Jim Henson: Idea Man

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.