This week on Jim Henson’s Creature Shop Challenge the phrase go big or go home, can’t begin to describe the creature brief. Opening with the large dark unicorn from the Lady GaGa “Born This Way” Tour, the creature creators are introduced to the massive construction and movement. Movement is key to bringing a large creature to life in a way that you lose the puppeteer and the creature takes over. To add an element of competition the creature must perform on a black lit stage with accents in UV paints.
First the contestants are divided into teams of two leaving three teams, this is the downside to the small group, I feel like we just got started and it’s already almost half over. The teams are allowed to meet with their performer and discuss the movement of their creature, which is a huge advantage when you start to fabricate, when it’s discovered that two of the groups are doing similar designs. Both Melissa and Ben and Russ and Robert have chosen to do large birds that will encompass the performer and give them long flowing motions in the necks and wings. Despite the similar designs the creatures thankfully have very distinct movements and shapes that each is refreshingly original.
In camp Melissa and Ben the word of the week is Communication, unfortunately there for the first few days, they are out of words. Ben is such a dynamic personality that it really combats Melissa’s perky attitude. For the first time, Melissa seems like she is about to snap when finally Ben’s idea folds back on himself and it’s up to her last min fix to save their lovely loons wings. So, about this loon… When it took the stage for his screen test, you would have ever known their had been any issues. The new lighter wings that Melissa built allowed the performer to extend and contract them without the threat of a static movement while diplaying the dynamic feather work. The head sculpt had a wonderful shape that gave their creature a kind of living silliness that really worked. As for the black light painting, the team chose to airbrush a light white wash on that made it glow to life and helped to hid the simplicity of the design.
Russ and Robert’s bird constructed off of a backpack took shape insanely quick and hit the ground really running. With the boom pole the ostrich looking head has a kind of character all it’s own. The bob gives her a real organic feel. The beautiful accented red paint job gives it a real pop against the initial black coloring, and I thought it was really cool how there was a dark bird and a light bird. The major flaw with the bird was that it lacked pupils which may cause a drop in focus of the animal. Still, with the size of the eyes it kind of worked and gave it an other worldly quality. The movement Robert was able to achieve was amazing, each foot placement was clearly thought out and worked around the egg props that Russ had created. Was it a better bird? Not really, but it was still a very complete build.
The unfortunate flop of the episode was tragically the team of Jake and Lex and their poor lizard. It was so daring to build a non aviary creature for the movement challenge, however with a lack of foam knowledge they were clearly overwhelmed. I wish one of them had remember that it was about movement! Jake took entirely too much time sculpting a detailed head which left poor lost Lex to do her best on the body and movement work. Yet again we get a lot of “I’ve never’s” from Lex, I may hate those but I felt bad this week. Sadly, “Tiny’s” screen test was horrendous when the feet don’t hit the ground correctly, but all is not lost as there is some good notes about his tail movement.
At the end there is always a winner and loser and this week was a bitter sweet decision for me. First the winner made me so happy with Melissa’s last min wings winning her top prize of the night and it was well earned. Melissa is proof that a good attitude can really take you places when you just kind of smile through it. As happy as I was for her, this week we have to say good bye to Lex. Her failure to create good joints sealed her fate, however I think she is so talented and I’m sure we haven’t seen the last of her.
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