Ladybug character puppet from the 1996 Disney stop-motion animation film 'James and the Giant Peach'

Ladybug character puppet from the 1996 Disney stop-motion animation film 'James and the Giant Peach', produced by Tim Burton, directed by Henry Selick and animated by Paul Berry.

James and Giant Peach (released 1996) was made by Walt Disney, Allied Filmmakers and Skellington Productions in the Skellington Productions studio, San Fransisco. The film is based on the Roald Dahl book of the same name, released in 1961. Tim Burton and Henry Selick filmed the production over 20 stages, taking three years.

This is an articulated, poseable puppet of the character Ladybug. Ladybug was voiced by British actor Jane Leeves. Leeves is most famous for her long-running role as Daphne in the America sitcom Fraiser (1993 – 2004).

To give the impression of fluid and believable movement, the puppet was incrementally moved between each frame of film footage recorded. There are 24 frames per one second of the finished film. One minute of the finished film could take over a week to film. The mouthpieces were painstakingly switched in and out to create the effect of the character’s changing facial features and speech. The puppet is expertly handmade and decorated.