Bonus Features Review

Frogster

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Ok, so I promised to give a good Bonus Features review so here goes. :excited:

First off, we meet the three people inside Pa, Ma and Junior. These guys are a lotta fun to listen to; you can instantly tell they're still close after all these years. Rob Mills (Junior body), Trish Leeper (Ma body), and Gordon Robertson (Pa body) are definitely three eager, hard-working performers who, after listening to them, kinda seem like any other fan of the Muppets. When they're not doing the Gorgs, they're doing background scenes with Whatnot Fraggles, then later on, they started doing the Inkspots, which are the grayish-black toad-like creatures that start popping up around Season 3. I kinda liked the part where they asked Jerry Nelson for advice on doing the puppets... he told them, "Yeah, don't **** up." Classic. Also, when discussing upstaging performers- which always happens with Muppeteers- they mentioned that during a shooting, one of the stagehands came up to them after shooting a scene with the Inkspots, saying, "This show isn't about the Inkspots." Also, there's a scene not shown in any episode where at one point, they had a couple Inkspots carrying a Doozer away, as if to have caught one of them lol. Trish also mentions that it was especially hard for her doing Ma Gorg due to all of the extra weight she had on. The three even talk about how they had difficulty with knowing their timings on when to grab certain objects, and that they were pretty much blind most of the first season.

Next we have the puppet-builders of Fraggle Rock. Rollin Krewson begins by talking about how the first Fraggle she built was Wembley, and that she has a special bond with his "wembling" and actually felt a bit like him. One interesting thing to note about the puppet of Wembley is that it's the only Fraggle who doesn't have the two pieces of wood or plastic that hinge together to make your average-looking mouth. Instead, there was just one piece of rubber that went from the bottom of his mouth to the top, so his mouth can 'roll', fitting Whitmire's hand perfectly when performing. Also, there's a mechanism inside where Whitmire had enough room to move the eyes and could roll the eyes as well. Tim Miller discusses also that, when told he was making Sprocket, he decided to go with a more woeful look, since he was told Sprocket was only gonna be seen doing very few things... which, as we all know, didn't end up being that true. The builders always were getting suggestions from the performers, asking if they could be updated and have them doing something new.

The Season 4 Overview is really fun, prolly my second favorite, and second only to the Fraggle Wrap Party and the final day of shooting (tie). Jerry Juhl talks about how he, his wife Susan, Jocelyn Stevenson and Lawrence Mirkin felt that the end of the series should have a sense of finality. Jim Henson at first didn't agree with wrapping it all up in that way, but later agreed. Several episodes are discussed. First, Laura Phillips talks about how it was such an honor for her to write the final Gorg episode, and how she decided to end the Gorg monarchy forever. Then Jocelyn talks about The Honk Of Honks, and how the episode reflects on the ability to touch people-move people- in a way that gets people to see things in a new light. Then it's back to Laura Phillips talking dealing with the issue of racism on the episode of Tune For Two. Then David Young discusses the inter-connected nature of the world, and how he came to write River Of Life; water is the common denominator in every world, and whatever happens to one group will eventually effect the other. Then, Jocelyn again discusses Mokey, Then And Now, and how it was wise for them to wait till the last season to do a time-travelling episode. Stevenson also notes how she loved playing with the language, and how Gobo means something entirely different in the past. Ms. Phillips follows up with "Gone But Not Forgotten" and how she used the concept of caterpillar/butterfly to explain death, and how when you go out into the world, strange, unexpected things can happen, but later on, they can become beautiful. David Young then explains how kids can pick up the strangest objects and make them special, which is how he got the idea for "The Perfect Blue Rollie". Then, when talking about "The Voice Inside" we find Laura Phillips discussing following your instincts vs. doing what you want, ie, left brain/right brain. Finally, we got Mirkin and Stevenson talking about how the finale of the show is what Fraggle Rock is all about; not to mention, what Jerry Juhl is all about. As most of you can guess, it's about how the magic of Fraggle Rock exsists in all of us, and that for those of us who've gone on this beautiful journey, we'll never be able to leave the magic. And personaly, I'm perfectly ok with that.

Next up we got Eric Till, director of all things Fraggly. He discusses how one moment, these guys would have you laughing, then the next, they'd break your heart and fill you with tears. From Eric Till, "I truly believe that these performers placed in their hearts and minds true human emotion, and they got you to believe you can reach out and touch these living creatures." :coy: He could never believe that this could be percieved as a children's show, and that he credits the writers and performers for giving a performance that can't be pulled off by too many other people. George Bloomfield discusses how previously, he'd only worked with real actors, and what always amazed him was that pieces of felt or foam rubber could pull off such a performance that seemed so humanistic, charming and full of real love. They even give a shout to Henson himself, calling him very giving, supportive, and full of extraordinary ideas. Nothing we don't know already, but hey, it's Jim.

Phillip Balsam and Dennis Lee are up next, first discussing the many, many different ways the theme itself could have been played out. They do play at least 8 different versions of what it would have sounded like, partly filled with nonsensical words, whoopies, and the like. You do see one taping of what the theme had looked like, before deciding to go with the simple theme of what we all know and love now. It's still well worth the watch, however! Also, they discuss how they would each collaborate on songs; first, Balsam would write a little something. Just enough to have an idea. Then when meeting with Lee, they would discuss where a song needed to be inserted into the episode, then work on whether it needed to be upbeat, slow, or somewhere in between.

The final day of shooting is really excellent, and that's putting it simply. To really feel what this show is all about, watch this part. It's one of the most moving experiences of being a Fraggle fan. It is meloncholy, but it's deep and beautiful. If you've already seen the final episode, this will almost be like seeing it again. There's also some cool bloopers involving Mokey, Red and Boober (pomlette pan lol). While listening to the tune of "Friends Always Tell You Good-bye" you see everyone who was ever involved waving farewell. There's a sequence where the main five performers with their respective puppets, as well as Doc, say thank you to everyone who helped make the show possible. Gobo, Red, Boober, Doc, Mokey and Uncle Matt bid their farewells also. Uncle Matt even invites everyone to a special party he's supposedly having at the arcade place the next night, which is just hilarious! Lawrence Mirkin finishes up the segment with, "I didn't really wanna do this, but until next time, that's a wrap."

The final part is the wrap party. But that's such a fun, exciting part of the bonus features that I'm just gonna let you guys see it for yourself. One reason being, it's just so unexpected and fun, and secondly, I've just typed too much here lol... hope those of you who've read this enjoyed the details. Figured I'd do this for the people who haven't gotten the set yet, and would like to know what all went down... in Fraggle Rock. :smirk:
 

CensoredAlso

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Thanks for the review, it's definitely helpful for everyone who can't get the box set right away. I suppose now I can add my own experience, hehe.

WARNING: DEFINITELY SPOILERS!










Why Rob, Trish and Gord never got their own show I'll never know, lol. They were a joy to watch, clearly a close and talented team and very inspirational to struggling performers. Even just listening to their story about auditioning, I was rooting for them to get the parts, lol. And I love how they went in to audition one at a time with the same suitcase, and by the time Gord went in, Richard Hunt said, "Are you with them?...Get outta here!" Lol

I can understand Jim's objection to a proper ending of the show. I'm not the biggest fan of shows that have too much of a continuing storyline, because it does feel weird to go back to them again once it's over. But in FR's case I think it worked, because there were really just the three episodes that made up the ending, and what a perfect ending it turned out to be!

I think one of my most favorite parts is when you can actually the puppeteers filming the "Magic" scene in the tunnels. They're not talking, just having the Fraggles walk through the tunnels. Yet even here you see the emotion come through and it's breathtaking.

Btw, I don't know if it's been mentioned yet, I LOVE LOVE LOVE the part in "Change of Address" where the Fraggles are listening to Doc's recorded message to them. And at the end of it Doc says, "...oh and if this is Miss Arnath, just ignore all this." LOL

I'm glad Dennis and Phillip got their own section. What's interesting about hearing the unused themes is they kinda reminded me of all the other Fraggle songs we'd later hear all through the series! And I agree with their ultimate decision; there really was no need to have verses in the theme, the chorus was very strong and noticeable even in the early takes. :smile:

Jim's invocation of Convincing John at the wrap party is classic, not least because of the group's excited reaction. Other companies might have just politely laughed, but these guys truly embraced that Fraggle spirit, hehe.

I was slightly perturbed that they clearly cut the part when Richard was going to announce the next speaker after Jim, lol. But anyway! At least we got to hear his feelings on performing Junior. How he represented the child in all of us which we start to lose as we get older, but Junior never does. :wink:

By far, the highlight was Karen Prell's rules on Muppeteering, lol. Maybe someone will print those here at some point (I need a break from typing as well, lol).

"Friends always tell you goodbye" was the perfect song to play over the last day's shooting. I'm glad the FR team allowed us fans to see the Fraggles' individual thank you's to the crew. :smile:
 

Ilikemuppets

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Wow! This all sounds so amazing! I wish I didn't rad it because now I know too much!:embarrassed:

But I'm defiantly sold that this set is worth it just for season four and it's special features alone!
 

turkishproverb

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Sound like good special features. Still resisting the urge to buy the Australian release as I already had Season 1-3 though.
 
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