"Grover and Chelsea YES NO" - Children's Television Workshop (date unknown)

In my experience, animators often create their work in isolation. We are rarely able to view our work with a full, unbiased audience until the project is finished. Only then do we really know if our gags have worked, or even if our intentions have been understood.

Puppeteers, on the other hand, enjoy instant feedback whilst they are performing. If the audience is bored, they will fidget or, even worse, talk amongst themselves. If the gags don't work, there are no laughs.

Just as importantly, performing live allows the normal to-and-fro of human interaction to take place over and above the scripted material. Ad-lib dialogue, subtle emotional responses, and realistic timing can evolve, adding to the piece's entertainment value.

The clip I've posted here shows us how strong this interaction can be. The performance seems to be quite fresh and unstructured, with Grover and the child feeding off one another for their lines and timing. Enjoy!

"Dimensions of Dialogue (Možnosti dialogu)" (1982), Jan Svankmajer

I was reminded of this film recently when we were researching stop-motion animation for The Lego Movie. It's one of the better-known short films made by Jan Svankmajer, a prominent Czech film-maker and artist, and won him the Grand Prize at Annecy in1983

"Dimensions of Dialogue" uses everyday objects, food and clay to create stop-motion animated dioramas exploring aspects of human interaction.



References

Wikipedia -  "Dimensions_of_Dialogue" (retrieved 16.06.14)

Cinelogue review - "Dimensions of Dialogue"   (retrieved 16.06.14)

Wikipedia -  "Jan Svankmajer"  (retrieved 16.06.14)



Further Reading
Scmitt, B. and Dryje, F, "Jan Svankmajer: Dimensions of Dialogue", Arbour Vitae (2013)