Puppet Festival

Veteran puppeteer Warner Blake presents this lush, informative celebration of a puppet festival staged in 1999 at Seattle's Festival of the Millennium--opening with registration and following the participants through the setup and execution of their shows. Interviews with puppeteers plumb their motivations and attest to their love of puppetry, while several of the individual performances are sampled to good effect. The puppets, of course, are the main attraction here. Hand puppets, stick puppets and marionettes abound, each one as different in the "personality" projected as in attire (think a Muppet extravaganza, but with a much wilder range of styles). A feast for puppetry fans, mixing behind-the-scenes vignettes with live shows and a good bit of puppetry lore, Puppet Festival offers a suitable introduction to the art and science of puppetry for the uninitiated in a family-friendly format. Though showbiz puppet icons Howdy Doody, Topo Gigio and Pinocchio were not spotted in attendance, there were plenty of other colorful characters to appreciate. Recommended. Aud: J, H, C, P. (M. Tribby)