timetowaste
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http://www.baltimoresun.com/entertainment/custom/today/bal-to.bunnytown26dec26,0,3842915.story
'Bunnytown' fun happens far outside the rabbit hole Associated Press December 26, 2007
BOREHAMWOOD, England - Dressed in his red cape and carrot-logo T-shirt, Bunnytown's Super Bunny soars skyward above his brightly colored homeland.
"Li'l Bad Bunny's fast, but he's forgotten one thing: I can fly faster!" he exclaims.
Yet Super Bunny's rapid ascent didn't quite coordinate with a camera movement, so his flying feat needed to be performed again and again, until everyone on the set at Elstree Studios in this London suburb was satisfied.
Super Bunny and his nemesis, Li'l Bad Bunny, are puppet stars of Playhouse Disney's new preschool series Bunnytown, airing at 11 a.m. weekends on the Disney Channel.
The 8-inch-tall rabbits are constructed of foam rubber, covered with fake fur, and have bendy ears, noses resembling blue ping-pong balls -- and very few teeth. They come in a wide range of colors but are structured basically the same.
Their individuality is defined by clothes, hairdos, accessories and the skills of the American and British puppeteers who activate them and give them voice in a range of international accents.
Standing beneath the wooden platform that displays the elaborate Bunnytown metropolis and farmland, a puppeteer manipulates a bunny on the end of a long pole with a few simple controls that move the creature's mouth and head.
These rod puppets are the creation of David Rudman, who for more than 20 years worked for Jim Henson productions and was Emmy-nominated for his handling of Cookie Monster and Baby Bear on Sesame Street.
"It just started with a design -- it just was a funny drawing that just needed to become a puppet," says Rudman, who collaborated on the concept with his writer brother, Adam, and musical director and composer Todd Hannert.
"It was just a little doodle: a bunny with a big overbite. I built one of them based on the drawing and then one was not enough, so we said, 'Let's make some more,' and we just made 12 of them," Rudman recalled. "We didn't know what we were going to do with them at the time, but we just felt something good will come of this."
Now the bunnies have multiplied to almost countless numbers to populate a premiere season of 26 episodes. Martin Baker and Pete Coogan (also alumni of numerous Jim Henson productions, including The Muppet Christmas Carol) co-produce the series with Disney, which distributes the show to 72 countries.
"It has a fun irreverence to it, and I guess we best describe the show as a little variety show for preschoolers. It is really driven by music and comedy," says Baker. "One hopes that the underlying theme is to educate, but it's not rubber-stamped in a way that a lot of shows are. I think the first job is to entertain."
more if you click the link about jim henson's impact on the show!
'Bunnytown' fun happens far outside the rabbit hole Associated Press December 26, 2007
"Li'l Bad Bunny's fast, but he's forgotten one thing: I can fly faster!" he exclaims.
Yet Super Bunny's rapid ascent didn't quite coordinate with a camera movement, so his flying feat needed to be performed again and again, until everyone on the set at Elstree Studios in this London suburb was satisfied.
Super Bunny and his nemesis, Li'l Bad Bunny, are puppet stars of Playhouse Disney's new preschool series Bunnytown, airing at 11 a.m. weekends on the Disney Channel.
The 8-inch-tall rabbits are constructed of foam rubber, covered with fake fur, and have bendy ears, noses resembling blue ping-pong balls -- and very few teeth. They come in a wide range of colors but are structured basically the same.
Their individuality is defined by clothes, hairdos, accessories and the skills of the American and British puppeteers who activate them and give them voice in a range of international accents.
Standing beneath the wooden platform that displays the elaborate Bunnytown metropolis and farmland, a puppeteer manipulates a bunny on the end of a long pole with a few simple controls that move the creature's mouth and head.
These rod puppets are the creation of David Rudman, who for more than 20 years worked for Jim Henson productions and was Emmy-nominated for his handling of Cookie Monster and Baby Bear on Sesame Street.
"It just started with a design -- it just was a funny drawing that just needed to become a puppet," says Rudman, who collaborated on the concept with his writer brother, Adam, and musical director and composer Todd Hannert.
"It was just a little doodle: a bunny with a big overbite. I built one of them based on the drawing and then one was not enough, so we said, 'Let's make some more,' and we just made 12 of them," Rudman recalled. "We didn't know what we were going to do with them at the time, but we just felt something good will come of this."
Now the bunnies have multiplied to almost countless numbers to populate a premiere season of 26 episodes. Martin Baker and Pete Coogan (also alumni of numerous Jim Henson productions, including The Muppet Christmas Carol) co-produce the series with Disney, which distributes the show to 72 countries.
"It has a fun irreverence to it, and I guess we best describe the show as a little variety show for preschoolers. It is really driven by music and comedy," says Baker. "One hopes that the underlying theme is to educate, but it's not rubber-stamped in a way that a lot of shows are. I think the first job is to entertain."
more if you click the link about jim henson's impact on the show!
