Some photos taken of the construction of the Rabbit puppet built by Matt Brooks for The Book of Pooh (2001-2003)
A small departure from what I usually post, but I’ve always been fascinated by the puppetry in the series and it’s fun to get a look behind the scenes!
Along with Brooks, Rabbit was also puppeteered by Noel MacNeal, Paul McGinnis, and sometimes Tyler Bunch in place of Brooks.
Production photos also give some neat insight into the process behind the puppetry and filming. Take this one featuring Rick Lyon assisting with the Tigger puppet for instance!
On his website, Lyon says:
“… a picture of me with Tigger -- I happened to be assisting with his hands that day. Why am I wearing that freaky green outfit? The puppets are performed Bunraku-style (from behind, usually with three puppeteers performing one character), with the puppeteers in green from head to toe in front of a green background, which is keyed out (like a weatherman standing in front of a weather map). The scenery for the show is all computer generated, in real time, such that wherever the camera turns, the computer-generated scenery shifts accordingly.”
He also shares photos of some of the other folks behind the series. Pictured here is Ronald Binion, principal puppeteer behind Eeyore who also designed and built the puppet, and Amanda Maddock, another principal puppeteer who happened to be performing Owl.
“Per-forming Eeyore is really tricky -- he is, after all, the only quadraped in the cast, and that makes it incredibly hard to manipulate his legs without green rods crossing his body and creating problems with the key.”
Pictured amongst a flurry of puppeteer action is creator and executive producer Mitchell Kriegman. Along with having directed many of the episodes, Mitchell is also the creator behind another show featuring puppets, Bear in the Big Blue House.
Ron Binion also shares some photos that offer a glimpse into the filming of Book of Pooh on his website as well, as seen here.
Damian would be a Winnie the Pooh fan only because Jason showed him it in the league.
After Jason left the league Damian had no more access to the movie/show (you decide what his favorite is) but when he got to the manor, months after the fact, Jason asked Roy (and Bruce for permission) if he could help him with a project, and now Jason's personal library has a little hide out of Christopher Robin's tree for Damian to read in, Damian is the only other person allowed in that room and his key looks like one straight out of a fairytale