated the crowd to the live puppetry demonstration above, re-enacting Jim Henson’s classic “I’ve Grown Accustomed to Her Face skit” with Leslie Carrara-Rudolph.

The marketing machine for the upcoming Muppet movie (see previous post) was in full swing as well. Jason Segal made an appearance on stage with Kermit the Frog and Miss Piggy to introduce clips from the new movie and Kermit also performed a duet with Rowlf the Dog:

Visit Tough Pigs and Hollywood.com for more coverage and commentary about the Muppets at D23.

Here’s a look behind the scenes of X•tink•shun: A Wild Puppet X•perience, a brand-new attraction at the Philadelphia Zoo featuring a cast of puppets made by the Jim Henson Company in New York. The show revolves around a group of endangered (and in one case extinct) animals who want to launch a marketing campaign to to enlist humans “to bring about the X•tink•shun of extinction.”

One of the highlights of the show is a “Save our Species Parade” featuring some great-looking giant puppets designed by Tim Lagasse. Here they are in action at a recent press event promoting X•tink•shun:

X•tink•shun: A Wild Puppet X•perience runs at the Philadelphia Zoo through October 31st. For more information visit www.xtinkshun.org.

Via Muppet Musings.

Remember Juicy Fruit’s Serenading Unicorn? He (she?) is still serenading. In addition to the video above and lots of short updates on YouTube, the Unicorn has been busy serenading Sarah Silverman. Kudos to Juicy Fruit for keeping this campaign running. I’m not sure if it’s helping them sell more chewing gum, but it certainly is entertaining.

Hat tip to Puppeteers Unite.

Remember Air Zealand’s Rico? Well, he’s back and this time he’s teamed up with Snoop Dog, who’s apparently the Hip Hop equivalent of Orson Wells (seriously, is there anywhere Snoop doesn’t turn up eventually?).

Here’s a look behind the scenes:

More Rico can be found in Air Zealand’s YouTube Channel; while you’re there be sure not to miss the world’s most awesome in-flight safety video.

Via Puppeteers Unite.

Back in 1969 The Muppets produced a pilot for a TV series based on the comic strip The Wizard of Id, which had debuted a few years earlier and was very popular at the time. A few people have been lucky enough to see this pilot at public screenings of rare Henson films over years, but now the Jim Henson Company has put it online so everyone can enjoy it. It’s a notable project because it was the first time The Muppets produced puppets that were based on pre-existing characters.

Via Puppeteers Unite.

Tough Pigs posted another great interview last week, this time with writer David Misch who worked on The Muppets Take Manhattan and Jim Henson’s little-known Inner Tube pilot. In the interview David recounts his time with the Muppets as well as collaborating with Frank Oz on the famous “lost” ending of Little Shop of Horrors. As is always the case with Tough Pigs’ interviews, it’s a great read so be sure to check it out.

This is one of the most talked-about performances from last night’s Grammy Awards, Cee Lo Green channeling Elton John (circa the Muppet Show) with Gweneth Platrow and puppets from the Jim Henson Company.

Update: YouTube has been fast and furious taking down clips from the Grammys and there doesn’t seem to be a sanctioned version of this available yet, so I’ve embedded a brief authorized clip from Yahoo above. Trying checking the CBS Grammy website, which has unfortunately blocked access to their videos from Canada.

The latest installment of the Henson.com Podcast is out and features a great interview with frequent Henson puppeteer Victor Yerrid. Victor chats with Henson.com Podcast host Grant Baciocco about how he began his career as a Sesame Street intern and became a puppeteer and some of the great projects that he’s worked on over the years. Click here to listen to the full interview; there’s also additional material that didn’t make the final cut available on Henson.com.

If you’d like to see some of Victor’s puppetry, check out past posts on PuppetVision about just some of his prolific work.