When children lack access to backyards and green space and are unable to play outdoors regularly, they can easily miss out on forming a personal connection to nature. Often the best way to foster a child's love for the Earth is to remind him or her that nature and wildlife can be a friendly part of their everyday life.
One Oak Park couple, Christine Ingaldson and Tony Smith, have dedicated themselves to this message as creators of the new children's show, Mr. Furry Fur Fur. Starring an adorable raccoon, (played by Ingaldson) and his friends, Pete the Possum, Scribbles the Squirrel and Blink the Butterfly, Mr. Furry Fur Fur is a new breed of children's show. It blends a techno pop soundtrack with the familiar faces of backyard animals and their experiences learning about nature, recycling, sharing, friendships, everyday routines and celebrations.
The show is geared to children ages 3 to 6 and though the humor and style of puppetry is reminiscent of Sesame Street and the Children's Television Workshop, Ingaldson and Smith have a somewhat more wacky approach, sure to be enjoyed by parents who grew up on a steady diet of The Muppet Show.
Ingaldson's fascination with puppetry has been lifelong, growing up in north suburban Northbrook, since she was 9 years old she always "wanted to make a difference with kids with puppetry." "When I was in high school, I made a kids show using puppets, and won second in the state of Illinois," she explains.
She studied at the University of Iowa for film and video and then interned at Jim Henson productions for a summer and later with a puppet theater near Iowa City. She soon found it was pretty tough to enter the field and she turned to graphic design and a music career as a pop singer. She met Tony Smith, her husband and co-creator, through a mutual contact in Chicago's local music scene. Smith is also a musician and a designer and was living in Oak Park at the time.
But 10 years on the local pop music scene and several years of political activism left Ingaldson feeling burned out. She decided to set her sights on making a difference in a more positive way. She enrolled in science courses at Triton College in River Grove and loved it. It was then that she realized she could pair her love of puppetry with education, environmental education to be exact.
"I remembered my dream from childhood,” she recalls with satisfaction in her voice.
"No one can believe we are doing it out of our living room."
Smith endorsed her idea from the start. So the couple spent their wedding money on a Canon camera, the custom-made Mr. Furry Fur Fur puppet and special paint to adapt the living room wall of their garden condo for chroma key technology and digital effects.
"I was doing this while I had a day job, he was at home doing freelance design," she recalls about she and her husband's early days of filming. On weekends they would shoot, sometimes driving out far from the city to towns like Peoria to find outdoor locations to film.
Smith composes all the music for the show, which is a refreshing change from the usual syrupy children's show music. He also does the editing and special effects for production and post production. In addition to playing Mr. Furry Fur Fur and Flutter, Ingaldson writes the script for each episode, (previously a solo job, she's now aided by fellow writer Nicolette Bond.) Ingaldson designs all of the puppets, which are still custom built by a puppet maker in New Jersey.
“The bottom line is that we do it because we love it.”
By January of 2008 the first Mr. Furry Fur Fur webisodes were finally complete and posted online. A YouTube page went up that same month.
“We were just having fun creating it," Ingaldson says.
Several local events followed around town and the pair, along with their star raccoon, appeared on WGN-TV, at Brookfield Zoo and at the 2008 Green Festival. It was at the Green Festival that they received a great deal of positive feedback, especially from their youngest fans.
"The kids loved him, they were hugging him. We were very moved by how the kids got really excited by it. We had only tested it out on our nieces and nephew, so it was nice to see," Ingaldson says of the Green Fest appearance. “No one can believe we are doing it out of our living room."
That summer the two began talks with an investor, who gave them enough funding to purchase lighting, two additional puppets and a better computer for editing and sound. By July of 2008, Ingaldson was able to quit her day job where she had worked for 7 years. They then began a one year contract with their investor, which is set to be renegotiated this summer.
Ingaldson and Smith say they have no regrets about their choices, though admittedly they get nervous about funding and compensating their all-volunteer team. At present they try to pay for lunches and screening parties for the team. For now, Ingaldson and Smith have split the promotion duties for the show.
"Our short term plan is to increase sales of the DVD to begin paying the team for their efforts, as well as promoting the show, marketing it and really getting the word out and getting the DVD into more stores.” The Mr. Furry Fur Fur DVD is currently available for sale at The Green Grocer in Chicago and It's Our Earth in Wheaton, as well on the show's website.
She and Smith hope to be able to do more public outreach programs for children, which they've received many requests for. She said they would need to purchase a double for Mr. Furry Fur Fur as he tends to receive lots of hands-on attention from the children he meets and for now, he's the only one of his kind.
“I love puppetry and would love to keep it alive, and even make our product more artistic,” Ingaldson says of the show's future. "The bottom line is that we do it because we love it.”
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For more information on Mr. Furry Fur Fur or to purchase a DVD of the show, visit: http://www.friendlyearthfriends.com/
-Christine
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