CC-licensed, Dickens-based, Pastifarian Christmas Carol kids' special

Robbo sez,

Puppets, songs, the Flying Spaghetti Monster and Charles Dickens - all that and more are in our internet video holiday special: "Ruffus The Dog's Christmas Carol". Not just for kids, it's an unusual half-hour take on Dickens's classic - released under a Creative Commons License. Funded partly through IndieGoGo and a lot of sweat equity from the performers (total budget just a little over $5,000) we shot this thing in 4 days in my living room. All the puppet characters were shot against green screen and then combined with CG virtual sets and a pantload of special effects.

The music and songs were composed by JP Houston (Big Comfy Couch). We released this online yesterday, right after we had a screening at the old Revue Cinema in Toronto with box office proceeds going to the Toronto Public Library Foundation. Free to watch. Free to download. Free to share.

Ruffus The Dog's Christmas Carol

• [Nawel]

  It looks funny. I hope some spanish subs are available somewhere for further sharing

  • [Robbo]

    We’re hoping to get subs done soon.  Don’t know if it’ll happen before the holidays are done though.  Thanks.

• [anarres]

  Nice video, but it’s disappointing the creators succumbed to the dreaded Smurfette Syndrome.

  • [UXO]

    “Smurfette Syndrome”?

    I can’t find a link for a downloadable version, only streaming. Any suggestions?

    • [anarres]

      http://wiki.feministsf.net/index.php?title=Smurfette_syndrome

      • [UXO]

        Ah. Fairly obvious, in retrospect.

  • [Robbo]

    Guilty as charged but not by design nor intent.  Within the Carol story itself Dickens didn’t give us a lot of female characters to work with – and our use of the one female character in the Bookshop sequences was due to lack of suitable characters in our stock supply of puppets.  I’m always bugged by the Smurfette Syndrome whenever I see it (all too often) in the works of others and I cringe now when you point that out in our own work.  All I can say is at least, unlike the Muppets and others, we always insist on female characters being played by by female puppeteers.  We’ll do better in future episodes.  Thanks for giving us the Zen rap on the noggin for that.

• [Stooge]

  Pastifarian!?

  Blasphemy!!!

  • [Labbit]

    Flying Pasty Monster?
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pasty

• [ArghMonkey]

  Good eye Cory!

  I was lucky enough to attend the screening at the Revue Theatre.  

  I have been a cheerleader for Ruffus the dog for over a year now, since I watched one of the earlier episodes and immediately saw its value.

  Rob is a super nice guy too, he made a quick custom Ruffus video for me a few months ago and refused any sort of payment, said it was just the sort of thing he enjoys doing.

  • [Robbo]

    Thank you, Alex.  :)

• [Stefan Jones]

  That was very cute, but the FSM content was rather low.

  Of course, ANY FSM content makes if infinitely more pastafarian than, say, Pinnochio’s Christmas or a Very Special Christmas Episode of Breaking Bad.

  • [Robbo]

    Maybe some day the FSM will get its own holiday special – until then, it’s just guest cameo appearances.

• [HahTse]

  I wonder how long it will take till the GEMA has it blocked in Germany…

  • [Robbo]

    Just curious – why would GEMA block this?

• [Chris Muir]

  A Ze Frank mug, too!

  • [Robbo]

    Ah hah!  You recognized it.  Ze was kind enough to let us use that – we loved his Show and keep trying to find opportunities to reference it in our own stuff.

• [HahTse]

  I love it.

  • [Robbo]

    Thank you!

• [jill380]

  One of the awesomest things about this project is that it features the work of some of Canada’s greatest and most experienced puppeteers doing it just for the love it.  

  • [Robbo]

    We love you, Jill.  :)

• [Fernando Colchon]

  Lovely :)

  • [Robbo]

    Thanks!

• [KludgeGrrl]

  I know someone already asked, but no one has answered…  Is there a download link?  Anyone??

  I would love to put this on my ipod for my son to watch while we’re traveling.

  • [Robbo]

    I posted saying we’ll have links soon but it didn’t come out as a reply to you – so this is me replying to you – I’ll let you know when we have some download links for you.  Thanks for your interest.  :)

  • [Robbo]

    The download files and links are now online and you can find them here: http://www.scrooge.ruffusthedog.net/rtd_xc_download.html

    If you have any problems at all just holler.

    Take care.

• [MelSkunk]

  I know I’ve seen this puppet on an ACTUAL kid’s show once. It’s going to bug me all day now

  • [Robbo]

    The show was Ruffus The Dog.  We were on the air back in the late ’90′s – and still showing in some territories.  The rights reverted back to us and we’ve been posting all the original shows to the net – and prepping new ones like this.

    • [MelSkunk]

      Ahh I thought Ruffus the dog was the name of the new show :)
      thank you

• [Robbo]

  There will be download links very soon for an SD version and the larger HD file.  We’d love for people to share this four ways from Sunday.  I’ll repost here when the links are ready.  Thanks for your interest.

• [Bobsyeruncle]

  Cool.  But why does Ruffus look like Rocko, the sociopathic dog puppet,  from Puppets Who Kill? :D

  • [Robbo]

    Well, actually, Ruffus came first and then there was Rocko – and while I was Executive Producer on Puppets Who Kill for the first season it was creator John Pattison who decided what he wanted Rocko to look like.  Distant cousins perhaps.  :)