Earth Tales

In Earth Tales, written and directed by Tim Scott, our tale opens at the Terrarium Museum of Natural Organics. _________ the human and his insect friend, Dennis the Mantis, dream of starting a band. Their search for a third member leads them to Defonzo, a wide-eyed and wide-faced gentleman puppet. Together, the trio forms the group Mangia Funghi.

News of the band’s formation spread just hours later on a puppet broadcast called Nest Head News, and Mangia Funghi’s music began to take the world by storm. The group’s fame grew quickly, leaving Defonzo worried that their song might be too good and that stardom is changing him. Years later, after the band breaks up, Dennis creates an art installation made entirely of cereal bags, save for one missing piece, which inspires the band to reunite one last time.

“An unnamed human and his insect friend, Dennis the Mantis, dream of starting a band.”

Earth Tales is one of the weirdest puppet shows I’ve ever seen. It is perfect if you’ve just taken a cannabis-laced gummy. It reminds me a lot of the puppets from Pee Wee’s Playhouse, combining both traditional puppetry and stop-motion animation. The puppets for Earth Tales were handcrafted by a team of artists, including Sal Denaro, a veteran of The Muppet Show. Sal helped create Miss Piggy and built the main characters, Defonzo and Dennis, using traditional foam latex techniques. The blending of hand puppets and stop-motion animation is seamless.

I really like the world of dinosaurs, puppet humans, human humans, and insects that Tim Scott created. Earth Tales itself moves at a rapid pace and includes a complete three-act structure, all packed into a 12-minute span. I’ve been a fan of the Muppets since childhood. I’d definitely be interested in seeing more stories of Mangia Funghi broken into proper episodes, or at least other stories from this world.