Ron Howard’s new Disney+ movie offers slick brand management, but a little-known YouTuber went deeper.
Jim Henson steps in front of the camera, wearing a Steve Jobs–style black turtleneck, a detail that seems to foreshadow the early death we now know awaited him. At the time of the interview, the creator of the multinational, multimediafranchise must have been in his late 40s, yet his appearance was that of a man already flirting with old age.
“Are you a puppeteer or an artist?” the interviewer asks. “Any of the above,” Henson mutters in a nasally voice most people recognize as Kermit the Frog’s. Only those close to him would have been able to tell that, behind his friendly chuckling, Henson was having a full-blown Muppet meltdown.Jim Henson: Idea Man
, which opens on this scene, is that the world’s single most famous puppeteer never wanted to work with puppets. At least, not always. Growing up in Mississippi, he aspired to work in television, and the main reason he created Kermit and the gang was that he felt they could help him secure a spot at his local station. For the young Henson, puppeteering wasn’t a childhood passion.
Henson encountered similar hostility when, in an effort to overhaul his cuddly reputation, he and his team had a brief stint performing skits forassigned to work with them often responded with sighs and grunts. “I won’t write for felt,” comedian Michael O’Donoghue protested. “Mucking Fuppets,” John Belushi added. The insults would haunt the sensitive Henson to the end of his days.
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