Green Grocer Stop Action Figure from Corpse Bride: Museum Object and Cultural History

The object in the museum catalogue

This plump little man known as the Green Grocer is one of the 30 puppets that were part of the 2005 stop motion animated film Corpse Bride, produced and directed by Tim Burton and animated by Mike Johnson. This macabre story is based on a 19th century Russian fairy tale, and stars Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter and Emily Watson. This phenomenal production required three groups of artists, including the story board (drawing) department, the animator fabrication workshop and the camera crew that filmed the movie.

Twenty three animators worked on the film to create these marvelous puppets made of metal, silicone, foam and fabric at the cost of $30,000 per puppet. A total of 300 puppets were made for the film.

Tiny, intricate mechanical paddles and gears were attached at the ball joints and inside the head and were adjusted with Allen wrenches. The eyes are made of urethane and each side of the head is operated independently, including the eyebrows and lips. This ground breaking technology enabled the animators to achieve a greater range of movement and reduced the need to make replacement heads for each change in facial expression.

In addition to the advancement in animation that contributed to the realism of the figures, the movie was photographed digitally and allowed for more flexible and tighter shots thereby adding a 3-D dimensional quality to the characters.

Materials, dates and provenance

• date made: 2005
• Associated Name: Burton, Tim
• Object Name: puppet
• Object Name: figure, animation
• Physical Description: clay (overall material)
• Physical Description: foam latex (overall material)
• Physical Description: plastic (overall material)
• Subject: Puppetry
• Subject: Movie
• Subject: Entertainment, Film
• Subject: Animation
• ID Number: 2013.0001.08
• accession number: 2013.0001
• catalog number: 2013.0001.08
• collector/donor number: 175632
• Credit Line: Gift from Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc.
• Data Source: National Museum of American History

Sources and reuse

Catalogue descriptions and facts adapted from National Museum of American History through the Smithsonian's official Open Access dataset. This record explicitly marks its metadata CC0 1.0; formatting and selection have been changed.