Tapestry Puppets

The Tapestry Puppets are characters featured in the former Epcot parade Tapestry of Nations and its follow-up parade Tapestry of Dreams.
==Background==
The puppets that appeared during the parade’s consisted of various puppets representing diversity and unity. During the parade, they followed alongside the Sage of Time (the Dreamseekers in the Tapestry of Dreams incarnation) leading the parade representing millennia - whether during the day or at night. According to ancient legend when the Sage of Time first walked on Earth, he gathered the nations of the world to put them in peace, joy, and harmony and sang and danced together to complete the circle.
===Puppets===
:Note: The order of the units where the puppets appeared varied depending on the parade's performance as well as the number of puppets that appeared and were not always in order.
*Reverse Marionette: A large multicolored puppet with a little marionette being held in its arms, which the parade's cast members nicknamed Bobo.
*Disc Man: A large character with discs within the body and dreadlocks.
*Hammer Man: A humanoid character made of pieces of sheet metal.
*The Sprite: A winged character with a three-tiered tail.
*Angel Girl: A feminine figure with a massive wingspan and human face.
*Wiggle Girl: Another feminine figure identical to Angel Girl, but had a smaller wingspan and lacked a face, also had movement in the hips.
*Bird Man: An avian-like humanoid figure a large wingspan and a crane-like face. 
*Aztec Man: A male humanoid figure with an Aztec-style head, small wingspan and several flaps at its end, similar to kite tails.
==Appearances==
===Tapestry of Nations===
After the Sage of Time was introduced, the puppets followed along the parade while drummers on large-sized drum floats designed after Millennial Clocks banged on the drums to add music. The puppeteers holding Aztec-style puppets walked by where they controlled them to interact with the crowd passing through, where they had small wingspan and several flaps at the end resembling kite tails. After the Aztec puppets passed, a Disc Man puppet - a character with discs within the body and dreadlocks and Sprite puppets, fairy-like characters with a three-tiered tail who danced within the parade while impressing the crowd.
After another Millennial Clock passed by, Hammer Men - humanoid characters made of pieces of metal, passed by and paraded across the street, interacting with the crowd and later occasionally twirling. The Bird Men - humanoid avian puppets with large wingspans whose heads resembled that of African crowned cranes followed alongside the Hammer Men puppets where they opened and closed their wingspans resembling that of a peacock, just before more puppets passed by during the parade. Later, Reversed Marionette puppets - multicolored human-like puppets holding small puppet decoys in their arms, passed by following another Millennial Clock where they impressed guests using their puppetry skills. After the puppets passed by, winged beings known as Wiggle Girls passed by impressing guests showing their colorful decorations. After another Millennium Clock passed by consisting of Angel Girls, female figures with a human-like appearance resembling angels where they danced and paraded across the street.
When the parade reached half point, the puppeteers controlling the puppets ceased and formed a procession across the World Pavilion. During the sequence, all the puppets moved and danced in sync with the music as well as dancing with each other. Before the Sage of Time spoke, the puppets stopped facing straight ahead. The Sage then narrated that the gateway of time opened, putting everyone in harmony, planning to bring peace and harmony for the world.
During the Great Millennium Walk, the puppets passed by as the Sage planned to tell the guests to join them dancing into a new age of celebration, peace, and harmony while the Sage narrated of the universe began to echo with joy and rejoice together. Near the end of the procession, all the puppets and clocks all left the promenade with the Sage telling guests about the importance of peace, unity, and harmony just before he exited the promenade.
===Tapestry of Dreams===
The puppets reprised the same role they did in the predecessor parade. The only exception is that they were augmented with the additions of chimes and cymbals in an effort to add an additional layer to the audio performances. This parade was discontinued as of March 2003 as a result of its declining popularity, crowd control issues, and safety concerns for the puppeteers controlling the puppets.
===Other appearances===
Archived footage of the original Tapestry of Nations parade appeared in the former IllumiNations: Reflections of Earth nighttime show, showcasing puppets from the former parade.
==Gallery==
Tap02.jpg|Aztec Man
BirdmanTapestry.jpg|A Bird Man puppet
Disk Man.jpg|A Disc Man puppet
SpriteTapestry.jpg|A Sprite
TOD298199LARGE.jpg|A Hammered Man
Inverted Marionette.jpg|A Reversed Marionette
TapestryAngels.jpg|Angel Girls
WiggleGirlTapestry.jpg|Wiggle Girls
==Trivia==
*The Disc Man puppet was one of the heaviest puppets to control, due to its large size.
*The Bird Man puppet was the hardest to control, due to the way it was designed.
*The puppets from both incarnations of the Tapestry of Nations were designed by Michael Curry, who designed puppets for various Disney parks as well as the Lion King musical.
*During the Super Bowl XXXIV, the puppets from the Tapestry of Nations parade took part during the half-time show, alongside a gigantic Sage of Time backdrop, a full choir, narration by Edward James Olmos and performances by Christina Aguilera, Enrique Iglesias, Phil Collins and Toni Braxton.
==External links==
*Michael Curry's work on Tapestry of Nations.
Category:World Showcase
Category:Fairies
Category:Birds
Category:Angels
Category:Disney characters
Category:Silent characters
Category:Dancers
Category:Theme park characters