Why is it so many children and even adults have an unnatural fear of puppets? Well, the glassy, thousand-yard stare and clappity-clap of Howdy Doody or Mortimer Snerd’s wooden mouths aren’t exactly ...

For centuries Kasperle, a long-nosed marionette with the virtues of Galahad and the deportment of Mortimer Snerd, has been muddling his way to victory over the villains of Germany’s popular puppet ...