Welkom!

Welcome humans and non-humans alike to The Prawnling Project – a blog chronicling my attempt to recreate the little child alien from the film District 9 as a full-sized animatronic puppet.

Why? Aw come on – look at that cute little face! Who wouldn’t want their very own little space shrimp?

OK… in actual fact it’s because I’m a big geek. I’m a big geek who wants to be a special effects artist and “make monsters” for a living one day. For fun and for practice I make costumes, masks, and prosthetics to wear to various SF conventions.

For years now I’ve wanted to build my own animatronic puppet but despite several abortive attempts (and a drawer full of dissected cheap RC toy cars) I’ve never quite gotten a project off the ground.

Last convention season I had great success with a Little Shop of Horrors style hand-puppet I made named Bruce. He was a real crowd pleaser and a lot of fun to operate.

So I decided it was time to dust off my dream and give my animatronics project another go.

(By the way – one of my hands in this shot ISN’T my hand. It’s fake – can you guess which?)


Which brings us to the movie District 9. I LOVED District 9. One of those films you walk out of in shock because it touches such a nerve with you. The concept, the world, the designs – I was in geek heaven.

And while I think Sharlto Copley did an AMAZING job in the lead role of Wikus, to me the heart of the movie belonged to the alien, Christopher Johnson, and his son, CJ*.

(*SPOILER ALERT* - From this point on I’m going to assume you’ve seen the movie and thus I will make freely with the spoilers. So if, for whatever reason, you haven’t seen District 9 yet – GO SEE IT!
I’ll wait.)

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I don’t know for sure what gave me the idea for making a prawnling puppet – I think I was debating the merits of making Wikus’ Prawn arm to wear at cons when it occurred to me that having some sort of CJ model/plushie/puppet would add an extra element of fun to a Wikus costume. As the idea grew more complex I eventually scrapped the idea of doing Wikus’ arm at the same time, after deciding I would probably need all of my fingers free and unencumbered to work a CJ puppet properly.

Thus The Prawnling Project was born. I’ve been chronicling my progress with pictures for family and friends quite extensively so far, so throwing them together as a blog seemed the next logical step. So whether you are a puppet maker, a cosplayer, a District 9 fan, or just a SFX junkie I hope you enjoy following my little foray into creature creation.

Cheers!

Kate

(* Although never referred to by name in the film, on Sharlto Copley’s Facebook page, and in Weta’s Art of District 9 book it says that during production they called the young alien “little CJ” – for “little Christopher Johnson. I figure 'CJ' stands just as well for "Christopher Junior" - so just ‘CJ’ is how I’ll refer to him in this blog.
If you’re one of those D9 fans who likes calling the kid “Oliver” – and yes, I do know the reasoning behind calling him that - that’s A-Ok with me but personally, I like ‘CJ’ better ;) ).