History Of Puppets

Table of Contents

1. The Author

2. What is a Puppet

3. First known examples

4. Why Are Puppets Used

5. Famous Puppets of the World

6. Famous Puppets of Australia

7. Common Historical Types

8. Major Developments

9. Current Use

The Author

Geppetto’s Workshop has been trading in puppetry for over 25 years. We are experts in puppets and have supplied thousands of puppets to families, educators and allied health professionals.

We write our articles from experience and careful research. You can be confident that we’re sharing real human experiences, written by people for people. We do not use AI to create generic content that reads like a bot. 

What is a Puppet

Puppets take different forms, and are used in many ways, but there three things that puppets have in common:

1. A puppet is a figure used by a performer,
2. to represent an animal, human or another object,
3. to an audience.

At their most simple, puppets can be a sock on your hand or a card on a stick. At their most complex, puppets can be building-sized constructions requiring multiple performers to control. The performer, often called a puppeteer, might be a professional actor, but might also be a teacher, a counsellor, a parent or a child. The audience might be a theatre of patrons, a classroom, a patient, or even your family.

Puppets have been used to represent almost anything imaginable including humans, animals, monsters, and plants, and sometimes inanimate objects like a paper bag, a couch, or a rubbish bin.

First known examples

Puppetry has a long and diverse history that spans many centuries and almost every ancient civilization. Puppetry has been used to communicate and entertain across our continents, languages and cultures with some of the earliest represented in these five ancient lands:

Ancient Egypt

In ancient Egypt, which dates back around 2000 BCE, there’s evidence that people used puppets. Small figures and illustrations on tomb walls suggest that these early puppets were likely used in religious rituals or storytelling.

Ancient Greece

The Greeks also enjoyed puppetry and used several different types including shadow puppets. Playwrights such as Aristophanes mentioned puppets in their plays, showing that puppetry was a part of their entertainment and education.

Ancient China

China has a long history with puppetry, especially with shadow puppets. These were made from thin leather or paper and were used for storytelling and ceremonies. Evidence of Chinese puppetry goes back over 2,000 years.

Ancient India

In India, puppetry has been a rich tradition for a very long time. There are many types of Indian puppets, such as string puppets, shadow puppets, and rod puppets. Early references to puppetry can be found in famous Hindu stories like the Ramayana and Mahabharata.

Ancient Rome

The Romans also enjoyed puppetry and were influenced by Greek traditions. They used marionettes and hand puppets for entertainment and teaching.

Indigenous Australia

There is no recorded evidence of puppetry within the cultures of indigenous Australians at present, but it does appear that many stories and song-lines were retold using static wooden figurines as props or devices to add theatre and drama.

Why Are Puppets Used

The diversity of puppet types has allowed them to be useful in entertainment for centuries. By using the performer’s skill and the audience’s imagination, puppetry gives life to objects and ideas that are not possible using human actors. While in most situations puppetry has been replaced by digital animation in the movie industry, puppetry can offer something that CGI cannot. Modern movies still use puppets where the artistry and nostalgia of puppets is valuable. There are even instances where digital animation is used to create puppet like characters thereby demonstrating their value.

The use of puppets in education and health services is increasing because they offer the performer and audience unique interactions and opportunities that cannot be replaced by other means. Puppets provide young students a way of expressing and exploring ideas in safety which is important for their development. With puppetry, children can act through an alternative character allowing them to confront fears and challenges they wouldn’t alone. More recently, puppets are finding a place in aged-care where the carers and the elderly communicate, explore memories, and find simple enjoyment.

Speech pathologists, nurses, counsellors, psychologists, and various other health professionals use puppets when working with clients. A puppet can act as a buffer between the therapist and the patient giving them greater freedom to communicate with or through the puppet instead of directly with each other.

Puppets are immediate and spontaneous. They do not require much preparation or investment and are versatile in a performer’s hand. Using puppets does not need special training or exceptional skill which makes them accessible to people of all ages, budgets and needs. While their use has changed, it’s unlikely that puppets will be made obsolete by alternative technology for the foreseeable future.

Famous Puppets of the World

Puppets have become iconic figures in the fields of entertainment and education, and some hold special memories in the pop culture of our childhood. Here are some great examples from around the world:

Sound of Music

The performance by Maria and the Von Trapp children in this iconic 1959 movie features several advanced marionettes controlled by strings from a gantry above the stage. This Rodgers and Hammerstein song includes Austrian yodelling which makes it one of the most well-recognized movie songs of all time.

The Thunderbirds

If you stand on your toes and bob about with your hands out in front of you, many people will instantly recognize this motion as the Thunderbirds. When there was no digital animation, the Thunderbirds marionettes brought science fiction and the world of spies and global crime to our TV screens in incredible details and fidelity. They felt real to the audience and became collectable toys, figurines and puppets for sale.

Jim Henson Studios

Perhaps the most famous puppets in the world, these hand puppets began life in the 1960s in the USA. They have since appeared in many forms throughout the following decades in TV shows including Sesame Street, the Muppets, and Fraggle Rock. They include famous names like Bert and Ernie, Elmo, the Cookie Monster and Big Bird, Kermit the Frog, Fozzy the Bear and Miss Piggy, and Red, Boober and Wembley.

Punch & Judy

In the mid 1600’s before the world realised that domestic violence wasn’t entertainment, Punch and Judy were a common feature in theatre, street performance and children’s entertainment. Typically performed by one person with simple hand puppets, these two characters played our various domestic scenarios almost always ending in violence. These shows were not simply for children; their audience was often adults where they were used for satire and political comedy.

War Horse

This theatrical play is set during World War I and revolves around the deep bond between a young man and his horse, Joey. The standout feature of the production is its remarkable puppetry. The horse is brought to life through intricate and realistic puppets operated by a team of performers. Designed in South Africa, the innovative puppets play a crucial role in conveying the emotional depth of the story and the powerful connection between the soldier and his horse.

Others

The list of famous puppets is vast and is covered in more details in our blog Famous Puppets in Entertainment. Fanous characters include Jabba the Hut and Yoda from Star Wars, ALF, Howdy Doody, Lamb Chop, Andy Pandy, Pinocchio, Jurassic Park, and most of the characters from The Dark Crystal and The Labyrinth. 

Famous Puppets of Australia

Puppets have found their way into Australian TV, movies and theatre and still commonly feature today. Here are our most easily recognisable:

Agro

For nearly 25 years, this loud-mouthed hand and rod puppet entertained children with his crazy stories, games, cartoons and guest interviews. 

Ozzie Ostrich

A large hand puppet ostrich that co-hosted the Hey Hey It’s Saturday TV show with Daryl Somers.

Dickie Knee

A small stick puppet wearing a baseball cap with a cheeky voice that was use in Hey Hey It’s Saturday to inject comedy into the weekly TV show. 

Gerry Gee

Designed and made in Melbourne, Gerry Gee was used by Australian TV celebrity Ron Blaskett in advertising and a children’s TV show in the 1950s.

The Tucker Bag

A hand puppet of a paper shopping bag which talked in TV commercials for the Tucker Bag supermarket.

Mr Squiggle

A marionette featuring on children’s TV in the 1970s featuring a puppet with a pencil for a nose that could draw upside down.

Hoot

This large blue owl hand puppet co-hosts the ABC children’s series Giggle & Hoot with Jimmy Rees.

Common Historical Types

It’s important to understand that puppet designers and makers don’t care to distinguish between different types of puppets. A puppet is any figure or device you can animate to communicate with an audience. Over time, they have taken on endless forms, and combinations of forms, but for the purpose of understanding the principles, some common aspects can help separate puppets into broad categories.

Hand Puppet

The most common and simple puppet utilizing one or both hands inside the puppet body to animate the puppet’s features and limbs.

Glove Puppet

A puppet in the shape of a glove where each finger can perform a different element of the character (eg. four legs and a head)

Stage Puppet

A hand puppet designed to be used behind a small stage where the missing lower half of the puppet body and the puppeteer cannot be seen by the audience.

Rod Puppet

A puppet whose limbs and features are animated using rods allowing the puppeteer to remain largely hidden to the audience.

Finger Puppet

Small puppets designed to sit on a single finger giving the puppeteer very basic control of the puppet’s movement.

Shadow Puppet

Puppets used with a light source and a background designed to cast a 2D shadow or silhouette, often flat themselves, or sometimes complex constructions creating complex shadows and movement

Marionette

Often referred to as a string puppet, a marionette’s elements are controlled by the puppeteer who is hidden from the audience from well above the puppet using strings attached to a controller.

Vent Doll

A puppet representing a human companion where the puppeteer uses one hand to animate the doll while gesturing with the other. Typically, the puppeteer will share a conversation with the doll using ventriloquy to disguise their mouth movements.

Major Developments

For centuries, the technology of puppets has largely remained unchanged and over these years they have grown in variety and complexity. There are exceptions to this continuity and growth including periods in history where certain political, religious or cultural beliefs have prohibited the use of puppets. In England during the 17th century, puppetry and theatre was banned as immoral, but later reinstated as the politics changed. In Islamic countries even today, puppetry representing human forms and faces is banned except when used in the education of young children.

The development of animation in the 1920s caused a major shift in entertainment, particularly for children. At this time, cartoons were beginning to reduce the reliance on puppetry in children’s story telling.

In the 1980s, the introduction of computer-generated imagery (CGI) caused a second major shift where computers were being used to create movies scenes that would previously have employed puppets. This shift wasn’t absolute, and the merging of both technologies can be seen in films like Jurassic Park which used a combination of puppets and CGI environments. 

Since the affordable access to 3D printing became possible in 2018, puppet makers have now been able to reduce costs and increase variation in puppet design and manufacture. This new technology has now made it possible for anyone to create complex marionettes in their own home. It also provides even greater value distinction between genuine hand carved wooden marionettes, and the small-batch production quantities of 3D printed characters.

Current Use

The use of puppets around the world continues, but the decline in their use in entertainment is likely to continue and plateau to a minimal, niche role. While puppetry will remain common in cultural celebrations, the common use of puppets has changed. 

Puppetry within the entertainment industry and has largely been displaced by the increasingly realistic CGI available to the movie industry. The production expense of custom puppetry and the expertise in operating puppets professionally has seen its use in popular media drastically diminished. Interestingly, puppets are still used in situations where CGI might produce more realistic outcomes simply because of the nostalgia they invoke. There are also numerous examples of where puppet characters have been created using CGI.

The growth of puppetry is largely in the education of children, and in their use within the allied health professions. In a world where children are swarmed with entertainment options and stimulation, teachers, parents and therapists are reaching for ways to simplify children’s lives and make real connections.

These gradual trends in puppetry are likely to continue until another major technological development causes the next shift.