Thank You For Coming To My Rant - Blog Posts

I just watched the new Jim Henson documentary…

Overall it was very good, well paced, great visuals and editing. I learned a lot about Jim Henson and the company that I didn’t before and more behind the scenes that I hadn’t seen/heard which is always a treat!

I cried three times. 🫣👌 I had to fight the primal urge to pause the documentary and point out to my family where and what movie/show/episode every clip was from. This was my “did you know Viggo Mortensen actually broke his toe” scene.

I will say, I do think they very QUICKLY went over the disney merger and didn’t even mention the fallout with Disney after Jim’s death.

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The main problem I had was that SOME puppeteers got spot lights, interviews or arrows pointing out the individuals. And while I appreciate that these individuals got some recognition (which they 100% should), I think the documentary should have been consistent and do this with every new important/fundamental puppeteer to the film.

I alreay have!!! I was able to EASILY point out Karen Prell, Louise Gold, Richard Hunt, Jerry Nelson, Kevin Clash, Steve whitmire, etc. But an average viewer wouldn’t know who is who and what they contributed to the company!

I just think it’s intriguing who they chose to highlight and who they left out.

And I’ve noticed this happen in other muppet documentaries, like “Street Gang,” where they barely glossed over Richard Hunt and Jerry Nelson’s contributions to the show. (I’ve mentioned this problem here before. (Queer erasure during pride month? 🙄))

It would be such an easy problem to fix! Just a quick arrow to point out any new puppeteer or cast member to the Jim Henson Company. Maybe list their job/their characters so a main stream audience could identify them.

I can think of several founding members who are still alive today that were not interviewed. Maybe these people were asked to come in, IDK, but I would have loved to hear from more people you don’t hear from often.

I could definitely tell the documentary was really trying to avoid the “Steve Whitmire” sized elephant in the room, even though he was in SO MANY shots. I can guarantee that if he was still with the company he would have been featured heavily in the documentary.

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One last thing…

They interviewed Michael Frith, where was my girl Kathryn Mullen?? (His wife.) She hasn’t done anything in over a decade, are you okay?? Blink if you need help. 👁️👄👁️😐😑😐😑

It’s 5AM. I’ve been lying in bed for the past few hours thinking about the plot from “Batman: Under the Red Hood” and getting more and more pissed at Bruce.

I’m about 10 seconds away from adding Bruce to my “characters I’d hit with a brick” list. OR at the very LEAST “characters I’d hit upside the head” list. While adding Jason to my “Characters who deserved SOOOO much better” list. (These lists usually go hand-in-hand)

Bruce does nothing other than arrest Joker after 'death in the family' because his reasoning is that if he kills Joker, he won’t be able to stop killing.

Fine Bruce! Keep your no killing rule! But at least incapacitate the Joker! Paralyze him! Break his bones! Make sure he’ll be eating out of a straw for the rest of his life! Do something! He killed your son! Make sure he can't hurt anyone else!

Bruce literally has a plan on how to take down the entire Justice League in case one of them goes crazy! Why is is so hard to take down ONE psychotic dude!

I’m getting the feeling Bruce WANTS Joker out there! To keep fighting with him! Ruining his life! For what? Entertainment?!

And I get it, it’s a fictional story and it all happened because plot… but I’m still fuming! I’m trying to fall asleep but I’m so mad.

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NOPE! That’s it! Bruce, you're now officially on my list! 👏🏆🤡 🦇

And Sheila Haywood (Jason’s Bio mom) has also made it to my list. Congratulations. 👏🤝💣

And Finally Jason’s entry into the hall of “Characters Who Deserved SO MUCH BETTER!”

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PSA: I don’t hate Batman by any means! I love the Batman comics and stories, I have several (including death in the family). I just needed to rant about this one point that is frustrating me to no end!

Thank you for coming to my Ted Talk.