Greetings Earthlings: The tactile joy of puppets in space

Question: What makes a great puppet? Answer: One that makes you believe movie stars aren’t just born – they’re made. Whether it’s a googly-eyed sock puppet or a towering animatronic operated by a whole team, these celebrities of fabric and string only work because of the superstars hidden behind them. In animating the inanimate, puppets of all different shapes and sizes suddenly transform into living, breathing legends like Miss Piggy and Jabba the Hutt. Live-action puppetry is the real life movie magic that lets Jason Segel flirt with a Muppet and Mark Hamill trade barbs with an intergalactic slug. 

In Project Hail Mary – Phil Lord and Chris Miller’s first live-action feature in over a decade after focussing on various Lego and Spider-Verse projects – the directors employ this art form to bring one of its most important characters to life: Rocky the Eridian. In Andy Weir’s novel of the same name, Rocky is described as an alien resembling a spider the size of a Labrador; he’s given his name because of the ​“rocky” texture of his five-legged carapace. Despite how bizarre that might sound on paper, Rocky emerges as the unexpected beating heart of the story – an endearing space engineer who fulfils one half of an odd couple with science-teacher-turned-astronaut Ryland Grace, played by Ryan Gosling. Adrift in space with nobody but each other, this unlikely pair race against time to save both their home worlds from extinction whilst we witness the beginning of a beautiful friendship. 

Despite living in an age of digital abundance where tools like motion-capture and CGI often dominate industry practice, techniques like puppetry continue to be indispensable in making characters like Rocky appear as if they’re just another actor captured on film. Designed by renowned special effects artist Neal Scanlan and performed by celebrated puppeteer James Ortiz, Rocky is the remarkable result of many artists’ collective effort to make something fundamentally material feel truly alive. Although puppetry isn’t exclusively a group enterprise most cinematic endeavours only work because of their creative partnerships. For Interstellar, Christopher Nolan hired Bill Irwin to give the mechanical puppets TARS and CASE – robotic companions that bring levity in lieu of gravity – a necessary vitality inspired by his vaudeville background and clowning experience. It is the combined alchemy of Irwin’s abilities, Nathan Crawley’s functional Lego block design, and all the subtle VFX clean-up in post-production that ultimately transforms 200-pounds of stainless steel into Cooper’s (Matthew McConaughey) wise-cracking companions.

Rocky’s design by Scanlan was built from the literary groundwork laid out by Weir and his evocative description of the alien’s physiology. Scanlan, a British visual-effects artist, is most famous for his award-winning creature work on Star Wars: The Force Awakens – a film which earned him the BAFTA in Special VFX for spearheading over 100 creature and droid designs – and he has since gone off to work on every subsequent Star Wars film to date. It’s a franchise proliferated with puppets big and small (the Porgs will always have a special place in this writer’s heart) and now Scanlan’s acclaimed craftsmanship brings a tactile reality to Lord and Miller’s own space adventure. 

Scanlan’s work making puppets like Rocky can be traced back to his early years as part of Jim Henson’s creature shop, helping to create animatronics for cult-classics like Labyrinth – although most recognised as ​‘the man who created the Muppets’, Henson was also a pioneer for making puppetry commonplace within live-action cinema. Because of 1980s Henson movies, namely Labyrinth and The Dark Crystal (the first live-action feature with an entirely puppet cast), we’ve been conditioned to accept puppets as bona fide movie stars in non-animated features; leads capable of carrying films alongside acting royalty like Sir Michael Caine. Without a true thespian of Caine’s calibre, one who commits to his tiny scene partners as straight as it comes – you would think he was performing alongside Olivier rather than Rizzo the Rat in The Muppets Christmas Carol – they would soon be revealed as nothing more than Styrofoam and Antron fleece. Sir Michael said it best himself: ​“If I am real, it makes the puppets real.” 

Without the man or woman behind the puppet, stars like Gosling wouldn’t have anyone to perform opposite – just a tennis ball on a stick. Thankfully, much like his character in the film, Gosling was never truly alone on set. Having found critical success with his diverse puppetry work within the theatre world – his dinosaur designs for the broadway revival of ​‘The Skin of Our Teeth’ gave Jurassic Park a run for its money – James Ortiz was hired to bring his expertise to physically animate Rocky alongside his crew of ​“Rockyteers”. Taking over from Ray Porter who narrated the audiobook, Ortiz also provided the dialogue translated from Rocky’s native melodic language of notes and chords. This double duty spotlights that Ortiz truly became Rocky – a challenge that requires just as much creative expression as technical dexterity. 

Behind every great puppet is at least one person who lives and breathes a performance designed to be invisible. Take Frank Oz for example, a Henson veteran (and legendary filmmaker in his own right thanks to films such as Little Shop of Horrors), who brought life to Jedi Master Yoda with a distinctive raspy voice that is still mimicked to this day. After being replaced by CGI in 1999’s The Phantom Menace, it wasn’t voice work that brought Yoda’s physical puppet out of retirement for Rian Johnson’s The Last Jedi in 2017. Reviving Stuart Freeborn’s original puppet design meant Oz could also return to puppeteer it; guiding every movement with a whimsical flourish and instinctive charm that only the OG could bring to life. Digital animation might be able to make the old Jedi flip and twirl like he’s just seen a chiropractor, but that won’t ever replace how a great puppeteer can tug at your heartstrings – something Werner Herzog can attest to. 

Puppets continue to be a vital part of science fiction cinema because many filmmakers still recognise the tangible presence they bring to a genre that can sometimes feel visually weightless. They’re part of an important modus operandi that embodies Stanley Kubrick’s age old adage: ​“If it can be written, or thought, it can be filmed.” As we constantly question the reality of what we’re seeing on our screens today, there’s something wonderfully human about using the physicality of puppetry, not computers, to create aliens for art. These space oddities are a persistent testament to the ineffable power of shared creative spirit. May they live long and prosper for years to come.