We just had some great fun at the Atlanta Zoo, and now we are off to the Center for Puppetry arts!
When Beka was researching this trip, she found out that, 1. there was a Center for Puppetry arts, and 2. It is free on Thursdays! It seemed too good to miss!
Michael has always been a fan of Muppets, and Jim Henson is a hero of his. Beka grew up on Seseme street, and Muppet Treasure Island is a movie that always will remind her of her childhood and family. Emery is just now getting into Sesame street and Fraggle rock on Netflix. We were all VERY excited to go!
When we got our tickets and went inside, they had two exhibits on display. One was the Jim Henson exhibit, and one was the international muppet exhibit. We decided to go international first and VERY QUICKLY learned that they do things differently when it comes to the puppet world over seas.
We walk into a dark room, and the doors close behind us. Then a light shines on what looks like a trash can. Then, out of nowhere, with absolutely no warning, haunting music starts blaring, the lights start flashing, and the trashcan morphs into some hideous dragon/teradacyl/creature from the black lagoon thing. Then, as fast as it came, it shrunk back into the trashcan, and the lights went back on, like nothing horribly frightening just went on, and the doors flew open to the next step of the exhibit...we were all terrified!
Surely this was the end of the scary...oh no. Apparently there is no end to scary in the international world of puppets.
Then we all went into a room that was overrun with puppets. They were hanging from every square inch of this tiny, closet sized room. Then the door closes. One by one, about 30 seconds apart, random puppets would move! You never knew which one was next. Some would just move their arms, or some would laugh, but then some would sweep eerily across the room with no warning. It was horrible!
We were not fans. We left there after only five surprise puppet movements. We were not about to see how long this freak show goes on for.
Yeah, this picture pretty much sums up how awful it was. No thank you.
Thankfully Emery was just thoroughly creeped out, but not crying or traumatized (well, not that we can tell, yet). The next room was a dark and empty room with weird, low, stump like stools to watch a video that was clearly made 30 years ago. We were def not into the video, but we wanted Emery to play a bit and get that last room out of his memory, so we stayed for a few mins as he toddled around.
The next room was big with lots of different non-moving puppets on display. There was even a stage where you could do your own puppet show, and Emery was the star!
After that we finished looking at the weirdest puppets we had ever seen. I guess they are not weird to those who grew up with them in far off lands. We grew up with a big yellow bird, and that is normal and fuzzy bliss to us. So I suppose I should say they were just different, but weird is all I keep hearing in my brain...
After we left the international exhibit we all took a deep breath, recollected our now troubled thoughts, and decided to reset our psyche with the Jim Henson exhibit.
It totally worked. It was like entering childhood happiness. It should have been called "joyful nostalgia meets everything that made your youth wonderful".
Like we said before, Michael is a HUGE Jim Henson fan, so seeing all these quotes, facts, and tributes to a man he has always admired was very fun for him.
Emery LOVED the fraggle rock area! He loves to watch the show and stop whatever he is doing to dance to the theme.
Remember this show? I'm the baby! Gotta love me!
Michael loved this movie too!
Then, after all those fun things, we had not even gone into the Sesame street room!
Emery said hi to his friend Big Bird.
Then gave Daddy some Lovies
They had the muppet of the genius himself. Here is Mr. Jim Henson.
Oh man, it was so fun to see all those cool things!
We were pretty skeptical after that trashcan nightmare, but good ole Jim Henson, definitely made up for it. We loved his exhibit, and we are now even bigger fans than we were before, if that is even possible.
Thanks for sharing our time with us. If ever in Atlanta, beware of the international puppetry exhibit. You will never sleep peacefully again.
Love
Team Oakley
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