the original movie every week to make sure he
was not straying from its tone, came to embody
that same spirit of frantic creativity and cheery
perfectionism that Henson had. “The best
moments are when you’ve finished something
just before shooting and Louis says it’s not quite
right. Then you’ve got 24 hours to fix it. That’s
what’s exciting! That rush. That’s Louis pushing
it and really going for it.”
It’s not surprising that Brian Froud is
extremely pro-puppets, but he says walking onto
that set created a magic you can’t get with any
other medium. “I know these characters are just
‘stuff ’,” he says, “But the first time it moves, you
gasp. They come to life. It’s uncanny. You’re
never going to get that with CG.”A QUEST FULFILLED
The passion of everyone involved inAge Of
Resistanceis not in any doubt. Walking around
the production facility, people — puppeteers,
sculptors, set-dressers — stop to say that there is
nothinglike this being made anywhere. The fact
there is nothing else like this is both selling point
and the show’s biggest potential obstacle. There
is an inbuilt audience for this show, but not
necessarily an enormous one. When audiences
are used to CG slickness and see puppets as the
stuff of kids’ TV shows, how do you convince
them to take a puppet drama seriously?
Lisa Henson is realistic. “I don’t think you
can make a general statement that people will
accept puppets doing drama, but I think they
will in the case of this,” she says. “The level of
detail and true emotion the puppeteers brought
to the performance is just that good.”
Will Matthews of the writing team is more
bullish. “The most important part of our job is
that we’re not seen as some sort of specialty
project or some sort of niche project or
whatever,” he says. “Nobody asked [Game Of
Throneswriters] David Benioff and D.B. Weiss,
‘How are you going to make the show relatable?’
You’re going to take an emotional journey and
the fact the characters are creatures shouldn’t
enter into the equation.” Plus, he adds, “the
visual experience is unlike anything else.”
The size of the audience is out of everyone’s
hands, but they hope they’ll get to continue the
journey. They have story planned for at least two
more seasons. Whatever happens, though, Lisa
Henson can say she finally managed to realise
a continuation of the project her father called the
proudest achievement of his career.
“I’m not sure he would have ever made a
sequel because he was a bit of a restless spirit and
always wanted to be onto something new,” she says.
“That gave me a freedom on this and every single
person working on this was dedicated to living up
to the original. I believe that would have been
enough for my father and I’m pretty confident he’d
be proud of it. That is enough for me.”THE DARK CRYSTAL: AGE OF RESISTANCE IS ON NETFLIX
FROM 30 AUGUSTCREEPY PUPPETS
IT WASN’T ONLY THE DARK CRYSTAL THAT TOOK
PUPPET SHOWS TO DARK PLACESNEW ZOO REVUE
(1972-1977)
Let us be thankful that, of all the
trash TV that oozed across the
oceans to our shores, A&E’s New
Zoo Revue never made it here.
A well-intentioned, educational
kids’ show, it featured a trio of full-
bodied puppet characters —
Charlie the Owl, Freddie the Frog,
Henrietta Hippo — who lolled
about the ersatz woodland-cum-
suburbia set with unseeing, rolling
eyes and disconcertingly sagging
limbs. They might have been
discussing such matters as the
importance of patience or the
miracle of childbirth, but we knew
what they were secretly screaming:
“Kill me. Kill me. Killll meee...”FRAGGLE ROCK
(1983-1987)
On the surface, this Muppets
spin-off is nothing more than a
bit of fluffy, fantastical fun: the
googly-eyed Fraggles mess
around and have adventures in
a secret, subterranean world
beneath a lighthouse. But scrape
the candy-coloured veneer and
you have something rather
disquieting: the Fraggles’
carefree, work-shy lifestyle
involves the unthinking
exploitation of the diligent
Doozers, whose sprawling
structures they like to eat (being
made out of radishes and,
apparently, sugar), while their
oracle is a hideous, sentient pile
of compost called Marjory.
It just feels so wrong.DINOSAURS
(1991-1994)
A little bit Flintstones, a lotta
bit The Simpsons, this puppety
sit-com was all fine and mildly
funny for the most part. But
then came the unexpectedly
shocking finale. Kids tuned in
perhaps expecting a fond
farewell. What they got was
a depiction of ecological disaster
leading to the destruction of
the dinosaurs’ world through
the creation of an Ice
Age (dismissed by idiot-
businessman character B.P.
Richfield as a “fourth-quarter
problem”), and the family
huddling together as they await
their impending, icy deaths. Good
message, though.
DAN JOLINTERRAHAWKS
(1983-1986)
Gerry ‘Thunderbirds’ Anderson’s
belated return to puppet action
brought back the vehicle-heavy
action of his Supermarionation
classic, but this time there was an
added, monster-alien element
which, despite the LWT series’
tongue-in-cheek tone, often sent
latex-fuelled shivers down kids’
spines. Take MOID, for example,
the Master Of Infinite Disguise,
whose forever-staring, featureless
visage makes Lon Chaney’s
Phantom look cuddly. Or, even
worse,Yuri, a golden-eyed,
smirking teddy bear that would
clearly strangle every audience
member in their sleep if it could.Clockwise from
top left: Ancient
nature god
Aughra; Gelfling
matriarch
All-Maudra;
Drenchen clan
member Gurjin;
Evil Skeksis The
Chamberlain and
The Scientist.
Centre: The Dark
Crystal itself.