Jim Henson: El hombre y las ideas

Jim Henson Idea Man is an earnest tribute to the life and legacy of a visionary. It celebrates puppetry for the incredible art form it is whilst offering a personal look at the effects of fame. It moves along at a satisfyingly easygoing speed up until the final stretch where it suddenly speed runs through a lot of major beats to get to the end but other than that it succeeds at being a beautiful and emotional documentary.

Ron Howard's direction wisely imbues the film with a lot of colourful flourishes and a generally inventive nature in a noble attempt to match the creativity of his subject. It's the usual chronological narrative that charts Henson's life from his beginnings all the way to his untimely death and each little flourish works with the story it's telling, even through the end credits. The footage gathered is amazing and the anecdotes from the people in them are delightful and heartbreaking.

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!

I knew immediately that this bio documentary about Jim Henson was in good hands (Ron Howard directing) with the opening, played out against the rousing music of Charles Mingus in one of his trademark barn-burning performances. The story is one of unbridled creativity, and the movie, along with authoritative commentaries by the likes of Frank Oz and Jennifer Connolly, speaks for itself. Howard is especially successful at the poignant way he handles Henson's sudden death, which I had forgotten even though I was a reporter covering the movie industry 34 years ago when it occurred.

One element that hit me out of the blue was a shot of George Lucas on screen during the coverage of "Labyrinth". It reminded me how difficult it would be to make a documentary on Lucas's life, and how there are book-ending similarities in his career relative to Henson's: both were once experimental filmmakers in the 1960s (THX 1138 4EB versus Timepiece), later becoming entwined in the commercial side of the entertainment business with huge financial success, and their creative achievements ended up in the domain of Walt Disney (himself an analogous figure in history).

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.

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.