Wanna Cry Tonight? Watch Idea Man on Disney +

Ron Howard's new documentary about fearless filmmaker Jim Henson is the puff piece you want to indulge in.

The Jim Henson documentary is what you would expect. But happily, what I expected was an inspiring story about the man who created all of our childhood best friends. And yes. Idea Man delivers. Unless they are true crime these days, funded docs have resigned themselves to be puff pieces for PR pushes, but this is a delightful one of those. If you want to revisit your past and indulge yourself in a bath of nostalgia and emotions, fire up your Disney+ and enjoy Idea Man directed by Ron Howard. Yes, it’s supported by the family, no there was not a secret double life led by Jim Henson… in fact the only thing I learned that I didn’t already know was that all of those bizarre, borderline creepy and wild films in early Sesame Street episodes were in fact from the experimental filmmaking mind of Mr. Henson himself.

If you aren’t already familiar with Jim Henson’s passion for experimental film, you will learn all about it in this documentary. You will also learn that every. single. network passed on The Muppet Show until a London-based Impresario named Lew Grade saw to it that it would get made at the British Channel ATV. As a filmmaker, I loved letting myself enjoy the world of Jim Henson’s perseverance, fearless creativity, and passion for team empowerment (though his family life did suffer). After one of those weeks/months/years of dreams being built and dashed and rebuilt again, I loved watching someone push that boulder up the hill and experience wins… as well as beautiful “mistakes”. By mistakes, I mean of course The Dark Crystal which to many is a weird masterpiece, but was not realized in the way perhaps that Henson envisioned. But you will see footage and evidence of his team giving it their absolute ALL with wild abandon. And that is the life we signed up for as filmmakers.

Look Behind the Look-wise, you probably already know that Kermit was made of Jim’s mother’s coat and Rolf was made by cutting a basketball in half, but in this particular film, we didn’t learn much of anything about Miss Piggy’s origins, so we will need to dive into her during my look into the Great Muppet Caper later on.

For more about Jim, I provided some links below of course, but I also want to remind you that at any time, you should head to the Museum of Moving Image for the Jim Henson exhibit which is extraordinary. It is MoMI who hosted the screening tonight with Ron Howard and they have, well, dedicated their life to The Muppets.

I’ll now get back to my viewing of The Muppet Show on Disney+, reminding me of the days that I would get dressed up, brush my hair and sit directly in front of the TV in my special child-sized rocking chair and enjoy the original series.

Jim Henson: The Biography

Jim Henson: The Works

It’s Not Easy Being Green (And Other Things To Consider) by Jim Henson