Puppetry: Worlds of Imagination; Tackle Happy: The Origins of Puppetry of the Penis

Bits of fabric, feathers, strands of mylar. If this were a Jeopardy answer, the question might well be: "What would you find in a puppet costume maker's toolkit, Alex?" Right? Well, not in the case of Basil Twist, one of several leading-edge puppeteers profiled in Joshua Malkin's engaging documentary Puppetry: Worlds of Imagination. You see, for Basil, a feather is a puppet--with its own character name to boot--and when Twist and his fellow puppeteers present their adaptation of Berlioz's Symphonie Fantastique, a gorgeous underwater music ballet in which abstract shapes swirl around one another in mesmerizing patterns inside a 1,000 gallon tank lit with a pulsating primary color palette, well…us Kermit the Frog fans are forced to reconsider our definition of the word "puppetry." .In addition to Twist's work, the program examines the influence of several other pioneers of the "new" puppetry, including elder statesman Ralph Lee, Michael Curry, and Cheryl Henson, daughter of the late Jim Henson. .Narrated by Joseph Campanella, Puppetry: Worlds of Imagination is an eye-popping tribute to contemporary puppetry's re-emergence in the arts, after so long being consigned to the realm of children's entertainment. Recommended. Aud: H, C, P. .Bits of fabric, feathers, Simon Morley's tallywhacker…Simon Morley's what? Taking the art of puppetry in a completely different direction, Australians Simon Morley and David Friend are the mostly nude subjects of Tackle Happy: The Origins of Puppetry of the Penis, which chronicles the lads' big city and backwaters 2000 "Bareback in the Outback" tour. While to the naked eye, it appears the boys are engaging in admittedly creative "dick tricks," stretching their babymakers into all kinds of weird shapes--such as "The Loch Ness Monster," "The Hamburger," "The Baby Bird," "The Eiffel Tower," and other "installations," the P.O.P. founders insist that this is not a beneath-Chippendale's-level "gratuitous" exercise in willie wagging, but rather true performance art: "genital origami," as it were. .Wearing hats, capes, sneakers, sunglasses and nothing else (and make no mistake, Tackle Happy features full frontal nudity writ large--we're talking extreme close-ups of unadorned male genitalia, cute configurations notwithstanding), the puppeteers play to a variety of audiences (ranging from a huge, appreciative crowd in Cairns, to a dozen unfazed, grizzled members of a nudist colony), while behind-the-scenes footage finds the pair fighting censorship, struggling with cash flow problems, and standing on street corners handing out program flyers with the rather plaintive plea to "come see my nuts!" Of course, as the popular saying goes, a little bit of Simon Morley's penis goes a long way, and 'round about the 45-minute mark, you begin to realize that there's just not enough material here (no offense, Simon) to support an hour-plus documentary. Still, the DVD does include some notable extras, including links to all of the "tricks" as well as how-to's on five of them. Although, in many respects, Tackle Happy is a proverbial one dick pony, it does actually offer some insight into the genesis of a low overhead entrepreneurial enterprise that has since gone on to be franchised. An optional purchase for very adventurous business and public library collections. Aud: C, P. (R. Pitman)