You know what drives me nuts? This kind of thing drives me nuts:
And this:
Granted, I am as big a fan and user of Photoshop as the next girl, but seriously, is nothing sacred? I also understand that perhaps I am not the most unbiased judge on these sorts of things, but a group of people spent time giving life to characters used to teach our kids (who we were habitually parking in front of television) how to read. Satire, you say? Yeah, that excuse would work if these images were used intentionally as satire, and not by sixteen year old boys on their MySpace pages.
Equally annoying, however, is the "adults only" disclaimer on the Sesame Street DVD that has episodes from 1969-1974. It is included because, in our attempt to sanitize everything, the following is now considered offensive or dangerous to our young people: Cookie Monster eats too many cookies, Alistair Cookie smokes a pipe and then eats it, Big Bird is delusional due to his having an imaginary friend, and Oscar the Grouch not only has bad manners, but poor hygiene. I mean, come on.
I, as you can see, am super-sensitive about the sanctity of puppet characters. Every puppeteer will probably not agree with me. There are plenty of accomplished puppeteers who create fully developed characters who are not super-sensitive or attached to the "souls" of their puppets. However, the following situation, I find, particularly odd:
Remember Labyrinth? David Bowie? "Dance, magic, dance...?" Unfortunately, Hoggle, the grumpy giant, did not fare so well. Due to lost luggage on a trip by Henson Associates, Unclaimed Baggage Center, a company that purchases, well, unclaimed baggage and then resells it, ended up with Hoggle. And there is where Hoggle stayed. And continued to rot, due to the foam that was used in his creation. No one claimed him, until Sowatzka's Dolls found it in their hearts to restore him. I wonder if (then) Henson Associates didn't notice that he was missing? Or after a large number of puppets, one missing isn't any big deal? No blame, I just wonder.
And this:
Granted, I am as big a fan and user of Photoshop as the next girl, but seriously, is nothing sacred? I also understand that perhaps I am not the most unbiased judge on these sorts of things, but a group of people spent time giving life to characters used to teach our kids (who we were habitually parking in front of television) how to read. Satire, you say? Yeah, that excuse would work if these images were used intentionally as satire, and not by sixteen year old boys on their MySpace pages.
Equally annoying, however, is the "adults only" disclaimer on the Sesame Street DVD that has episodes from 1969-1974. It is included because, in our attempt to sanitize everything, the following is now considered offensive or dangerous to our young people: Cookie Monster eats too many cookies, Alistair Cookie smokes a pipe and then eats it, Big Bird is delusional due to his having an imaginary friend, and Oscar the Grouch not only has bad manners, but poor hygiene. I mean, come on.
I, as you can see, am super-sensitive about the sanctity of puppet characters. Every puppeteer will probably not agree with me. There are plenty of accomplished puppeteers who create fully developed characters who are not super-sensitive or attached to the "souls" of their puppets. However, the following situation, I find, particularly odd:
Remember Labyrinth? David Bowie? "Dance, magic, dance...?" Unfortunately, Hoggle, the grumpy giant, did not fare so well. Due to lost luggage on a trip by Henson Associates, Unclaimed Baggage Center, a company that purchases, well, unclaimed baggage and then resells it, ended up with Hoggle. And there is where Hoggle stayed. And continued to rot, due to the foam that was used in his creation. No one claimed him, until Sowatzka's Dolls found it in their hearts to restore him. I wonder if (then) Henson Associates didn't notice that he was missing? Or after a large number of puppets, one missing isn't any big deal? No blame, I just wonder.
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