I was just short of eight years old when Jim Henson died. To me, the Muppets have never been the same since. I already knew a fair bit about him before this documentary arrived, but after seeing enough hype, I decided it would make a nice palate cleanser.
The 108 minutes consist largely of relatives and co-workers talking about the life of Henson, peppered with brief clips of his works. Like Won't You Be My Neighbor?, it has a few supplementary simple animations. Unlike WYBMN?, it holds pretty strongly to chronological order. There's little focus on Henson's later efforts such as Fraggle Rock.
While hardly scandalous, Henson does not quite come across as another Fred Rogers. He didn't particularly want to get into kiddie entertainment, as evidenced by what he made before Sesame Street, not all of which involved puppets. He was remarkably open about wanting money. In later years, his dedication to projects got in the way of family cohesion. Still an appealing guy in general.
In addition to exposure to some of Henson's private life and less remembered productions, I found the primary value of the doc to be in highlighting how inventive he was. Apparently, no previous puppet operated precisely like a common Muppet, and larger Muppets are more mechanically complex. Many visual effects took real creativity to pull off.
Apart from that, there's basically nothing I didn't expect. Ron Howard, as successful as he's been, never brings a distinctive style, but I'm not sure how another director would have done it better or even differently. What can you do with the story of a famous man like Jim Henson?
Regardless, JH:IM should be ultimately affecting to almost anyone alive. Unless you've somehow gotten tired of all things Henson, you'll probably want to see it sometime.
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