Alice Otter

Alice Otter is Emmet Otter's mother in Emmet Otter's Jug-Band Christmas. She is good friends with Hetty Muskrat. Alice and her son Emmet live together in a small house next to the river in Frogtown Hollow, where she has made ends meet by taking in laundry, knitting socks, and baking pumpkin pies since her husband died. Alice Otter used to own a piano, but she hocked it for money. She loves to sing and really wants to buy Emmet that guitar with the mother of pearl inlays he saw at the Music Store for Christmas. After participating in the annual Waterville talent contest, Alice and the Frogtown Hollow Jubilee Jug Band become employed by Doc Bullfrog with a permanent gig singing and playing at the Riverside Rest. Alice was puppeteered by Frank Oz, with Marilyn Sokol dubbing the voice of the character afterwards. For the songs, Oz performed the puppet to Sokol's pre-recorded tracks. As with several other characters in the special, a marionette version of the Alice Otter puppet was used for several shots. In the original production of the stage adaptation at the Goodspeed Opera House in 2008, the role of Alice Otter was performed by Cass Morgan and understudied by Lisa Howard. The puppet from the original special was refurbished and used in bookending scenes at the beginning and end of the musical.