Puppets - Stop Motion: Passion, Process and Performance - page 25

Being too bucolic for me, with its constant sunshine and jollity, and folksy, bland doll coming
to life, Coppelia lost out in my af ection to the other ballet puppet, the darker, rejected and
tortured puppet Petruschka from Stravinsky.
Inspired not by the story but by that brilliant,
lyrical, dangerous and exhilarating music, I
have wanted to i lm this for ages. This story has
appealing dif erent layers; the character set
apart, troubled but still having to dazzle the
audience. The hubristic wish of a lonely puppet
to feel real human emotions, and the fact that
although he dies, his spirit still dances relentlessly
and undiminished continue to excite me. It's a
multilayered, deeply sexy tragedy about a puppet
treated seriously, appealing to adults and children.
Little wonder that Petruschka appeals.

Like the Nutcracker, I wanted Pinocchio to stay a
puppet: his movements were more interesting and
his world was more eccentric. I wonder what it was
I feared that characters lost when they became
human. Did they lose their naivety and have to
face the real world and its responsibilities? Perhaps
life was more colourful, or at least more carefree
and less complicated as a puppet. Perhaps real
life just looked dull. Perhaps this life was way too
traditional, predictable and sensible, none of which
appeals to me. Life as an animator has none of
those qualities.

A dancer as the Nutcracker puppet
(Richard Haynes).

Are you excited more by a CG fi lm where Peter Pan fl ew with convincing
realism, or see a stage production, where there's a complicity to use your
imagination?

JD - It would depend on the production. Absolute realism has never been important to me. I like
theatrical stylisation, even in fi lms. However, I do think there should be an attempt to suggest reality.
So good dramatics and style with wires showing wins out over lesser dramatics and style with fl awless
fl ying. But good dramatics and style with fl awless fl ying would be even better.

TB - I enjoy stage productions more than movies, but I love animation more than anything. My late
wife's sister, an actress here in Chicago, turned me on to the stage in ways that I never had seen before. I
love theatre.

KD - With CG it has to be done well. Harry Potter, now that's done well … I want to go to that school
and it's all so believable - to me anyway. However, something about theatre, about nearly being able to
touch the scene and hear the voices is magical. I like both, if done well!