This week Jim Henson’s Creature Shop Challenge took us
into the old adage of “One man’s trash, is another man’s treasure,” with a junk
yard challenge. The remaining 8 creators
were taken to Apex Electronics Scrap yard which was a preverbal gold mine of
raw materials such as computer parts, construction extras, tapes and
wires. These raw materials are there to
test the abilities of the creators to use the extras around them to bring to
new life into the world. Brian Henson
explained that at the Creature Shop it is their mission to reuse as much as
possible, even Kermit the frog was made out of reused material’s (Brian’s
grandmothers coat) and it has always led them to new ground breaking creations
and processes. So, in the spirit of
Jim’s using the world around them the challenge is to create a caged creature
that has been living in the junk yard and has been for so long that he is in
danger of being engulfed by the junk.
The group will be broken into teams of two once again and armed with 500
dollars they are loosed on the junkyard and then are sent back to the lab for a
two day build.
The mentor for this challenge is someone a little dear to
my child hood, John Criswell who was a major piece of the animatronic figures
(of which there are 18) on the T.V. show Dinosaurs. This show was huge for me, I remember being
in kindergarten and screaming “Not the mama!”
and now here is the man that brought that to life… Yeah it hit me in the
feels. I have to say, I get the feeling
that the creature shop is filled with type B personalities, because when the
mentors get to work there is this kind of calm each of them has had, almost eerie
actually.
So with the four teams working away on the various
projects ahead of them the cages are delivered and they are massive, however
the twist is that no puppeteer will be allowed inside the cage to assist with
movement. So using servos and a lift
system they must give their creature movement and life, inversely to be able to
use the pole arm lift the creature must also have lightness as to not overload
the arm. Something that could prove
difficult if not addressed given the general weight of most scraps materials
and the sheer size of the cage itself.
The groups, chosen at random, bring back some great
qualities in team members as well as some negative traits that might run deeper
than I originally thought. This week
brings back the great team work of Josh and Lex. However, Josh seems to be falling a little
and truly missing his family. I think
that he might have underestimated what being away this long would feel
like. Still with the help of Lex they
soldier on as they construct a rat/ cat like “Hungry Horace.” I loved this creation; it filled the cage
excellently while still leaving plenty of room for movement the major issue
however was the knees. It appears they
may have tried to stabilize Horace as not to over load the pole arm but it made
the lower half of his body seem static and clunky. Still, the face was frightening and yet still
adorable.
The next team would be Robert and Melissa who set to work
on an ape like creation they named pickles, yes they get extra points for the
name. This creation was truly a testament
to how well these two can work with others.
It seemed like a seamless process as they both worked out their
strengths. I love Melissa’s energy, if I
had to work in this industry I would take an army of workers like her any
day. Robert truly flies into working
with the animatronics while Melissa’s love for design brings together something
that feels truly menacing. The flaw with
pickles is that while menacing he just doesn’t have enough junk to be
believable.
The team of Ben and Ivonne, however do not have the lack
of junk problem. Their creation Swarf is
so brilliantly covered in it. Swarf
comes across as a little being who over the years has constructed a kind of
mecha suit for himself to become more man like.
It’s brilliant, not quite menacing but, when he moves his little gears
that controls the suit it’s so reminiscent of the traditional days of
Henson. The color work was also quite
inspired. Using brighter paints he
actually blends in more than if they hadn’t punched color in. The judges really took to this little guy and
it was easy to see why.
At last we have team disappointment, Jake and Russ. Russ, I’m afraid may be the kiss of death on
this show as every time he gets to work, he hates his project and isn’t that committed
to a fix. I felt bad for Jake whose
original idea would have been great, however Russ nixed that and they came up
with ZZ867, a massive alien who roars but has no moving mouth. The creation if far too big to show any
movement and just seems so stale. The
paint seems dull and even there fun eye accessory fails to really lend anything
to the creature.
In the end, Ben takes top for his mechanical work on
Swarf and the team of Jake and Russ was sent to the bottom. As we all sat waiting for the judges to send
Russ home, Josh steps in and asks to be sent home. The time away from his family has taken
enough and his brush with L.A. has proven to be something that he couldn’t see
bringing his children into. I certainly
wish he could have stayed as he was a tremendous talent but, I truly believe in
doing the best for my son and hope the best for his family.
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