Jim Henson Google doodle: hidden unused Muppet animations uncovered

by Bill Palmer

Today’s Jim Henson Google doodle, despite having no sound and limited interaction in comparison to some of Google’s past doodles such as Pac-Man, is one of the most beloved yet, according to instantaneous and overwhelming user feedback. The Muppet-themed Google logo also has more interactivity than it initially appears to, as readers have discovered and shared. The laudibles for Google’s Henson tribute today, which falls on what would have been the Muppeteer’s 75th birthday, run far and wide. “Just beautiful ! What a great way to give tribute to a creative mind. Makes you forget your age when teasing around the doodles,” brags Kris Malaysia. “Awesome work by google engineers,” beams Guhan. “One of the few people in this world we truly cried over losing,” admit Paul and Paula. “We miss you, Jim.” But the adoration for the Henson doodle runs deeper than mere plaudits, as some users have figured out how to bring Google’s Muppets to life in hidden ways…

The first “Easter egg” or hidden feature comes in the form of Muppet cannibalization. As Jim Moudy found out, “I was just randomly pushing the buttons underneath the characters, and E jumps up and ate L!” Punam and several other Beatweek readers managed to trip over the second one: “Press and hold down the button for the first “O”. He’ll start shaking his head and his glasses will be tossed up!” Melissa Maday is quick to point out that after his glasses fly off, they just happen to “come back down landing perfectly on his face.” There’s also keyboard fun to be had, as Christopher discovers: “If you press the Control Key, Shift Key, etc. (don’t push any “entry” key like a letter or number) it makes the characters mouth open and close. If you push the Caps Lock the mouth will stay in the open position.” Lee Sanders reveals yet another: “If you right click on a character and save it you get a picture of all the animation cells for that character.”

But that’s just the beginning. Canadian Nomad takes things a step further by digging into the underlying code and and taking screen captures of unused animations of the Muppets. For instance the second “O” manages to fall asleep while the second “G” is seen blowing his trunk. Poodle Power points out that “when you click on the puppets control button the eyes of the puppet follow your cursor as you move it around” while Joshua Hogan discovered that “the 3D effects are good enough that when you hold click on the yellow O and wave the mouse around and be able to see the visual effects inside the mouth.” The first “O” also does a second trick aside from tossing his glasses if you click and hold on him while moving your mouse around, as discovered by Zibri…

Finally, Andrew Petersen explains his rationale for why Google opted not to add any sound to the Henson doodle: “The doodle is silent because Jim Henson was a puppeteer.  He created the voices for these characters himself, and Google is paying homage by letting you be the puppeteer.  That means you have to make your own voices.” Melissa Delahunty agrees: “They are puppets ..puppets don’t make sound unless given a voice.” Although Dr. Xym shares a contrasting view: “I spent five minutes messing with it and I wondered why there was no sound. I think it’s broken as it is. I liked the Freddie Mercury doodle from a few weeks ago much more than this.”

Found more Jim Henson Easter eggs beyond the ones mentioned here? Share them below in the comments section so everyone can enjoy the fun. Here’s more on the Henson doodle.

Updated 5:10am PST with additional information on hidden doodle animations and additional Easter eggs discovered

About Bill Palmer

Bill Palmer is Editor in Chief of Beatweek Magazine. His editorial contributions include interviews with musicians and iPhone industry coverage.