It should go without saying that we all know who Jim Henson was. The creator of The Muppets and Sesame Street and the mind behind such classic movies like Labyrinth and The Dark Crystal! And now we have a documentary streaming on Disney+ exploring the man behind it all and what he went through to make his ideas come to life.
I loved this documentary for so many reasons. For starters, I’m always fascinated by the people who create such astounding legacies that are forever embedded into pop culture and withstand the test of time. I’m also a sucker to see one’s humble beginnings before becoming an icon or a staple of society. This documentary does that in such a unique way.
This documentary doesn’t only use the usual tropes of showcasing stock footage from previous interviews from the time as well as clips from shows and movies with behind-the-scenes footage, they also showcase some of Jim Henson’s actual sketches and even animate them for the doc. And in some cases, it looked like they cleaned up a lot of Jim Henson’s films that he worked on in the past. I’m not sure if this was just for the doc or if they were previously cleaned up and released in their entirety, but I was impressed by how clean a lot of the old footage looked.
In addition to that, I couldn’t help but notice that they utilized some stop-motion animation for certain points in the doc, and as a fellow stop-motion animation enthusiast, I was very happy to see that. Even the setting of the interviews was cleverly done to mirror one of Jim Henson’s films. That was impressive. Every little detail in this documentary was done with purpose.
Some of the interviewees include Jim Henson’s son Brian Henson, Jim’s daughters Heather and Lisa Henson as well as his friend/partner Frank Oz, Jennifer Connelly, and many others. They all touched on how Jim was as a father, a family man, and a partner on set of his creations and how he worked with others and helped everyone to bring his visions to life.
Overall, this was such a well-made documentary about Jim Henson. I believe director Ron Howard did an excellent job with this documentary. It did what it was supposed to do and succeeded with flying colors. Everything about this documentary from the interviews to the use of archive footage, and the music, was put together so incredibly well. And all of it told a very interesting and engaging story about the brilliant idea man behind the Muppet whose company still does amazing puppeteer work for film and television to this very day. I highly recommend checking this documentary out. As I had mentioned before, “Jim Henson: Idea Man” is now streaming on Disney+.
5 stars
Nick Nitkowski
From the Fourth Row! 
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