Unicorn Puppets
Client: City of Melbourne
Date: April 2021
We were lucky enough to bring any children’s wildest dreams to life when we designed and built three playful unicorn puppets for City of Melbourne’s Wonderland activation at District Docklands.
For our brief we were given a series of drawings submitted by children which all depicted, you guessed it: unicorns! Taking inspiration from the children’s fun and imaginative drawings, we came up with these lovable and highly sophisticated puppets, each having their own individual style and personality.
For 4 days, the Unicorns helped transform the Docklands into a magical storybook wonderland full of colour and imagination. The activation was during Melbourne’s April school holidays and saw tens of thousands of families come and experience the three magical zones: The Unicorn Garden, the Pirates Cove and The Wonderland Playground.
Funkycorn
Funkycorn is a big endearing cuddle bug with the grooviest moves. This oversized costumed suit-worn puppet is operated by one puppeteer.
This extravagant and fun design showcases an upright unicorn that boasts a fresh hip-hop vibe. It wears playful sneakers, some questionable tight short-shorts, a backpack sprouting wings, and flaunts a gold dollar-sign pendant and chain.
The design of Funkycorn allows it to walk around and dance with the crowds, as well as receive hugs and deliver lots of high-fives.
Although this puppet is extremely soft and cuddly, it is an extremely complex and lightweight design.
Funkycorn
Funkycorn is a big endearing cuddle bug with the grooviest moves. This oversized costumed suit-worn puppet is operated by one puppeteer.
This extravagant and fun design showcases an upright unicorn that boasts a fresh hip-hop vibe. It wears playful sneakers, some questionable tight short-shorts, a backpack sprouting wings, and flaunts a gold dollar-sign pendant and chain.
The design of Funkycorn allows it to walk around and dance with the crowds, as well as receive hugs and deliver lots of high-fives.
Although this puppet is extremely soft and cuddly, it is an extremely complex and lightweight design.
Rainbowcorn
This kawaii inspired unicorn, Rainbowcorn is the most traditional of the three. It is a visual explosion of colour with a soft rainbow mane and tail, and a cuddly pink-hued furred body. Much alike to its friend the Kitty-catcorn, this unicorn is a suit worn puppet operated by one puppeteer.
The puppeteers’ legs act as the unicorns’ front legs, while their arms are disguised within the flowing rainbow mane. From here the puppeteer can manipulate the rod-operated hind legs for fluid life-like trotting. The head is controlled by the puppeteer too and can look side-to-side and up-and-down. It has an adorable cutie-mark heart shaped viewing hole.
This extremely advanced design is ultra-light weight and provides great support for the puppeteers. The hand painted fur has been attached mindfully to mimic natural hair growth directions, which is secured on top of its sculpted internal foam body and engineered framing.
Rainbowcorn
This kawaii inspired unicorn, Rainbowcorn is the most traditional of the three. It is a visual explosion of colour with a soft rainbow mane and tail, and a cuddly pink-hued furred body. Much alike to its friend the Kitty-catcorn, this unicorn is a suit worn puppet operated by one puppeteer.
The puppeteers’ legs act as the unicorns’ front legs, while their arms are disguised within the flowing rainbow mane. From here the puppeteer can manipulate the rod-operated hind legs for fluid life-like trotting. The head is controlled by the puppeteer too and can look side-to-side and up-and-down. It has an adorable cutie-mark heart shaped viewing hole.
This extremely advanced design is ultra-light weight and provides great support for the puppeteers. The hand painted fur has been attached mindfully to mimic natural hair growth directions, which is secured on top of its sculpted internal foam body and engineered framing.
Kitty-Catcorn
Kitty-catcorn is a unicorn/cat hybrid inspired by a child’s art submission. The child drew an eccentric unicorn with whiskers, and we absolutely loved the idea; it was fun and wild, and something we had never seen before.
This puppet is a crowd favourite. From its beautiful hand died fur coat and fluffy cat ears, to its glittery eyelashes and bubble-like unicorn wings, this puppet exudes a cute and charming persona (it even has little cat teeth and a kitten button nose).
The Kitty-catcorn is a suit-worn puppet operated by one puppeteer. Its design and functions are alike to the Rainbowcorn, though the size and proportions are unique to create a distinctive individual persona.
Check out the children’s artwork we were inspired by below!
Kitty-Catcorn
Kitty-catcorn is a unicorn/cat hybrid inspired by a child’s art submission. The child drew an eccentric unicorn with whiskers, and we absolutely loved the idea; it was fun and wild, and something we had never seen before.
This puppet is a crowd favourite. From its beautiful hand died fur coat and fluffy cat ears, to its glittery eyelashes and bubble-like unicorn wings, this puppet exudes a cute and charming persona (it even has little cat teeth and a kitten button nose).
The Kitty-catcorn is a suit-worn puppet operated by one puppeteer. Its design and functions are alike to the Rainbowcorn, though the size and proportions are unique to create a distinctive individual persona.
Check out the children’s artwork we were inspired by below!
