Jim Henson: Difference between revisions

A couple years later, Henson took a major gamble, bringing his characters to the movie theatres with the aptly named ''[[The Muppet Movie]]''. Much like [[Walt Disney]] with ''[[Snow White and The Seven Dwarfs (Disney)|Snow White and The Seven Dwarfs]]'', Jim knew he had to top anything his team had put out to that date. Complex sequences ranging from Kermit riding a bicycle to the Electric Mayhem rocking an old church to its rafters, made the Muppets believable in a more or less undiluted real world setting. The movie was a critical and commercial success, paving the way for ''[[The Great Muppet Caper]]'' and ''[[The Muppets Take Manhattan]]''.

Later Henson-helmed projects were met with more sporadic success. ''[[Fraggle Rock]]'' was one of the earlier successes in its initial run on [[HBO]]. While the show was produced by him, neither Henson nor Frank Oz took on regular recurring roles in it, instead opting for Jerry Nelson, Steve Whitmire and others to take the lead. Two big-screen efforts into non-Muppet fantasy arrived in [[The Eighties]] -- ''[[The Dark Crystal]]'' was a minor success, but its spiritual successor ''[[Labyrinth]]'' was mostly considered a disappointment in terms of its financial record. (Both films went on to be [[Vindicated By Cable]].) ''[[The Jim Henson Hour (TV)|The Jim Henson Hour]]'', which would feature segments from another series, ''[[The Storyteller (TV)|The Storyteller]]'', only lasted for about half a season. Then there was ''[[Muppets Tonight]]'', which set to update the concept of ''[[The Muppet Show]]'' for the 90's by introducing new characters, a new host, a new setting, and new skits, but it only lasted a few seasons before slowly dying into obscurity.

In the meantime, Henson's Creature Shop had become a major font for further advancing puppetry. Building on full body characters like the Gorgs from ''[[Fraggle Rock]]'', the Creature Shop was responsible for the title characters of the [[Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (Film)|1990 movie version]] of ''[[Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (Film)|Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles]]'', and its sequels. As well, the Shop also did forays into CG animation, namely Waldo, a gusty experimentation of a manually-controlled virtual 3D character who appeared in both ''[[The Jim Henson Hour (TV)|The Jim Henson Hour]]'' and ''[[Muppet Vision 3D]]'' which runs at Disney theme parks to this day.

Jim Henson died of a severe and sudden strep throat infection on May 16th, 1990. At the time, he was negotiating with Disney to turn over the rights to his characters so that he could focus on production and performing, and did not wish to visit the hospital (his wife would later state that the refusal was likely due to his desire not to be a bother to people). The Muppets carried on in his absence with mixed success. While ''[[Sesame Street]]'' still runs strongly, the Muppet Show cast has had a more spotty record as of late trying to get their prominence back. Other productions by the Jim Henson Company and its performers, ranging from ''[[Dinosaurs]]'' and ''[[Farscape (TV)|Farscape]]'' to ''[[Bear in The Big Blue House]]'' and ''[[Dog City]]'', continued Henson's legacy with new characters for new generations of fans. Today, Disney, who now owns the Muppet Show and its characters, has been slowly releasing the program on DVD in season box sets, after sporadic single disc releases from Time Life. The Muppets have been making fewer and shorter appearances in any area of entertainment, even surfacing with their own recent [[YouTube]] channel of original skits. The Henson Company in New York City produces mainly CG series, internet material, and Sesame Street.

The ''Muppet Show'' characters were finally bought by Disney in 2004. [[The Muppets (Film)|The 2011 Muppet film]] set out to keep the original cast of ''The Muppet Show'' fresh without changing them as characters, and so far, it appears to be succeeding. A few photos of Jim Henson are visible in the film, including [[Tear Jerker|a large one of him and Kermit in Kermit's office.]]

* [[He Also Did]]: Henson did a surrealistic teleplay called ''[[The Cube (Film)|The Cube]]'' in the 1960s about a man trapped in a small cube who's visited by various strange people as he tries to find his way out.