Puppet movies, puppets used in movies, and movies about puppets.

To be clear, "puppet movies" refers to movies that are made for puppets. There is yet to be a movie made for puppets, so puppets remain an un-tapped demographic. That being said, there are plenty of them IN movies, weather people know it or not.

Some movies revel in the fact that they feature puppets, with notable examples such as the Muppet movies or Team America: World Police.

The Muppet Movie, one of many movies starring Jim Henson's creations.

But most movies that feature puppets make it a goal for the audience to not realize it's a puppet! A great number of the aliens in the original "Men in Black" were puppets, as were the larger dinosaurs in the original Jurassic Park. 

The "Star Wars" series is full of puppets as well, with one of it's title characters being one! 

Jedi master Yoda in all his glory!
(In the later movies, Yoda was CG.)

In more recent movies, the use of puppets has been replaced with CG effects. CG is often used in places where a good puppet would work just as well. In the late 1990's and early 2000's CG was over-used to the tune of laughable results. Though animation is powerful, there are times where a puppet adds an effect that can't be gotten anywhere else. 

  

 One of my personal favorite movie puppets, "Brundlefly" in the 1986 "The Fly" remains impressive, even today. 

The rise and fall of the Rock-afire Explosion

This is the Chuck-E-Cheese animatronic band. 

Known today for being creepy and broken, this band sits at the back of many Chuck-E-Cheese franchises. But it wasn't always this way. In fact, the Chuck-E-Cheese band (known also as "Studio-C") isn't the Chuck-E-Cheese band at all! They're actually another band that's been dismantled and put back together with a new coating of cloth and paint. Who is this original animatronic band? Well, to answer that question we'll need to travel back in time, to the 1980s. 

Enter Showbiz Pizza place, an establishment created to be an arcade mixed with a pizza parlor, and every kid's dream. And within the flashing lights, loud kids, and greasy pizza, sat Showbiz's crown jewel: The Rock-afire Explosion.

Singing a mixture of original music and covers of popular songs, the Rock-afire set Showbiz above the rest. But times got tough, and Showbix ended up getting bought by its rival, Chuck-E-Cheese's. But the Rock-afire's creator, Aaron Fechter felt that he had poured too much of his heart and soul into his creation to give them up. 

So the Rock-afire fell into obscurity, and the remaining bands were converted into the Chuck-E-Cheese bands we know today. (This is partially why they look so freaky, as they are the result of mixing and matching different parts from the Rock-afire, then dressed up totally differently. That, and the fact that maintenance for such a contraption is costly and many of the parts were custom built for band.)

But the Rock-afire are not forgotten! 

Their rise and fall from glory is beautifully captured in this documentary, aptly named "The Rock-afire Explosion"

The trailer for the fantastic documentary. 

I think the Rock-afire are due for a comeback, and on Youtube, they are already making a splash performing more recent music, programmed by Fetcher himself. 

The work that goes into making each character sing and move with the music is nothing short of impressing. See for yourself!