Ron Howard’s new documentary film “Jim Henson: Idea Man”, which was released on Disney+ in last week, is an affectionate tribute to Jim Henson, who was the main creative mind behind many delightful things including “Sesame Street” and “The Muppets”. Looking around many highpoints in Henson’s illustrious career, the documentary gives us a closer look into his artistry and humanity, and it is often compelling to observe how he drove himself further and further before his untimely death in 1990.

Mainly consisting of archival photographs and video clips coupled with the occasional interview clips from Henson’s several colleagues and family members, the documentary initially shows and tells us on how everything was begun during Henson’s early years. While he showed some artistic potential during his childhood years, Henson actually got interested in becoming a puppeteer later during his high school years, and his interest grew more when he was studying in a college where he met his future wife Jane, who soon became his creative/romantic partner despite their considerable personality difference.

When he subsequently went to Europe in the late 1950s, Henson got more creative input from the mastery and dedication of many different European puppeteers, and he was ready to push himself more as he eventually began to make a series of TV comedy sketches consisting of the puppets made by him and his collaborators. Of course, many of these puppet characters were the seniors to numerous Muppet characters such as Cookie Monster, and Kermit the Frog was actually one of the early ones. Voiced by Henson himself, Kermit the Frog was more or less than the extension of Henson’s personality, and I must say that it is rather fascinating to observe Kermit the Frog appearing in several black and white TV shows during that period.

While becoming more successful than ever thanks to his Muppets, Henson never stopped at all as trying one different thing after another. As entering the 1960s, he tried a number of various things ranging from his Oscar-nominated short film “Time Piece” (1965) to a Broadway production project which was not sadly realized, and he even attempted to design a disco hall which feels more like the exhibition rooms for installation art in my humble opinion.

And then something unexpected came into his life and career. Henson and his colleagues including Frank Oz were asked to create a children’s program for National Educational TV (NET), and, yes, that led to one of the most successful children’s programs in the American TV history. Mainly thanks to the sheer artistic creativity and dedication of Henson and his colleagues, “Sesame Streets” became a phenomenal hit right from its first year, and its enduring legacy cannot possibly be exaggerated. After all, I and my younger brother were exposed to English thanks to the VHS box set of Sesame Street episodes during our kindergarten period, and we still fondly remember Big Bird and many other lovable Muppet characters.

Nevertheless, Henson was not totally satisfied yet as an ambitious workaholic. He was already eager to move onto creating something else, and that actually led to another huge success. When Henson and his colleagues worked on “The Muppets” in England, nobody expected that much from their new project, but, what do you know, the show became quite popular while also getting a bunch of notable guest stars such as Roger Moore and Rita Moreno.

After becoming quite successful in TV, Henson prepared himself for making a feature film. Making “The Dark Crystal” (1982) was very challenging for him and his colleagues to say the least, but, again, they try their best in pushing themselves more and more, and the result was a memorable fantasy film which incidentally managed to earn enough money despite competing against a certain big movie coming from Steven Spielberg at that time.

Of course, being a hardcore workaholic gradually affected not only Henson himself but also his family members. Although he loved his wife and their five children, his work always came first, and that certainly caused occasional conflicts between him and his wife despite their affection and respect toward each other. Although his children have no hard feeling on their father, they remember how their father was often absent due to his works, and it is touching to see how Henson sincerely tried to support and encourage their respective professional careers during his later years.

Despite the critical and box office failure of his second feature film “Labyrinth” (1986), Henson was still ready for doing more stuffs, though he began to slow down himself a bit. Around the time when he sold his production company to Disney, he seemed to be ready for the next possible chapters of his life and career, but then he suddenly died not long after that, and everyone around him was quite devastated. Nonetheless, Henson showed some sense of humor via his will and the instruction on his funeral, and you will be alternatively amused and moved by that.

Overall, “Jim Henson: Idea Man” is a solid documentary to engage and touch us, and Howard, who has recently made a series of notable documentaries which are actually better than his recent feature films such as “Hillbilly Elegy” (2020), handles his human subject with enough care and respect. Yes, it could have shown more, but the result is fairly satisfying on the whole, and you may want to learn more about Henson’s life and career after watching it.