Jim Henson Idea Man Film Review

To say that the The Muppets were and still are a big deal would be a huge understatement as would the fact that there creator Jim Henson was a visionary. Well in order to fully celebrate just how creative this man was Disney+ have released a new documentary all about the man and his life and well you all just knew that I have to check this review the very first chance that I got and so then join me as I review the film that truly does celebrate the man behind The Muppets with the film in question being called simply just "Jim Henson Idea Man" enjoy.

As this is a documentary film there really is no plot to the film with the film really just telling the story of Jim Henson's life and career. However tho the film does cut out alot of the stuff from Jim's child hood and not really going into detail about what it was that made him want to make puppets in the first place which in some ways does make sense as the film does include an archive interview with Jim himself where he does explain that fact but at the same time tho given that this film is meant to be all about his life and celebrating his life it would have been nice if the film included instead of just flat out not mentioning it as that is something that does go against what the plot of the film was even meant to be in the first place and while the film does go into great detail about the man's life and what he was like when he came back home at the end of each day it doesn't really explain what it was that made him that way in the first with the plot of the film also being really rather entertaining and as well as being really rather engaging as well in my freaking opinions anyways / at least. 

Starring in this film is Frank Oz , Bonnie Erickson , Brian Henson , Michael K. Frith and Heather Henson. Also starring in this film is one of this films producers Lisa Henson , Rita Moreno , Fran Brill , Jennifer Connelly , Dave Goelz , Cheryl Henson , Kagga Jayson , Karen Prell and Brian Henson with this film also having Jim's wife Jane making appearances via archive footage wit that method also being used to make Bernie Brillstein and Jerry Juhl also appear in the film with that making the film alot more complete then what it would have been other wise and while yes there are some really noticeable absences in this film which would have made sense given that this person did have a connection with Jim thanks to The Muppet Show if this person was to be included it would also take away from who the documentary is about given that this person really doesn't like Disney  due to the fact that they hired him from the role of Kermit Of The Frog and the two just never have gotten along with each other since then.

Given who they did get to partake in this film it would have made more sense if they got more people who worked on other Jim Henson productions instead of just having people from either The Muppet Show or Labyrinth as that really does make the list of people who you could include feel very limited whereas this is a man who touched hundreds of people and who worked with hundreds of people and yet there not being included in this film with one of the worst examples being Steve Whitmire who despite having allegations made against him of him being unprofessional nothing concreate has been shown as evidence and yet he's not included in the film even tho he spent alot of time working with Jim prior to his death and thus prior to him taking over the role of Kermit The Frog and none of the cast from his none Muppet films like The Dark Crystal and Labyrinth apart from Jennifer Connelly are mentioned with none of the cast from the original Fraggle Rock or even The Jin Henson Hour being featured on the show again despite the fact that alot of them would have spent alot of time working with Jim Henson himself.

The interviews themselves aren't that bad altho if there is one nitpick when it comes to his son and daughters they don't mention what there relation to Jim is on the films introduction to them. As while yes alot of people would have known that Jim had kids not alot of people would have known there names and given that this film is about there father it would have made perfect sense for them to say if they were his daughter or son and yet they don't for some strange reason with another reason with the interviews being the fact that alot of the interviews in this film just feel like talking heads as all they are are someone sat in a room and talking about Jim with what there talking about nine times out of ten not being all that relevant to what's being shown on screen at the time which can have the the affect of making the film feel disjointed at times and while the people being interviewed do have alot of very unique things to say alot of what there saying do at times cover the exact same thing which makes that part of the interview being included feel pointless. 

In what was a rather surprising move given who is releasing this film the film barely touches on the fact that just prior to his death Jim Henson was looking to sell The Muppets to Disney in the nineteen nineties. This is surprising given the fact that the last thing that Jim ever worked on was something to do with The Muppets with it being The Muppets At Walt Disney World television special which was made to promote the fact that The Muppets were now being allowed to appear at Disney Parks and the heck the film itself oddly doesn't cover the production of any of the The Muppet movies which it really could have done as that was where Jim was allowed to have alot of fun as he was there as a performer and at least for a few of them not there as a director and while the film does indeed rightfully cover the first movie showing some test footage that Jim did to see if the characters would work well in a real world setting they could have covered alot more of the film by talking about the groundbreaking ways that they got Kermit to ride a bike and show his full body at the same time something which does still look good to this day and yet the film barely really touches upon any of the The Muppet films and TV shows.

This film does do a good job of showing you just how funny Jim Henson was both infront of the camera and behind the camera. With him coming across as a friend who not only achieved his dream of working on television but also got to elevate that dream by doing the very thing that Kermit The Frog always wants to do and that's make people happy and that's the one thing that Jim Henson himself sought to do in all of his works regardless of the quality of the work in question he always sought to make people happy and to make people smile and that's something that this film does do as well as it captures everything about Jim including how funny he was with some of people being interviewed telling funny stories about there time working with Jim and by about telling us what they would say to Jim both out loud and in there head which is funny stuff and even more funny when you take into account that alot of the people being interviewed have not only known Jim Henson but had worked with him since either the fifties on Sam And Friends or in the sixties when he was doing the chat show circuit with his characters.

This film does have the full support of the Henson family and it's not hard to see why as just like Jim would do with his films and TV shows. This film doesn't shy away from telling us the dark truths of what he was like at home with it turning out that he had a very traditional view of what a man's role in the household should be this being the fact that his wife was a co-founder of there company Muppets INC and yet when he was at home the only thing that he wanted to talk about was what the family was up to because according to his son Brian Henson that's what he believed his wife wanted to talk about when all she wanted to talk about was what he had done that day and that's kind of relationship that did eventually lead to the two of them being separated this is despite the fact that the two had been married since the late fifties with that part of his life being something that alot of films about him would most likely shy away from in order to present him in a more positive light and yet this film does the opposite and by doing that it also presents him in a more human light.

Now then this film has / had an exact grand total running time of exactly one hour and forty seven minuets and fifty three seconds. Which is a tad bit on the long side for this film as this film did feel like it was a tad bit on the long side of things for a documentary as those kinds of films don't usually last all that long and yet here we have a film that's almost two hours long when it really should have been around one hour and thirty minuets and all the makers of this film really would have to have done is cut down on alot of the interviews where there just hitting on the same points as other people being interviewed and replaced it with more of the stuff that people would want to see in a film about Jim's life and yet because of the fact that they didn't do that alot of the stuff in this film feels alot like filler as very little of it gives us an idea about what Jim was like as a person but those scenes that do are some of the best scenes in the movie but I really will admit that this film really does have some really good pacing to it tho.

So now then as this is a drama that means that I gave to actually talk about the actual drama that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual drama  that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film was in all honesty really good. With the most upsetting part of course being the part where they show us footage from Jim Henson's funeral which goes to show you just how much he meant to so many people but what would have made that bit better was if we got to see just how his surviving family members found out about the news that he had died and how they felt about his death at that time as those are the ones that would have known him the best would have had that strong familial bond and while yes the film does have many great dramatic moments in this film none of them well ever really touch the entire segment of seeing Jim Henson's funeral which does include a clearly upset Big Bird singing "It's Not Easy Being Green" which will always be a very touching moment in my freaking opinions anyways / at least.

Overall regardless of if you like The Muppets , Sesame Street or Disney or not this is a really good film that really does give you a good insight to how the mind of this true genius worked and how he was a human being and while the film really could have been better it's still a really good film in it's own right in my freaking opinions anyways / at least. Now then i've talked about all of the good and as well as all of the bad things that are in this very film in this very review and as such that really does mean that this very film really does earn itself a grand old score of exactly an 8.5 out of 10 from me.

Now then as for where I personally got all of the images that I personally used in this very review well then boys and girls and as well as ladies and gentlemen I personally got all of the images that I personally used in this very review from the official Disney fandom wiki page , the official The Muppets fandom wiki page and Google Images. With my personally preferred website to use to get images this film being the really great the official The Muppets fandom wiki page this is because really all of the images that I really got and used from the official The Muppets fandom wiki page are all really high quality with all the images that are currently up and on the great the official The Muppets fandom wiki page are all being really fairly high in quality and as well as them all really being fairly high in definition.