When All Around is Dark: Puppetry and the Power of Imagination

Fans of Sesame Street may know that Elmo has a bit of a history with rocks—in particular, Rocco, the pet rock of Zoe, another Sesame Street character. Zoe believes Rocco is capable of anything, but Elmo is incapable of seeing Rocco as anything other than a rock. Elmo’s longstanding feud with the pet rock has even spilled out of Sesame Street into pop culture, resulting in Elmo having a feud with Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson. 

Though I am far past the demographic age that Sesame Street is aimed at, I continue to be delighted by the creative and imaginative storytelling that has always been at its core. It is the imaginative nature of puppetry that has always drawn me to puppets in live theatre and film. The simple act of watching a puppetry performance gives us, the audience, an opportunity to exercise our imaginations. As Image-bearers of an imaginative Creator God, we should not only delight in any opportunity to engage our imaginations, but seek out places and experiences that allow us to exercise our imagining muscles. When we exercise our imaginations, we learn to be better at seeing the Imago Dei in ourselves and in others. 

Recently, I saw a clip from Sesame Street in which the actor Ryan Gosling greets his old friend Elmo by gifting him a miniature of himself made from pipe cleaners. This act echoes a scene from Gosling’s recent film, Project Hail Mary.  When Elmo asks Gosling who made the model, Gosling tells Elmo that it was made by his friend Rocky. The revelation brings on a stark change in Elmo’s demeanor. Suddenly suspicious, Elmo asks Gosling if Rocky is a rock, and when Gosling confirms that Rocky is in fact a rock, Elmo sighs and lets out an exasperated “Here we go again!”

Of course, Ryan Gosling’s friend Rocky is not a pet rock, but a reference to the character Rocky from Project Hail Mary (Rocky is not the character’s actual name, but a nickname given to him by Gosling’s character due to his real name being unpronounceable by humans). Rocky is an alien being from a planet called Erid, a planet where life has to deal with extreme forces of gravity and heat, causing them to develop an anatomy that, at least to those of us from earth, makes them appear to be a living rock being. 

In the movie, Rocky and Gosling’s character, Ryland Grace, team up to try to save their respective planets from the same cataclysmic event, and along the way they form an unbreakable bond.  The movie is a beautiful story about friendship, sacrifice, and overcoming differences to solve problems, even if they can’t breathe the same air.  Gosling’s performance in the film is remarkable, but it is his costar that has seized the imaginations of the public.

To make the film, Rocky was largely created with practical effects, specifically several puppets designed by Neal Scanlon and James Ortiz, with Ortiz also voicing and playing the lead puppeteer for Rocky. There are many behind the scenes videos and interviews discussing the process of bringing Rocky to life and how the performance by Ortiz helped to shape the relationship between Rocky and Grace in the film. Gosling and the filmmakers believed that to truly show both the despondency of Grace before he meets Rocky and the tenuous hope and companionship after he meets Rocky, Gosling’s performance would need the physical presence of the puppet and the puppeteer to respond to and interact with. Ortiz’s masterful puppetry and Gosling’s clear empathic response to the puppet helps turn Project Hail Mary into a truly moving film about human nature and our ability to overcome difference and triumph in the face of the darkest circumstances.

Let’s return for a moment to the topic of Elmo and his relationship with rocks. Chances are, if someone asked you who Elmo is, you’d be able to give a decent description of not only his appearance, but his personality as well. If you are familiar with Elmo’s relationship with Zoe and Rocco, you may even have been able to predict Elmo’s reaction to learning Rocky was also a “rock.”  You may even find yourself empathizing with Elmo’s frustration about imbuing a simple rock with so much personality.

However, if you take a moment to stop and think, you may realize that the difference between Elmo and Rocco is almost non-existent. Rocco is nothing but a rock, but because Zoe believes in Rocco and imbues him with character and personality, for her, he is so much more than a simple rock. Likewise, Elmo is essentially nothing more than a fuzzy sock with eyes and a mouth, but because a puppeteer breathes life into him, we see him transcend his parts and become a living, breathing character. 

The difference between Rocco and Elmo is this: for Elmo, Zoe’s belief in Rocco is not enough. Because Elmo doesn’t participate in Zoe’s belief, for Elmo, Rocco remains simply a rock.  For us as audience members, we do believe in the puppeteer’s performance, so Elmo does come to life.  This requires the performance of the puppeteer, but it also requires us, the audience, to fully participate and perform Elmo right along with the puppeteer. Without this performative act, Elmo and Rocco, as well as Rocky, are nothing but inanimate objects. But when the puppeteer and the audience work together to engage their imaginations, they begin to breathe. We believe in a pet rock, we relate with a furry red monster, and we put our hopes and dreams in a five-legged space rock. It is not just the puppeteer’s skills; it is also our skill as humans to be meaning makers—to actively enter into the imaginative act that brings Elmo and Rocky to life. 

A film like Project Hail Mary and a character like Rocky illustrates the power of a story that demands our active participation. As an audience, we can delight in the triumph of the characters and mourn their setbacks and losses. We can also delight in the triumph of the actors, the puppeteers, the directors and editors and designers and craftspeople who brought the film to life.  However, we cannot forget to delight in our own triumphs as audience members—as imaginative creations of a Creator God. Elmo is not willing to see past Rocco’s limitations as a rock, so for Elmo, Rocco will only ever be a rock. We can be an audience who believes in Rocky, and just as Rocky helps Ryland Grace find joy and hope in the face of darkness, Rocky can remind us of the power of our imaginations when all around is dark.