I’ve just watched Ron Howard’s Jim Henson, Idea Man (trailer below, link to Disney+ discount coupon here).
Highlights include:
- Henson’s apparently unremarkable childhood
- His early start in on late-night television with Sam and Friends while still a student
- How he found ways to make his art pay for itself so he could do it again the next day
- The evolution of his style and ambition
- His skill – and Jane Henson’s – as a talent-finder
- His partnerships with Jane and Frank Oz
- His funny and thought-provoking (and puppet-free) short film Time Piece (archive.org link) shows a side of Henson we didn’t see much of
- The avant-garde nature of much of Sesame Street (obvious but easily overlooked if you grew up with it)
- The fact that even after Sesame Street’s huge success, two separate pilots for The Muppets were rejected by the major networks in 1974 and 1975 before it was picked up by Lew Grade in the UK
- The cost he and his family paid for his commitment in terms of health and relationships
- More details about his death from an untreated streptococcal infection
Recommended!
See also:
Photomasochism: Industrial Light and Magic and the making of Star Wars… And PIXAR
Animation History: The Surprising History of Mickey Mouse
Alan Becker: Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston’s 12 Principles of Animation (and a bit of the beauty of maths)
History of Animation: Gumbasia – Gumby and the Avant Guard
The History of Animation: Stop-motion in the 21st Century at Aardman
Popeye and Bluto: film’s first superheroes?
100 Years of Cinema: The Making of Snow White
Bonus Material: