{"id":5687,"date":"2020-04-14T04:19:00","date_gmt":"2020-04-14T11:19:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.kidsfirst.org\/kidsfirstnews\/?p=5687"},"modified":"2020-04-17T16:23:08","modified_gmt":"2020-04-17T23:23:08","slug":"michael-mccormick-puppeteer-dark-crystal-labyrinth-return-of-the-jedi","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.kidsfirst.org\/kidsfirstnews\/2020\/michael-mccormick-puppeteer-dark-crystal-labyrinth-return-of-the-jedi\/","title":{"rendered":"Michael McCormick * Puppeteer Known for Dark Crystal, Labyrinth and Return of the Jedi"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"alignleft size-medium is-resized\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.kidsfirst.org\/kidsfirstnews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/Scan_20200310.jpg?resize=164%2C225&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-5690\" width=\"164\" height=\"225\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.kidsfirst.org\/kidsfirstnews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/Scan_20200310.jpg?resize=218%2C300&amp;ssl=1 218w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.kidsfirst.org\/kidsfirstnews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/Scan_20200310.jpg?resize=745%2C1024&amp;ssl=1 745w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.kidsfirst.org\/kidsfirstnews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/Scan_20200310.jpg?resize=768%2C1056&amp;ssl=1 768w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.kidsfirst.org\/kidsfirstnews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/Scan_20200310.jpg?w=1091&amp;ssl=1 1091w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 164px) 100vw, 164px\" \/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>We recently sat down with Master Puppeteer Michael McCormick to learn more about his work on Jim Henson\u2019s films and more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Michael McCormick has broad experience with design and fabrication in FX makeup, creatures, puppets and special props. Since 1960, he has been a professional sculptor and puppeteer and a member of both SAG and IATSE.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>McCormick was performing his <em>Punch and Judy<\/em> puppet show on the Santa Fe Plaza in 1980 when Roger Miller (country music legend) stopped to chat. \u201cHe told me, \u2018You ever shown your stuff to Jim Henson?\u2019 \u201d McCormick said. \u201cI said, \u2018No.\u2019 He said, \u2018You want to?\u2019 The New Mexico native packed his puppets and flew to London. \u201cJim Henson hired me, because I loved my own work,\u201d he said. Henson hired him to work on a new project called <em>The Dark Crystal<\/em>. Though it wasn\u2019t a huge hit at the time, it has become one of the biggest hits of children\u2019s cinema from the 1980s. McCormick was the head of the unit that created the puppets that were the bad guys, the evil Skeksis. From there, he went on to work on classics such as <em>Labyrinth<\/em>, created puppets for <em>Return of the Jed <\/em>and did special effects for other TV shows and movies. \u201cBut it was \u201cReturn of the Jedi\u201d that stands out, he said. He created Salacious Crumb, Jabba The Hutt\u2019s jester, for the film.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/5PiOkq44YYw\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n\n\n\n<p>Though he retired in Ireland \u2013 or tried to \u2013 he returned to the States, taught at New Mexico State University and gives an occasional lecture. McCormick has always been a studio artist and shows his work in the United States and Europe. McCormick credits his parents for his love of the absurd and puppetry. His father came to Los Alamos in the 1940s to work on the Manhattan Project, and he encouraged McCormick to experiment and build things.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Interview by Benjamin P., KIDS FIRST! Film Critic<\/p>\n\n\n\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/videoseries?list=PLI6M_JXrd8picoG4rwMecyiqNK3GkTHNq\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n\n\n\n<p><br><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Michael McCormick has broad experience with design and fabrication in FX makeup, creatures, puppets and special props. Since 1960, he has been a professional sculptor and puppeteer and a member of both SAG and IATSE.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[9,13,12],"tags":[1667,1651,212,1656,1657,1664,1659,1668,1660,1652,1662,1650,1658,1654,1649,1666,1166,547,1661,1655,1163,1653,1663,1665],"class_list":["post-5687","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-family-news","category-for-producers","category-interviews","tag-1980s","tag-andy-samberg","tag-benjamin-price","tag-dark-crystal","tag-dark-crystal-puppets","tag-david-bowie","tag-david-bowie-labyrinth","tag-film","tag-jabba-the-hutt","tag-jim-henson","tag-labyrinth","tag-labyrinth-movie","tag-labyrinth-music","tag-mark-hamill","tag-michael-mccormick","tag-michael-mccormick-the-dark-crystal","tag-movie-reviews","tag-netflix","tag-puppets","tag-return-of-the-jedi","tag-reviews-by-kids-for-kids","tag-salacious-crumb","tag-the-dark-crystal","tag-the-jim-henson-company"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paS5I2-1tJ","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kidsfirst.org\/kidsfirstnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5687","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kidsfirst.org\/kidsfirstnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kidsfirst.org\/kidsfirstnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kidsfirst.org\/kidsfirstnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kidsfirst.org\/kidsfirstnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5687"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.kidsfirst.org\/kidsfirstnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5687\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5696,"href":"https:\/\/www.kidsfirst.org\/kidsfirstnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5687\/revisions\/5696"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kidsfirst.org\/kidsfirstnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5687"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kidsfirst.org\/kidsfirstnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5687"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kidsfirst.org\/kidsfirstnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5687"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}