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| Jason and The Bad Idea (with a lightbulb head!) |
Dragon Theater Puppets had a new show this summer to tie in with the library summer reading program; "Rocket Hamster's Dreamy Space Odyssey". Jasper was dying to see it! The performance we went to mysteriously turned out to be "Homegrown Heroes", although the library calendar said otherwise. That was actually lucky, because it gave us a chance to see the first in Rocket Hamster's series of adventures again, including his origin story as a superhero. Then we made sure to check out Rocket Hamster in his second adventure at a different show. We love Jason Ropp and his puppets! Jasper thinks his sense of humor is roll-on-the-floor hilarious, and I definitely agree. I always think the best part of seeing his shows is that he always takes the time afterwards to talk to the kids, tell them how he made all the puppets from scratch, show them how everything was done, and patiently answer every question. Kids leave not just entertained but inspired!
Rocket Hamster and his superhero team (Samurai Flower, Super Bananaman, and the newest addition, Astro Nut) are creations of mad scientist and all-around nice guy Professor Greenthumb. They catch the Generic Bank Robber and keep Super Duper City safe, but then they are called upon to face more deadly challenges to the earth itself! In "Homegrown Heroes" it's The Bad Idea; and in "Rocket Hamster's Dreamy Space Odyssey" it's Luna Tick and her evil band of Space Bugs. You can't help but cheer as they save the day!
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| Rocket Hamster confronts The Bad Idea. |
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| Astro Nut and Rocket Hamsper meet The Face on Mars. |
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| Luna Tick (center) and some of her villainous Space Bugs. |
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| Luna Tick wields her deadly Asteroid Belt against Rocket Hamster. |
Comments
At some point when we were studying ancient Egypt and I was reading Jasper our third historical novel set in ancient Egypt with a strong female protagonist, I thought, should I be reading these? After all, the whole point was to make history really engaging for him, and I wondered if he'd prefer a book about a boy instead. Then I thought that was ridiculous, because I grew up reading great books with male protagonists, and a good story is a good story. My life was much, much richer because of those classics. And of course my son ought to grow up with the idea that women can be heros too. So I guess what I think is that as long as Jason Ropp continues to tell great stories with his puppets, and our kids enjoy them, we should continue to check them out, and we should definitely seek out good female storytellers too!
I grew up a comic book, action figure kid and still am. I try to design each show about a specific theam and moral. For these shows some people say male, well... I am a male! But besides that it's also because super heros are socially viewed as a male intetest. But how many girls out there love spiderman? My wife wanted to develope some
more "female" products for Dragon Theater, so we developed the costumed princess
character storytimes. But you won't beleive the
strong male following princesses have! We have
been hired many times for a little boy's birthday
party where they wanted the princess. One time
we even did a beauty and the beast party for a gir
l and she really liked the beast better than the
princess! So I say, support your kids interests and
don't let scociety influence you. Good product is
good product. If you think it makes them happy
with a positive moral impact, support it!
Great topic! Thanks!
Jason Ropp
Deagontheater.com