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Though they had mutual friends like George Lucas, Ron Howard and Jim Henson\u2019s paths only crossed once, backstage at a variety show in the \u201970s or \u201980s.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe came through with his group, and I certainly knew who Jim Henson was by that point. But at first I thought it was a band arriving,\u201d Howard remembers. \u201cWhen I mentioned that to Frank Oz, he said, \u2018Yeah, a lot of people thought when we showed up with our gear and our long hair that we were a band they hadn\u2019t heard of yet. But it turned out we were puppeteers.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Though Henson died in 1990, Howard got to know him a lot more intimately while making Jim Henson Idea Man\u2014a new documentary that will stream on Disney+ May 31. The film operates as a comprehensive look at the Muppet creator\u2019s life and work, featuring interviews with his family members and collaborators. There are also lots of puppets involved, from the denizens of Sesame Street to the creatures of The Dark Crystal.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf there was going to be a definitive documentary about Jim Henson, we had hoped it would be in the hands of an accomplished filmmaker. Ron Howard is both a creative and personality match for my father, unlike anyone else we could have contemplated,\u201d Henson\u2019s daughter Lisa, the current CEO of the Jim Henson company, writes in an email.<\/p>\n
Howard, for his part, didn\u2019t know much about Henson\u2019s life when he took on the project, which was spearheaded by the documentary arm of Imagine Entertainment, his and Brian Grazer\u2019s production company. But soon, Howard honed in on what he calls Henson\u2019s \u201crestless creativity.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was sort of anarchy on the outside, but underneath it, there was always a smart idea\u2014a witty point to make, an observation about the world,\u201d Howard says. \u201cTo see that evolve through the medium of puppetry and television, and then on into movies, was so interesting to me. I felt like you could actually observe a lot about entertainment, what entertains us and why, through his journey.\u201d<\/p>\n
As Howard tracks Henson\u2019s evolution from pimply teenager to innovating experimental filmmaker to Muppet impresario, he pays homage to his subject\u2019s oeuvre. The film\u2019s new interviews, for instance, are conducted on a set that recalls a Henson production known as The Cube, which aired as part of a show called NBC Experiment in Television in 1969. \u201cI was constantly looking for ways to honor Jim Henson\u2019s aesthetic and sensibility and playfulness in the original footage, whether they were interviews or some of the animations that we did to help tell the story,\u201d Howard says.<\/p>\n
But while Henson\u2019s art\u2014both the already beloved and the more underseen\u2014was obviously a focus of Idea Man, the goal of the film was also to illuminate the man behind Kermit the Frog. Lisa\u2019s interviews with Howard focused deeply on her father\u2019s personality, an experience that was sometimes emotional.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe whole purpose of the movie is that audiences will get to know Jim Henson as a person,\u201d Lisa says.<\/p>\n
Henson\u2019s creative and romantic partnership with his wife, Jane, whose work in developing the Muppets often goes unheralded, also makes up a major thread of the film, which explores the collision between family and business. \u201cMy parents\u2019 personal relationship has never before been depicted in such an intimate and honest way,\u201d Lisa says.<\/p>\n
That means also diving into the fracturing that resulted in their separation. \u201cI think it was important to understand the price that Jim paid for this gift to us that he built his career and his life around,\u201d Howard says.<\/p>\n
For Howard, however, one of the key interviews that unlocked Henson was with Henson\u2019s longtime collaborator Frank Oz\u2014the Bert to Henson\u2019s Ernie. \u201cFrank could help us understand the risks he took, what it felt like to win, and what it felt like to lose,\u201d Howard says. \u201cIt just was a great overarching perspective beyond what the family could offer, from a peer, from a contemporary who ultimately was kind of like a brother.\u201d<\/p>\n
It was also Oz who put Henson\u2019s early death at the age of 53 into context with that \u201crestless creativity.\u201d Henson\u2019s older brother had died when he was a young man, an event that highlighted the fragility of life for the puppeteer.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs Frank Oz explains, that probably lent kind of an urgency to the way he wanted to live,\u201d Howard says. \u201cHe didn\u2019t take time for granted. I think we are all the beneficiaries of that. Because what a volume of work.\u201d<\/p>\n
View this article at Vanity Fair<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" First Look: Ron Howard Enters the World of Jim Henson: Though they had mutual friends like George Lucas, Ron Howard and Jim Henson\u2019s paths only crossed once, backstage at a variety show in the \u201970s or \u201980s. \u201cHe came through with his group, and I certainly knew who Jim Henson was by that point. But
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