An excited Adam Savage visited the legendary Jim Henson’s Creature Shop in Burbank, California, to learn how talented puppeteers bring puppets to life. The studio was working on Fraggle Rock: Back to the Rock at the time of Savage’s visit.
Adam Savage visits one of the world’s most joyful places: Jim Henson’s Creature Shop!
Savage spoke with John Tartaglia and Donna Kimball as they were operating their characters Gobo Fraggle and Mokey Fraggle. The pair explained how they connect with their puppets, the need to keep a straight eye line with the monitor, how to place themselves for the greatest believability, and how muscle memory helps them do their jobs.
It is a muscle memory and it’s I think it’s like being a dancer. You know your muscles get trained in a certain way that you remember how to do certain things without thinking about it, you know. I mean, a great dancer doesn’t have to think about a time step after a while right and that’s kind o the same kind of puppetry it’s like you just know. Even right now how we’re nodding like that. It’s like we’ve been so trained to keep the puppets alive that we don’t even think about it.
