"Dance your cares away / worry's for another day / Let the music play / down at Fraggle Rock." Like any piece of art, these words mean a variety of different things to students on campus. For those who grew up watching the television series "Fraggle Rock," the lyrics to the show's theme song are nothing short of a joyous reminder of an innocent childhood.
Fortunately for fans of the series, the complete third season of the show is set to be released on DVD Sept. 11. The five-disc set includes the season's 24 episodes, a slew of behind-the-scenes footage, interviews with the show's creators and original artwork from the show's early stages.
Unfortunately, the uninitiated are unlikely to find the episodes all that appealing. Each one seems to go downhill after the show's catchy, carefree theme song. It does not take long to realize that the show is a series of superficial morality plays in which characters take turns exposing one another's egocentrism. For example, in "Red-Handed and the Invisible Thief," young Red Fraggle accuses all of her fellow Fraggles of stealing her radish bars. She subsequently is exposed as a compulsive sleep-eater who is eating the very radish bars she claims to be stolen. In another episode, Mokey Fraggle becomes obsessed with admission to the venerable Secret Society of Poobahs at the expense of her friends. All the episodes in the season follow a similar pattern of teaching the pitfalls of being obsessed with one's own motives. Selflessness is an excellent ideal to teach to children, but watching it conveyed through puppets is simply excruciating.
One bright spot in the boxed set, however, was a package containing sheets of original artwork and notes from the show's creator Michael Frith. In his opening letter, Frith explains that his inspiration for the show came from his childhood in Bermuda — specifically, from the island's exclusive reliance on rainfall as a source of water.
"And so a water cycle became the center of the Fraggle world," Frith explains, "The difference being that they didn't understand it, or how each resident of the Rock (and beyond) depended on the others to maintain it."
After the opening letter, the packet reveals seminal artwork in the series that is worth having a look at for Frith's notes alone. In the corner of one sheet of artwork, he writes, "I wasn't always able to jump to the drawing board every time a new script came in — I had a ton of other stuff as well as Fraggles to do. This could be a little frustrating at the Shop. I later learned they took to rummaging through my wastebasket looking for meeting doodles. I, belatedly, really apologize!"
It is this kind of candor that makes the DVD set a worthy buy for "Fraggle Rock" fans. Folks who grew up watching the show are likely to enjoy Frith's waxing philosophic about preaching interdependence through puppets. However, people who did not watch the show as children are unlikely to regard the Bermuda-inspired world Frith created with the same kind of wonder as "Rock" heads."
Grade: 2 stars out of 5
