Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Hello and welcome back to another episode of movie deputy reviews, where we are bringing you something special today. Well, today is kind of an extra special day, so I wanted to bring you an extra special movie. Today is my husband's half century birthday, and my half century birthday will be coming up in just 40 days from now. Yep, we really are just 40 days apart. But so happy birthday, pumpkin. So that's one big exciting thing for today. And hope. I mean, if you've ever feel so inclined, feel free to reach out on social media and wish him a happy birthday. Just use hash moviedepity so I can find it and find you. That would be awesome.
[00:00:41] But that's not the focus of today. Today the focus is a movie that my husband and I sat down and watched together the other night.
[00:00:50] I unfortunately did not get to screen this movie ahead of time. I mean, Disney does like me, but not enough. I don't get all the screeners on movies such as this, and this one is a Disney original. I don't get any bonus or kickback if you sign up for Disney or anything like that. But the only way to watch this movie is if you have Disney plus or if you know somebody who has Disney plus. So trust me, this one alone, even if you just get it for the free trial to watch this is so worth it. I think they're probably free trials somewhere on there. I haven't signed up for Disney a long time ago, so I don't know if they're still running that or not, but we are going to be talking a movie. Talking about a movie today called Idea man. The full title is Jim Henson. Idea man. Now, if you have ever been a fan of Jim Henson's, then you are going to get a lot out of this documentary. It is.
[00:01:52] It's not laid out like most documentaries, and no part of this documentary is dull or just where you're just waiting for the time to click by for them to finish out the story.
[00:02:02] This piece, from beginning to end, you see who he was and why he was who he was and why he brought these characters to us in the first place and what they were supposed to represent and what they ended up representing. It's a little bit different than what he originally had in mind.
[00:02:22] I like to quote by his ThE DeclaRatioN of IndependenCe is a cry for recognition. Now, he's not talking about the historical document here. He's talking about declaring your independence and doing something that nobody has thought of doing before and doing it in a way that nobody could even imagine and changing the world if you can imagine.
[00:02:47] Of course, we know the muppets that we know and love. We know SESamE StReet, Kermit, Miss Piggy, Grover, the newer characters, Elmo, SOmE of those, and all the stories that they have told along the way. The wholesome, the sweet, the lovable. And then, of course, we've seen the movies. We have. We've had labyrinth, we've had dark crystal. We've had someone's like that. And everybody tends to think of, like, muppets take Manhattan, and you think of that side of Jim Henson, you don't ever realize that there was a whole different side to him. He never intended on his characters to be for children. That was never the intention. I mean, they started out as almost like Saturday night. They actually started on Saturday Night Live, if believe it or not, like with those types of levels of jokes on Saturday Night Live, this completely not aimed at kids at all. He even did a movie called Sex and violence with the muppets. Now, I'm not even making this up. You might have to google it yourself if you want more details, but it talks about all of that, and it talks about his Vision for what he wanted versus how things ended up. And he always.
[00:04:06] Sorry about that. He always kept dreaming of more of how to do this better, how to expand on this. The reason that we have a lot of the stop the animation stuff that we have today is because of Jim Henson. The reason that we have a lot of the characters, not just the ones that he created today, is because of Jim Henson. He did things that had never been done before, and he did them in ways that totally broke the mold. And in doing so, he brought us something magical. He gave us something. He gave us something to take away with. And he's.
[00:04:46] The life that he envisioned was not necessarily the life that he got.
[00:04:54] He met his wife as they were working together, and they, they both had very different ideas of what they thought that they wanted their lives to be.
[00:05:05] Of course, she was supportive of him with the Muppets and everything that kind of went along with that. She was actually right alongside him as they did a lot of this. But with their children, he was, you know me, I don't give spoilers, but it's like he, you think of him as, like, this amazing dad and this amazing person to be in your life, but picture somebody so obsessed with something that they don't really have time for much of anything else. And that's kind of where the man, the myth, the legend kind of comes into play, because I think the name Jim Henson came to represent more than what he could be. I don't know if that makes any sense.
[00:05:51] He really.
[00:05:53] It's like he dreamed bigger than himself, which was a great thing, but he dreamed so big that he couldn't live up to his own expectations, maybe on screen, but in real life, there wasn't the typical happy ending that you'd expect him to have in his real life as well, because his obsession was his creativity. And I've talked about this before, and I will continue to keep mentioning it, because it's such a major part of my life, but it's very, very likely, and I'm not saying anything negative about him at all with this. It's more of a compliment Than anything. But I really believe that Jim Henson was on the spectrum. His just attention to detail and just the way he could focus in.
[00:06:39] It takes a special kind of mind to do that. And being on the spectrum is. It's so much more than a disability.
[00:06:50] It's almost magical in ways if you really look deep enough. And I really think that's the side of him that really went into this. And in the early days, we saw. I mean, if you were. If you remember, like, the really, really early days of the Muppets, before they were the Muppets, when they were just the puppets, but, I mean, they did TV commercials and ads for different items. I mean, get meats and milks and breads and all these different things, and then you see some of his early movie work with them, and you just cannot wrap your brain around the fact that this is the same GUy that BRoUghT US The Muppet SHow. And honestly, there's some information about the Muppets show that just really took me by surprise. I was just like, wow, I'm sitting down watching this, and I'm not gonna make you wait any longer. This movie, I'm actually giving an innocent rating to. Obviously, it's Jim Henson. It's the muppets. EveN with some of the references in here, it deserves an innocent rating.
[00:07:58] And score wise, I am giving Jim Henson IDEA man an 8.5 out of ten on the deputy scale. Now, it doesn't happen often, but before this movie was even finished, it's like, just the way it was going. I'm like, unless this movie tanks, like, unless something goes majorly wrong, this movie is getting mid eight s. I mean, a solid mid eight s. It's like, I was solid on that even before it was done. I'm like, okay, unless they just completely bomb with the rest of this, which, of course, they didn't, that there was just so much going on here, and you just. You almost want to rewatch it just to absorb it all, because there's so much information and so many different people that were involved in this on so many different levels, but none of it would have happened without him. Now, like I said, maybe you were a fan of the Muppets, maybe you're a fan of Sesame street, maybe you weren't. Maybe. I mean, got fraggle rock, we've got all these different things, and they all started as an idea. Ideas can be so powerful. All it takes is one idea to change the world. And Jim Henson was the epitome of that. So, like I said, if you've ever been a fan, please check this out. It's one that you will not regret. Like I said, it goes a little bit different direction than you might think, but it is so worth it in the end. So I hope that you have thoroughly enjoyed my interpretation of this, the score and everything that kind of goes along with it. If you check it out, I would love to know what you think, and I hope you come back soon for the latest and greatest movie deputy stuff. And, of course, you know which buttons to push so you don't miss out on anything. And of course, I'll be back soon. Bye.
