Saskatoon puppet maker's creations teach Urdu in new Pakistani children's show
Saskatoon's Allison Ewert says it's 'super exciting' to see her puppets come to life on screen
Allison Ewert spends her days stitching together furry monsters and aliens at her Saskatoon home.
Part engineer, part artist, the 45-year-old woman spends hours refining each puppet. For her, there's a magical moment when she flips them right side out and makes them talk.
"It just makes me smile every time," she said. "I've made so many puppets over the years, but it's never gotten dull."
The mother of three began making puppets about a decade ago as a creative outlet and loved it so much that she launched her brand, Very Happy Puppets, and began taking custom orders.
In November 2021, she received a private message on Instagram from a man in Pakistan who wanted her to create several puppets for a new children's show called Pakkay Dost, which means "best friends" in English.
Ewert didn't know it at the time, but that man was actually Bilal Maqsood, a famous Pakistani musician.
Maqsood was the co-founder of an iconic pop-rock band called Strings that broke up in March 2021 after 33 years together. At that time Maqsood, a father, decided he wanted to create a musical children's program in Urdu, Pakistan's national language. The songwriter enlisted the help of other people in the TV and movie industry, including director Umer Adil, who shared his desire to create original content in Urdu.
"The Urdu language is not evolving as much as it should have been," Adil told CBC News. "The kids these days, my children, are not that well-versed in the language like we used to be, because they're exposed to the Internet and globalization."
Adil runs a production house in Karachi, Pakistan, and normally directs documentaries, feature films and television commercials. He's a fan of Jim Henson's The Muppet Show and was excited to revive the art of puppeteering in Pakistan.
"We wanted to do the classic way of puppetry where everything is shot live, all the songs are recorded live and the people who are the voices are also the puppeteers. So there was not much dubbing in it," Adil said.
The father of three, who also agreed to do the voice for the blue puppet, Mateen, said Ewert's creations are excellent quality and capture the playful spirit of the show.
"It's not that those puppets are very Pakistani to look at, but they sound Pakistani, they're speaking in Urdu, their jokes are local," he said.
Pakkay Dost officially launched online last month with 12 songs and eight stories divided into four episodes. Similar to Sesame Street, it teaches children the language and life lessons without being "preachy," Adil said.
Ewert said she loves how puppets can be used to aid communication.
"Puppets are a really safe space. So you can teach [children] things in a goofy way, or approach certain topics that are maybe a bit tricky, and it's not like they're talking to an adult or someone behind a puppet. They're talking to a puppet."
Ewert enjoys watching the Pakkay Dost puppets sing and dance on the YouTube channel, even if she doesn't understand the language.
"It's super exciting," she said. "I sort of liken it to watching my kids ride their bike for the first time.… It's like that feeling of 'I can't believe they're doing their own thing, like they're really coming to life in their own way.'"
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With files from Candice Lipski