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[Fafnir Kristensen]

as far as I can see there is no specific Pawpetshow feedback specific topic yet (if im wrong, please lock or delete this thread)

my feedback will be mostly subjective as I have no technical knowledge of anything related to puppetting.

it was globally fun, I found the story more light emotionally than previous years, but that's not necessarily a bad thing.
the submarine scene was a real blast, it made really made me go "whouahhhh", the light effects, the moving things, the bubbles, really wonderfully excellent!!!
but I had a little bit of problem understanding what was going on exactly when the two main characters were attacked, I think it is because I had a very tall person in front of me and I didnt have a good sight of the whole scene all a once: the main characters were on the far left of the scene, and the bad guy was coming from the far right, and since my head was either tilted left of right of the guy in front of me, it is much possible I missed a small part if the action scene.

I also quite liked the "domino effect" scene, I laughed a lot

Now im a bit unsure of what im going to say, maybe I didnt understand correctly, but when the two main characters are stranded in the middle of the sea after the boat was destroyed, am I right to understand they make use of the high tide aided by the strong wind to be able to come back ashore ?

im a bit dubious about the choice made by Cheetah to explain (I have heard some people use the word "excuses") some of the technical inherent problems that come with a show like that.
I feel sad that some people need to have some explanation when they should be able to understand that by themselves.
my only hope is that these points are now clear and we will be free of such nonsense in the years to come, leaving place for more meaningful criticisms.

finally I would like to thank the whole pawpet team for the show they offered us this year once again.
I dont think Im really able to grasp to its full value all the work, time, sweat, despair and hope involved to prepare a show like that every year, but I feel it's mighty and Im certainly graceful for the entertainment provided every years (but EF16 I couldnt attend) since EF13 when I discovered it for the first time,

thank you

[Thygrrr]

I understood it as Makani using his wings to surf/sail the hull piece to shore...

All in all, the Pawpet Show of EF19 was phenomenally awesome. One of my all time favourites, and I've been listening to the soundtrack on repeat for two days straight now.

It has been a very inspiring show, and brings back memories to the trip to Maui I took 25 years ago. I absolutely have to go there again now.

I feel reluctant to criticise any character writing or technical glitches simply because it feels like asking too much. Obviously every performance has "flaws" but I seriously couldn't care less. I have long decided not to offer any help or critique simply because I wouldn't want to spoil the show for myself.

If that means some wordings or plot twists aren't super-refined, so be it. And to all those naggers: learn to accept something that is awesome for what it is.   This is a completely unique piece of art that is only ever performed once, in one location.

Thank you, Pawpetshow-Team!! Your shows give me inspiration and strength for months.

... or, to say it with my mate's breathless words (she saw the show for the first time and expected a Kasperletheater type deal):

"This is better than cinema."

[Fafnir Kristensen]

I've been listening to the soundtrack on repeat for two days straight now.

*looks at his cd numbered 147 and grin heavily :]

[Eisfuchs]

Yes, Makani spread his wings and used the wind to sail back to the shore. That's why he was so excited about the wind picking up.

[Fafnir Kristensen]

ha, sorry for not picking that up,
I will blame the tall guy in front of me :]

Yes, Makani spread his wings and used the wind to sail back to the shore. That's why he was so excited about the wind picking up.

[Fenmar]

It was my first Pawpet-Show and I must say I had very high expectations. Everyone told me: "Oh, you have to see this", "It's awesome" and "It doesn't even have much to do with boring old puppetry anymore"

But it wasn't as I imagined. IT WAS SO MUCH BETTER! Seriously, I can't find any superlative which begins to describe the brilliance of this show. The soundtrack, the puppets, the lighting, the scenery, the voice acting, even the short videos and trailers during the breaks made this an unforgettable experience. When the dolphin died on the beach, I could barely hold back my tears. Same goes for the song "Right next to you". I still get goosebumps whenever I listen to that song (or any title of the soundtrack).

There were a few issues (I think the story was a bit confusing towards the end), but these didn't bother me at all.

All in all I am overwhelmed by what the whole team pulled off for a show which is only showed once.

Thank you, thank you, thank you!

[Kamuniak]

For me there haven't been EF without PPS! I enjoyed it. Nothing bigger than life, but just great show. Sound levels were much better than last year

Underwater scene was brilliant! Lights, bubbles, umbrella thingie, shark swimming above audience... Beautiful!

And yay, bats! I was hoping Makani to use echolocation at some point, but can't get it all

After show pic

[Furvan]

After show pic

weeh, Poor Makani looks realy overfluffed o.o 

[Rattie]

I really liked the PPS this year. The underwater scene was AWESOME. And the shark swimming/floating over my head was a nice touch. The ending did puzzle me however. To me it ended way to suddenly. A kind of aftermath would have been nice.

[o'wolf]

The ending did puzzle me however.

Well, what happens to our heroes (and villain) afterwards already belongs to a different story. If you ask Cheetah very nicely he might even tell it.

[Cheetah]

Actually, I had the epilogue scripted out, but the team wanted to have an open ending ... so we have an open ending now

(But in case you were wondering, everyone is still alive.)

[ANTIcarrot]

I've mixed feelings here. I certainly liked the story and characters more than last year. As did everyone I loved the underwater scene, and the projector joke, and the 'this set up took too long...' gag. I have to ask: Was the shark on a string, or was it a radio controlled blimp? The narrations between the scenes encouraged me to read up on the history of the islands. (Oddly enough, when the British pulled basically the same trick as the Americans, we had the rare decency to give them back as soon as London heard of it. ) I also liked the heath-robbinson scene in the alleyway. Certainly two very creative deaths. On the other paw though...

That felt less like comedy and more like divine intervention. So these two people try to save a dolphin, and then a day later the Hawaiin gods of volcanoes and luck help them out? You lost me a little at that point. Elsewhere you covered a lot of topics, and not in a lot of depth. For me it wasn't just the ending that felt a little vague and open ended. (Why did everyone ignore the protagonist for so long? Why was the professor evil again? Why was the oil company acting so foolish? Wait, what was that last part about copyrights and patents?) As an engineer, some of the radio extracts had me gritting my teeth (The bad science! It hurts!) but that's an accurate reflection of how such things go in real life. And the seaweed fuel was clearly not inherently evil. So.

On the third paw (Haha! Four legs good! Two legs bad!) maybe it's good that a story featuring biotechnology raised and didn't answer so many questions. This is one of those few fields of science where that might be the bet possible approach.

[lynard]

On the third paw (Haha! Four legs good! Two legs bad!) maybe it's good that a story featuring biotechnology raised and didn't answer so many questions. This is one of those few fields of science where that might be the bet possible approach.

Personally it is always nice to have all Questions for a story answered, but i tend to like more the type of story which has some loose open ends encourageing the reader to think for themselves (For example, what happens with the wooden box in the end of the first Indiana Jones Movie? Or for another example look up the character 'Tom Bombadil' from Lord of the Rings).

[Cheetah]

I have to ask: Was the shark on a string, or was it a radio controlled blimp?

It's a helium filled, radio conrolled air swimmer. We originally planned to also paint it in UV paint, but we ran out of time, and we originally also had a second one (a clownsfish) but that one developed a leak between the rehearsal and the final show.

The narrations between the scenes encouraged me to read up on the history of the islands. (Oddly enough, when the British pulled basically the same trick as the Americans, we had the rare decency to give them back as soon as London heard of it. ) I also liked the heath-robbinson scene in the alleyway. Certainly two very creative deaths. On the other paw though... That felt less like comedy and more like divine intervention. So these two people try to save a dolphin, and then a day later the Hawaiin gods of volcanoes and luck help them out?

Well, you're right. We had two alternatives: Either a direct confrontation and a fight, or they could have just shaken their followers off. Both Makani and Savannah were unarmed at this point, so they wouldn't have stood a chance. The other option would have been plain boring So we decided to pull the old Surrounded by Idiots / Too Dumb To Live tropes, and filled a scene with physical humor, to provide a bit of relief from the otherwise heavy plot

That's one of the moments where you have to realize, it is "just" an amateur puppet show. Sometimes I wish I had another year to re-write the script and iron out all the kinks - but as we only have a couple of weekend sessions to get this written, we often have to cut certain corners to get stuff finished. And this year's show was hard to write, with the other main source of hawaiian drama (the volcanoes) having been covered last year already

You lost me a little at that point. Elsewhere you covered a lot of topics, and not in a lot of depth. For me it wasn't just the ending that felt a little vague and open ended. (Why did everyone ignore the protagonist for so long? Why was the professor evil again? Why was the oil company acting so foolish? Wait, what was that last part about copyrights and patents?) As an engineer, some of the radio extracts had me gritting my teeth (The bad science! It hurts!) but that's an accurate reflection of how such things go in real life. And the seaweed fuel was clearly not inherently evil. So.

Yeah, about "evil" and "not evil", you're always caught between a rock and a hard place as a writer. Make something inherently evil, and people will criticise the stereotypes, and the plot will become very predictable. But if you aim too high, you'll lose your audience, and end up needing too much exposition to explain it. I think we could have done worse, but a lot of character background that we had in the draft didn't make it into the dialogue - it was just too much.

That left especially a lot of bailey's motivation in the dark. He's really NOT the bad guy - but rather the DESPERATE guy about to lose the result of his life's work. That's what makes him a killer in the end. But it didn't really come out the way I wanted, with only one scene to explain it. Similar with Monica. The main reason she agreed to work with Peak Oil is a personal one: She was fed up being the uncredited assistant to Dr. Bailey. Her turning point comes when she realizes she put her friend in danger, which then becomes her new priority.

Savannah is an idealist, who gets disappointed - and sticks with her friends, although she knows Monica is with the bad guys. Loyalty to her friend is more important to her in the end, than her idealism.

Makani was supposed to be the link to the native Hawaiian side, but 99% of his character ended up on the cutting room floor, so he ended up being just the sidekick.

Yeah, so we tried to avoid stereotypes, but that's really hard to explain if all you have is 10 scenes

On the third paw (Haha! Four legs good! Two legs bad!) maybe it's good that a story featuring biotechnology raised and didn't answer so many questions. This is one of those few fields of science where that might be the bet possible approach.

A lot of the bullshit science is intentional - you have to simplify reality if you want to tell a story, and it was already overloaded. (I mean, monica explains the seaweed in a 5 minute monologue. My editors and my composer wanted to kill me for that alone. And that's already the dumbed down TV-sci-fi-version of the explanation.) I tried to have some connection points to the real science, but I wanted to focus on the characters, not the technology.

(By the way, all the hawaiian references are authentic - except for one or two geographical details that I didn't care about. The SOEST exists, so does the Kilo Moana (although it's more an open sea research vessel), the meteological circumstances are correct, and the real life equivalent of Makani's Bar at Ala Moana is actually a fishing supply store.)

[Rush_Lion]

I absolutely loved the show, as I do every year! The amount of time and work that went into it must have been incredible. For me, the PPS remains the central event of every Eurofurence. And if the Estrel next year provides us with more comfortable seats, it will be perfect ;-)
Thanks for yet another great show, and i can't wait to see it next year!!