theconversation.com: In March 1955, an 18-year-old Jim Henson built a puppet from his mother’s old coat, a pair of blue jeans and some ping pong balls. The lizard-like creation first appeared on Afternoon, a television series on Washington D.C.’s WRC-TV, but became a regular on the five-minute Sam and Friends puppet sketch comedy show from May 1955. Over 70 years, the creature evolved into Kermit. The bright green frog now is a cultural icon.
3 comments:
This article is really illuminating to the absolute genius of Jim Henson. Though I wouldn't say the topic is widely debated, I really don't think Henson's sheer range and volume of work is as celebrated as it should be. If anything, with the series of documentaries coming out as well as the ongoing auction of official memorabilia. Another major point being made aside from descriptions of his most iconic pieces is the overarching theme that there is an extreme importance and courage that it takes to continue pushing forward creating these fairytales. There is a need for them in this world, even if it seems trivial. With all of this auctioning of the memorabilia, I am so happy to see a resurgence in the interest of people that may have been lost before. In short, I have always been a huge fan of Henson's work and creative process, and I am so happy to see his work getting even more recognition.
I think that this is a super fascinating article premise that I agree in many ways about specific points with but I wouldn't say that he is a foremost creator of fairy tales on screen. I think the gym Henson did so much for visually creating interesting characters like Monsters and beasts and ogres on screen that lend themselves very nicely into fairy tales. I think of Labyrinth quite a bit for this example. but fairy tales have been around since the dawn of time but specifically in medieval times and became popularized in the 17 and 1800s and so we have been seeing them on our screens since the medium of film has come about since they make such great stories to translate into a visual form. but I do think that we owe Jim Henson quite a bit about how we visualize creatures in fairy tales on screen.
a. The absolute genius of Jim Henson is incredibly hard to characterize and breakdown, but this article does a decent job of shining more light on his lesser-known works, but misses the effect that his puppets had on puppeteering and the effect they had on audiences. I have seen the more popular Jim Henson characters including version after version of the Muppets, I have yet to watch the original Dark Crystal but having watched and rewatched the Netflix prequel and the commentary on how the puppets and set were built to accommodate the puppeteers I can only imagine how far his works would have gone had he not died in his 50s. I think this is a fabulous opportunity for people to own pieces of his work. I need to do more research on the Jim Henson Company as I’m not sure what they do outside of a museum aspect. I wonder if they are training future puppeteers and fostering the continued growth of puppets and fairytale works.
Post a Comment