ugly alien puppets, my beloveds

(spoilers: for the movie close encounters, these puppets are shown for the first time as a big reveal, so if you haven't watched it and want to be surprised by these silly little guys as the movie intended, stop reading)

i love puppets in movies. no amount of incredible cgi could ever make me feel they way practical effects do. i love it specially when it looks bad, when you can tell it is a puppet, or a costume, or a miniature playing with perspective. the thought of the artistry and the craft behind it makes me so happy, it brings me so much joy, i can't help but to go back and rewatch it, screenshot it, clip it, make it into a gif, or a stupid video for my friends where you can hear me barely holding my laughter in the background. 

a couple days ago i read an entry on narna's digital journal rating a few movies they liked, and Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977) was there. you can always count me in to watch a movie about aliens, so i downloaded it immediately. 

the movie was good, i think, the pacing made it a little boring, and i didn't like the characters, so i wasn't really connecting with their stories, but the concept was very cool, and it was very interesting to look at, pretty even. 

for almost the whole movie, you don't get to actually see the aliens, just the things they do and leave behind. so they're more of an idea, than an actual real thing, they're represented as energy: sounds, light, electricity, heat sources. i thought is was very clever, and really really cool. 

but then right at the very end, we get to actually see them, and oh my god..... those puppets were chopped. i couldn't believe my eyes.

to come up with such an original and creative concept for aliens, just to have them look like this, it's so funny to me. that first creature is terrifying, i will give them that, 
 

but what about all of those little kids running around with gigantic heads ?? ? it's so good, i hope none of this being read as a negative critique, i loved every single second of this. like i said to my friend, if i had the opportunity to be there in 1977 to watch this on the big screen for the first time, it would've been the best day of my life. 

it was this guy tho, the one that made me want to write a post about this. i saw it and immediately got transported back to one of my favorites moments in cinema's history:

(sound on, please)

 

back when Alien: Romulus (2024) was still playing at theaters, one day i had a terrible morning at work, i got in the train, and suddenly didn't feel at all like going home, so i got down 4 stops before mine, and walked a little. i ended up at a shopping center that had one of those big luxurious expensive cinemas, with seats so big there's only space for like 10 people per room, i had never been in one of those, and i felt like treating myself, so got a ticket for the only movie with free seats. 

i loved Alien: Romulus (2024) soooo much, it shot me straight into a rabbit hole, i watched every single movie from the alien saga in less than 3 days. i don't like sci-fi, and hate action movies, but i couldn't stop watching. i didn't like any of the movies, but, oh boy, did i have fun. 

the practical effects of every single one, are just amazing ! !! they look so silly, and fake, but also scary and weird. the minds behind the designs of the sets, the xenomorphs, the eggs, everything ! you can tell they were having fun, they loved their job ! ! they went crazy with it, and it paid off. the creatures are so much fun ! and because of it, the fandom is so full of amazing art as well. 

thinking all this sent me into a emotional spiral, remembering a bunch of other cool alien puppets in movies, like the evil gremlins, (sighs) i love them so much....

so many characters of the men in black movies are just little puppet guys, 

 

and definitely not the movies, but yes the actors at theme parks dressed as the transformers, it's so cool, it looks so good, it makes me wish there was at least one movie with practical effects (altho i do think the transformer movies look pretty cool as they are)

 

but just look this iconic godzilla (i know he's not an alien, but he fights aliens sometimes) scene, 

how could someone want a realistic cgi scene over something like that godzilla kick ? ??? ? 

which reminds me of one of my obsessions over 2011-2013, the movie Super 8 (2011). i've watched it so many times, i could probably still recite it today (in spanish) if i tried. it has all of my favorite things: friendship, love, lots of characters that feel like real people, and a story completely focused on them, showing us the plot thru the little moments of their lives, instead of just making it an action movie with empty characters. but it also has: a cgi alien ( boooooring ! !! !!) why ? why would they make such an exceptional homage to the 80's "kids on bikes" type of sci-fi movie, and not use a giant ugly puppet ?? ??? ?? ? that was so dumb of them. the moment the main character and the alien meet is so cute too, i'm so sad it's not real. 

i don't know, i think maybe the reason these ugly props makes me so happy, is that it takes me back to the silly shows i watched as a kid/teen, like the teletubbies, the muppets, hellboy or the power rangers. we need more of that !

tell me your favorite puppet from a movie so i can look at it please