Starting with the obvious
Greetings all,
I thought I'd begin my Blog postings with the most obvious puppet performance; Yoda (Empire Strikes Back).
The first time I saw Yoda, I thought he was real. He breathed and moved, and looked right at you. He must be real (Keep in mind that I was still pretty young when Empire came out). It never even occured to me that Yoda was a puppet. I still can't remember exactly when I figured it out...As I became interested in Puppetry, again and again, we would bring up Yoda as a shining example of tradition and technology molded into brilliant performance.
Think about it, that tiny little mouth had a world of expression, those little ear flicks conveyed such personality, his eyes seemed to reflect such sad history. He was a simple and complex character performed simply and complexly--he was a hand puppet with live hands and cable controls--Frank Oz had a team of folks working with him to bring Yoda to life--now as a puppeteer and self-proclaimed Yoda fan, I SHOULD, in fact, know the names of every single puppeteer on that puppet...but, I don't...I DO know that Mike Quinn was a hand at some point, David Greenaway was involved in Jedi and EP I, I think Tony Philpott was there (don't quote me on that). My pal David Barclay was there. These folks worked together as a team to bring this incredible character to life-- it was magic, you know? I've never seen it's equal again. Oh, now don't start freaking out! I HAVE seen great performances! But, this one was MAGIC. Everytime I get in front of the camera, I want to do something equally brilliant.
I'm just glad it exists for us to watch. Haven't seen it in awhile? Go watch it now.
For some fun facts on Yoda, check out yodajeff.com.
