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| Company type | Division |
|---|---|
| Industry | |
| Founded | 1979, in Hampstead, England |
| Founder | |
| Headquarters | Hollywood, California , United States |
| Parent | The Jim Henson Company |
| Website | creatureshop |
Jim Henson's Creature Shop is a special/visual effects company founded in 1979 by puppeteer Jim Henson, creator of The Muppets. The company is based out of Burbank, California, United States.
Jim Henson's Creature Shop was originally created as a partnership with British illustrator Brian Froud to facilitate the production of The Dark Crystal . [1] Originally located in Hampstead, London, it received its name in order to differentiate it from Henson's original puppet workshop in New York City. [1] It was then used for future productions such as Labyrinth and The Storyteller. [1]
It was relocated to Camden Town following Henson's death in 1990 and his son, Brian Henson, took over. [1] A third location in Burbank, California opened to serve Hollywood, and one of its first projects was the Dinosaurs television series. [2] Its main animatronic supervisor is London native David Barrington-Holt. [3]
Since The Jim Henson Company sold off the rights to The Muppets brand to Disney in 2004; the Muppet Workshop in New York is now credited as Jim Henson's Creature Shop. In the modern day, the New York shop specializes in hand puppets, including building The Muppets and most of the puppets in Sesame Street . [2] The Los Angeles branch creates more realistic animatronic creatures and creature suits. [2]
The location at Camden Town, London closed in Spring 2005, and was converted into a luxury apartment known as The Henson. [4]
In addition to practical effects, the shop also specializes in "digital puppetry", a form of computer animation that controls a digital avatar using manual puppet controls to animate them more quickly and easily than if it was entirely digital. [2] This is known as the "Henson Digital Puppetry Studio" and is used extensively in television, including the entirety of the series Sid the Science Kid . [2]
Besides films, the Creature Shop has created costumes for live events. They created a realistic Smilodon "full-suit puppet" for a show at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, which cost more than $100,000. [5]
James Maury Henson was an American puppeteer, animator, cartoonist, actor, inventor, and filmmaker who achieved worldwide notability as the creator of the Muppets. Henson was also well known for creating Fraggle Rock (1983–1987) and as the director of The Dark Crystal (1982) and Labyrinth (1986).
Brian Henson is an American puppeteer, director, producer, voice actor and the chairman of The Jim Henson Company. He is the son of puppeteers Jim and Jane Henson.
The Jim Henson Company is an American entertainment company located in Los Angeles, California. The company is known for its innovations in the field of puppetry, particularly through the creation of Kermit the Frog and the Muppets characters.
Nikki Tilroe was an American actress, dancer and puppeteer. She is best known for her work as the "Mime Lady" on the children's television series Today's Special. She also operated Muppets on the TV show Fraggle Rock and played "Beaver" on Cucumber.
Digital puppetry is the manipulation and performance of digitally animated 2D or 3D figures and objects in a virtual environment that are rendered in real-time by computers. It is most commonly used in filmmaking and television production but has also been used in interactive theme park attractions and live theatre.
Toby Froud is an English-American artist, special effects designer, puppeteer, filmmaker, and performer. He rose to prominence for his role as the baby who was wished away to the goblins in the 1986 Jim Henson film Labyrinth. He became a puppeteer, sculptor, and fabricator for film, television, and theatre. He wrote and directed the 2014 fantasy short film Lessons Learned. He was the design supervisor of the 2019 streaming television series The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance.
William Todd-Jones is a Welsh puppeteer, puppet designer, performer, director, movement consultant and writer for film, television and theatre in the UK and abroad.
Screen Novelties is an American animation studio, specializing in stop motion animation. It was founded by Mark Caballero, Seamus Walsh, and Chris Finnegan.
Bruce Lanoil is an American puppeteer who works for The Jim Henson Company and for The Walt Disney Company. He frequently works with puppeteer David Alan Barclay.
Alice Dinnean is an American puppeteer, voice actress and creative writer who works at The Jim Henson Company. Dinnean has performed on many children's television shows such as The Puzzle Place, Sesame Street, Big Bag, Bear in the Big Blue House, Cousin Skeeter, Jim Henson's Pajanimals, Sid the Science Kid and Jack's Big Music Show. She also did work on various non-Muppet productions such as Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel.
Brats of the Lost Nebula is a Canadian science fiction puppet computer-animated television series for kids. The series follows five orphaned children from different war-torn planets. As they search for their surviving family members, they must also band together to fight an evil invading force known as "The Shock".
Mak Wilson is a now retired English puppeteer, writer, CG animation director, and mocap artist. He is also known as Mac Wilson and Malcolm Wilson.
Allan Trautman is an American puppeteer, best known for his work with The Jim Henson Company.
David Alan Barclay is a British puppeteer who had worked on some projects of The Jim Henson Company. He has been at the cutting edge of animatronic puppetry since 1979. Barclay, who hails from London, is a Master Puppeteer, Animatronic Designer and Supervisor, a CG key frame Animator, and Director and Producer of animatronic and animation projects for film and television.
Jim Henson's Creature Shop Challenge is an American reality television game show on the Syfy cable network. It premiered on March 25, 2014, and ended on May 13, 2014.
Cheryl Lee Henson has served as the President of the Jim Henson Foundation since 1992. She is a philanthropist and supporter of puppetry arts and artists, and serves as a board member of The Jim Henson Company. She was honored in 2010 at the LaMama Gala, and in 2011, she won the New Victory Arts Award for her leadership in puppetry.
The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance is an American fantasy television series produced by Netflix and The Jim Henson Company. It is a prequel to the 1982 Jim Henson film The Dark Crystal that explores the world of Thra created for the original film. It follows the story of three Gelflings: Rian, Deet, and Brea, as they journey together on a quest to unite the Gelfling clans to rise against the tyrannical Skeksis and save their planet Thra from a destructive blight known as the Darkening. The series premiered on August 30, 2019, to critical acclaim. In September 2020, it was announced that the series had been cancelled after one season.
John Stephenson, is a British director and a former vice-president and creative supervisor for Jim Henson's Creature Shop. He was nominated for a BAFTA film award in 1985 for Dreamchild and in 1991, he won an Academy Award by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
Fraggle Rock: Back to the Rock is an American children's musical fantasy comedy puppet television series about interconnected societies of creatures, as a reboot of the original 1983 series Fraggle Rock by Jim Henson. The first season was released on Apple TV+ on January 21, 2022.
Lyle Conway is an actor, puppeteer, and designer, best known for his work with Jim Henson on The Dark Crystal (1982) and his work on Little Shop of Horrors through the creation of the Audrey II puppet.
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