Josh Reviews Jim Henson Idea Man

Jim Henson Idea Man is a documentary directed by Ron Howard (Willow, Parenthood, Apollo 13, Frost/Nixon, Solo: A Star Wars Story), exploring the life and work of Jim Henson.

This is a beautiful film that shines a well-deserved light on the genius Jim Henson.  It’s incredible to step back and consider how indelibly Mr. Henson’s imagination shaped my childhood: characters and songs and scenes from The Muppet Show, Sesame Street, the various Muppet movies, Fraggle Rock, The Dark Crystal, and more are burned onto my brain.  It’s hard to imagine a world in which The Muppets and Sesame Street did not exist!!

Mr. Howard’s film takes it time to present Mr. Henson’s childhood and early days, and his struggles and successes as he worked to bring his creative ideas to life.  I particularly enjoyed a clip from an interview with Orson Welles, in which Mr. Welles is shocked to discover that Mr. Henson didn’t grow up playing with puppets, and that he only started working with puppets as a way to get into TV.  (Mr. Welles is hamming it up a bit in his reactions, but still, that is incredible to discover!)

The documentary is filled with fascinating tidbits like that.  While Mr. Henson is a well-known figure, I wasn’t familiar with much of the details of his story or his family life.  It was interesting to hear those stories.  I also loved hearing the behind-the-scenes stories of the blood, sweat and tears that went into the creation of Mr. Henson’s many, many projects.  Everyone in the film seems to be in awe of how busy Mr. Henson constantly was, of how many projects he seemed to have the energy to think about and work on simultaneously.  This documentary could have been twice as long and still barely scratch the surface of Mr. Henson’s vast array of creative projects.  Nevertheless, I was impressed by how much detail Mr. Howard was able to squeeze into this doc, without it ever feeling too rushed or over-packed.

I was pleased that the documentary gave a lot of space for Mr. Henson’s wife Jane (who was also his creative partner for many years) and their children to tell this story in their own words.  And it was great to hear from some of Mr. Henson’s talented creative collaborators, including Frank Oz (who performed and voiced Miss Piggy, Fozzie, Animal, Cookie Monster, Bert, Grover, and so many more, in addition to becoming an incredible director in his own right).  I loved hearing stories about the making of Sesame Street and The Muppet Show and The Dark Crystal, as well as hints of many other intriguing unrealized projects (such as a broadway show, and Mr. Henson’s wild idea for a psychedelic nightclub).  The film makes good use of a lot of archival, behind-the-scenes footage, which I found endlessly fascinating to see.  It’s cool to cut from finished clips of Mr. Henson’s TV shows and movies to footage of the work that Mr. Henson and his team of talented collaborators were doing, just off-camera, to bring those Muppets to life.  (I particularly enjoyed footage of Mr. Henson and Mr. Oz goofing around in out-takes from some Bert and Ernie sketches.)

Watching this documentary, I’m in awe of Mr. Henson’s creative vision and drive.  And I’m nostalgic for so many of these projects, that so shaped my life as a kid.  Bravo to Mr. Howard and his team for such a fine piece of work with this documentary.

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