Chicago Sun-Times: Only Miss Piggy’s creator knows the depths of her tragic origin story. Frank Oz, who gave life to the character in the early 1970s, says Piggy left her hometown farm for life in the big city after her dad died in a tractor accident and she had a falling out with her mother.
3 comments:
This article is a fun way of showing how much thought and care goes into voice acting of the muppets. These puppeteers have thought through these characters thoroughly to figure out how they react. Its sad that these people who created such beloved characters are not using their skills anymore. Maybe with CGI people are less impressed by the muppets, event though the amount of thought and care was immense. It wonderful the Victoria Labalme encouraged her husband to document and show the public what creating the Muppets was like. Maybe this movie can inspire people to engage with the Muppets and other characters. Henson created a world that inspired the people he worked with and it seems to have fallen apart without him. I really loved this article. Though I have to admit that I clicked on it because of Ms. Piggy; hearing that she took part in a bacon commercial is hysterical.
Puppetry is something that I never thought I would be particularly interested in. But this past year has opened my eyes to the interesting things that go on behind the scenes with regards to this kind of talent. This article is particularly interesting to me because it shows what gives the puppets their “souls”. I think that backstory is one of the most interesting things about characters and stories, particularly when they aren’t directly explained to the audience. For example, I find it really interesting to think about how Miss Piggy’s days in a bacon commercial could affect her want to keep a job no matter what it is as long as it keeps her from having to do something like that again. Backstory provides the motivation, uniqueness, and depth of each character. Don’t let me get started on how this affects minimalist stories, or we will be here all night. Backstory is never something that I would have thought of for characters like the Muppets, but it gives me a great sense of satisfaction to know that someone else did think of it.
This is such a warm and comforting article to read. It makes my heart very happy to learn more about the incredibly talented puppeteers behind The Muppets. I never watched the muppets growing up, but my aunt loved them and would play the movies for me whenever she could get the chance. One of my earliest memories is watching Labyrinth as a pre-teen. I used to be in awe of the craftsmanship behind all of the puppets. Something that still amazes me to this day is that puppets are so incredibly rich in character that we are willing to suspend our disbelief so much as to follow a prop on an emotional journey. Isn't that magical? So rich in character that we don't even need humans to make it compassionate, or exciting, or whimsical. One of my favorite excerpts of this article was the quote where one of the puppeteers said it was the best environment because it wasn't about ago, it was about the art. I mean truly that is what real art always aspires to me. It's amazing that Henson created such an amazing empire, not only financially successful, but an empire of compassion.
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