Jim Henson: Idea Man

I thought this was great.

This is a feature length tribute and biography to the great man that was Jim Henson.

It features lots of the people who worked with him, and forms a wonderful education about who the man was and what he stood for.

The talking heads don't get in the way, and there is a lot of rare footage to be seen and enjoyed as well.

I didn't expect this to be as moving as it turned out being, and just hearing the ethos and beliefs that Jim Henson had proved to be inspiring.

I hope people enjoy this well made documentary as much as I did and that it encourages Disney to do more with The Muppets.

Jim Henson is the movie-maker that got me into movies. When I saw The Dark Crystal at age five, I was never the same again. This was when I first felt that I simply had to know how movies get made. Later on, I became a fan of Muppets and Fraggles alike (yes, I got to the Skeksis before I got to Kermit, at least in terms of adoration) and by now, I consider Henson one of the most important creatives of the 20th century.

He changed the way I take in art, and did this and insurmountably more to countless others around the world. Even all these years after his death, he touches generations of people through his colorful creations -- so lifelike, nay, alive in spite of so clearly not being "real". In Ron Howard's documentary, Jim Henson: Idea Man, we see most of his life laid out (albeit sometimes in disappointingly brief snippets), from his youth to his early TV gigs (like those 1950s Wilkins Coffee commercials where a Kermit prototype puppet commits murder indiscriminately); from the inception of Sesame Street to the rise of the Muppets and the bona fide celebrity status of Kermit and Miss Piggy; from the creation of The Dark Crystal (which also involved the opening of the Henson Creature Shop) to the disastrous release of the now-beloved Labyrinth.

Meanwhile, we learn of his personal life and the way he inspired, not just us, but those around him. In one notable moment, Frank Oz recalls how Henson pushed for him to co-direct The Dark Crystal, as Henson felt he himself lacked something that he saw in Oz.

The documentary is cleverly presented, making good use of projectors, stop-motion interludes, and some animations Henson himself created before the Muppet years. Unfortunately, it is missing -- or just barely mentions -- a lot of information about Henson's life that would have made this documentary go from good to great. Still, it is a worthy celebration of that Rainbow Connection (sorry) that Henson created between all of us.

When I was in high school, Sesame Street came along. I had study hall before lunch in a small room where we could watch the show on TV. That began my interest in the Muppets and Jim Henson. This documentary is a great view of the history of both.

That said, I'm halfway through and the music is annoying. I'm trying to listen to people talk, watch the pictures, and there's distracting music playing that interferes with the sound.

It's not flowing music, it's short and choppy. That would be fine for scenes that need to imply action, but it's people talking in short, choppy words. The music is ear-catching when it should be subtle and not distracting. Music should be an additive to scenes that don't have dialogue. When people are talking, let them talk!

Ever since I could remember, Jim Henson has been apart of my life. From Sesame Street, the Muppet Show, Muppet Babies, Fraggle Rock, Dog City, the Storyteller, and all his movies. Growing up, Jim Henson was inseparable from my life. When I heard about this film, I was so excited to see bits and pieces about Jim Henson that I never knew. Unfortunately well the picture did take more attention to building up the man and having us understand his genius, It felt lacking. For some reason, they decided to keep a running time of two hours. Suddenly, in his darkest time after the Muppet show ended, when he was flourishing the most creatively, the crew decided to rush that second phase of his career and jam it in the final 30 minutes of runtime. I wanted more detail on the storyteller or his failed Jim Henson hour. I wanted them to talk about Dinosaurs The sitcom. I wanted them to talk about the creature shop and how they created Yoda and the ninja Turtles. They didn't interview George Lucas. Ron Howard knows George personally and they didn't get him? I wanted them to interview his peers in directing. I wanted them to interview the celebrities who were a part of the Muppet show and Sesame Street. They only interviewed one person, Rita Moreno. Very strange. Yes I know a lot of them have passed away, but there are so many others they could have put on there. They didn't even interview Conan O'Brien, who divulged on his podcast that not only did he go to college with his daughter Lisa, but he ran the Lampoon with her AND knew Jim Henson personally. He was even there for the funeral, which was just glazed over, not even showing the clip of all the muppets coming out on stage to sing for him. I wanted more. Yes, there have been very few specials about Jim Henson, but the wealth of material he left us deserved more. Make it a 4 part series like the Beatles, or a Two Parter to bookend the before and after Muppet Show career. Now, don't get me wrong, I'm a fanatic and I'm still probably discovering things to this day. There are way bigger Jim Henson fans than me so I won't say I'm disappointed. I loved the film because it's about Jim but I wanted way way more and it would take a lot to satisfy my appetite. I just thought it was going to be a big project like The Beatles was and I felt a little mislead. Please watch it, enjoy it and learn more about the man. I hope there's another series that goes into depth what he was about and what he made.

This isn't the first documentary I've seen about Jim Henson but it's certainly one of the best.

It combines fantastic access to archive materials, many of which I had never seen before, and a selection of insightful interviews with key collaborators and family members.

Particular highlights are the footage of his early creations, including "Sam and Friends" on local TV and his experimental short films from the 60s, before the happy accident that was "Sesame Street". It's also good to see the important role his collaborator and soon-to-be-wife Jane played.

I was slightly surprised to see that quite so many big names were involved in the production of the documentary. I suppose that indicates the status of Jim within the industry. Not to be dismissive of Ron Howard et al, but any documentary filmmaker could have done an equally good job if they had access to the same materials.