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Opinion about this years pawpet show
Fineas:
Wow... after reading all that I almost feel ashamed to say anything bad at all.
For starters. I really liked this years Pawpet show. My favorite is EF 15, because it felt like a couple of stories in one. The theme spoke to me, the first time I saw the main cast and I just love Mika. Really skipped heartbeats when she got shot, and even more when I thought she wouldn't survive.
I'm going to try not to repeat any one else, so apart from some small things that are unavoidable and a couple that have gone wrong because of the incredible short rehearsal time. I really loved the show. A completely new cast build just for this show, awesome characters (the daughter lost some credit with me by being so incredibly stubborn and devastatingly rude) so the transition to hurt, sweet and loving felt a bit to sudden. Still, it was a clever scene, really heart touching. And I hear people complaining about the heads they saw all the time, but I don't hear people saying how AWSOME those quadruple animals looked. The moves they could do with walking, jumping etc just looked amazing.
As far for storytelling goes, I feel you couldn't have changed anything without compromising in other departments. If their was more humor the message wouldn't have come over. If their was less aggression, the conflict wouldn't have worked.
I have 1 comment that bothered me for the storytelling part.
The dragon at the end scene was on the run for days, taken captive, tortured and then taken under automated fire. Still he was able to easily over throw his wife and didn't looked hurt at all. Sorry, but it feels a bit Dues Ex Machinae. If he would have been weazing or just dropped his hurt body over her it would have felt more appropriate. (But maybe that would have been impossible seeying they where both operated by 3 people and you where already pretty close together, so I see why you might not have been able too)
And I have a question.
- The shopkeeper that fixed the telephone made a joke at the end of the scene, so everyone was laughing. But, I thought I heard a shot. So... did he get shot?
That's all. All criticism aside, I sat through the whole show only left the second pauze for a beer. I didn't want a miss a second. And it has been worth it. I respect the medium and understand it's limitations. You are masters in your own right bringing us yet again with an amazing story, backdrops, puppets, video, props and music that you produced just for this years convention. I find it incredible. Thank you yet again for a wonderful experience.
Fairlight:
Yes, the poor shopkeeper got shot... The sound effects for it played after lights out, tho.
Riffuchs:
This pawpetshow I liked a lot. The 'new characters"' did fit nicely into the story. It had both universal and some theme specific humor in it (like "Hello World" and "There's more than one way to do it"). The plotline was foreseeable now and then but it was fun to watch what ways it would go to end up like suspected. And, most important, it didn't felt like another episode where character interaction and jokes may also be forseeable.
It was fun to watch how so many different elements (the story taking place on stage, the predited video material, prerecordes samples and so on) fall into place so smoothly.
The scene that I will never forget was the one where the shop keeper got shot while the sceen had already ended "on stage". He was just a poor guy that had no part in the big scheme but was just unfortunate to meet the wrong people at the wrong time and the way he died portrayed how unimportant one can be. He was just a sidekick char and died just like that, he has just some minutes on stage and thefore killing him was for the 'bad guys' as easy as he was unimportant.
I took me the whole next scene to process the thoughs it stired until I could keep track of the show again.
CleanerWolf:
I liked the Pawpet Show. At first I was wondering about the absence of the well known main characters, but then I understood, why the PPS team was trying something new and it was refreshing.
My favorite character was Null the white rabbit. It was very noticable how much fun Eisfuchs had, bringing him to live. I also liked the other characters of course. In the last years there was a tendency to bring more and more custom build puppets into the show and this year, the PPS team raised that kind of art to a new level. My jaw dropped when I noticed, that the four-legged characters were able to close their eye lids. So many details, so many love and effort were put into those puppets. I was really impressed.
My favorite scene was the "Flynn's" nightclub scene. "You broke the sim!" ;D
Some people already complained about the absence of any ending song. I would have liked a more "epic" ending too, it was a bit weak compared to previous shows, but Null's monologue compensated it somehow, because I really liked the message he had to tell.
The story delivered a good balance of humor and drama. Maybe it was a little bit too technical for some people in some moments with all the h4x0rs tricks.
Overall it was a very entertaining show and I enjoyed it.
Oh... and always remember: "The sky is the limit !" :)
Cheetah:
--- Quote from: Fineas on 23.08.2011, 23:40:14 ---Wow... after reading all that I almost feel ashamed to say anything bad at all.
--- End quote ---
Naah, that's fine. So far most criticism has been on a pretty sophisticated level ... really, if what people are criticising here for the most part is really the only things they can think of, I think we're getting away pretty well this year :) And we know it's impossible to appeal to everyone.
--- Quote ---And I hear people complaining about the heads they saw all the time, but I don't hear people saying how AWSOME those quadruple animals looked. The moves they could do with walking, jumping etc just looked amazing.
--- End quote ---
Thank you! We were a little bit amazed how versatile they turned out to be. When we tried them out for the first time, we were very worried if we would be able to play them convincingly, and believe me ... we're our own biggest critics in that regard :) And we had some serious issues to overcome with proportions, height, and the body sized of our actors! Pan had to wear 10cm high platform boots, and Yun (the golden tiger) had to be retrofitted with reinforced rubber bands in her back so she could hold her head high all the time. And coordinating three people to move four paws, head/jaw/eyes/tail and moving the body at the same time was quite a challenge too. Especially furing the fighting/running/jumping. People got themselves quite a few bruises and scratches during the rehearsals.
(I don't think that anyone has ever tried playing a quadruped puppet from below yet. I've seen it done "black screen" style with puppeteers playing the puppets on the ground, or as marionettes ... but not handpuppet-style from below)
The more am I happy to read that people liked how they moved :)
--- Quote ---I have 1 comment that bothered me for the storytelling part.
The dragon at the end scene was on the run for days, taken captive, tortured and then taken under automated fire. Still he was able to easily over throw his wife and didn't looked hurt at all. Sorry, but it feels a bit Dues Ex Machinae.
--- End quote ---
Yeah, I admit, making the dragon virtually indistructable was a bit too obviously a plot device. There are a lot of directions in the script to hint at how hurt he actually is, but then ... I guess it didn't quite come across in the end.
Just for fun, I'll give you a little glimpse into the writing process that lead to this situation:
You can't imagine how many times the ending scene has been re-written to make it work somehow :) Originally we were planning to have a real played-out ending, with everyone escaping from the roof before Jiao-Chan even arrives. Cai-Lung was supposed to fly away from the rooftop, taking Cornelius and Yun with him. Then Jiao-Chan was supposed to have the final dialogue with Null, and then Null would take over control and the story would be over.
Later in the production, when the puppets were being built, we realized that Cai-Lung carrying other puppets and flying away was impossible to play. So our "heroes" had to stay on the roof and face Jiao-Chan - which is problematic, because she's got like, a private army behind her. So we re-wrote the story into what it finally turned out to be: Jiao Chan lost her support from the government because she disobeyed the orders of her superiours and decided to go after Cai-Lung herself. So in the end, she shows up on the roof alone. But how do you take down a tigress with a gun without shooting her first? So we came up with Cai-Lung just taking the hits and then basically just dominating Jiao-Chan ... and that was the ending that you got to see.
(By the way, some bits of the original ending are still in there. Like, Cornelius asking "You're a dragon. You can fly, right?". You can spot more if you listen closely :) )
--- Quote ---- The shopkeeper that fixed the telephone made a joke at the end of the scene, so everyone was laughing. But, I thought I heard a shot. So... did he get shot?
--- End quote ---
Yes. And I was a bit surprised that people laughed! It was totally not meant to be funny. It was supposed to be tragic! The man's a hero, and he probably knew a lot more about what was going on than he admitted. He was a very close friend of Null.
--- Quote ---That's all. All criticism aside, I sat through the whole show only left the second pauze for a beer. I didn't want a miss a second. And it has been worth it. I respect the medium and understand it's limitations. You are masters in your own right bringing us yet again with an amazing story, backdrops, puppets, video, props and music that you produced just for this years convention. I find it incredible. Thank you yet again for a wonderful experience.
--- End quote ---
You're more than welcome. I'm happy we were able to give you a great time. That's what we're here for after all :)
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