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I don\u2019t need to tell you that Jim Henson\u2019s work is ubiquitous and beloved, foundational to childhood across several generations of \u201cSesame Street\u201d watchers and stretching far beyond. It\u2019s so important to us that when one of his creations, Elmo, \u201casked\u201d an innocuous question about people\u2019s mental state on social media this winter, the responses seemed \u2026 well, it was a lot<\/a>.<\/p>\n Clearly, his puppets and Muppets and stories and sense of humor do not lose their power with time. But to everyone other than Muppet obsessives, Henson the artist is still a bit shadowy. Good news: Now we have \u201cJim Henson Idea Man\u201d<\/a><\/strong> <\/strong>(on Disney+<\/a>), a tribute to the artist and a treasure trove of archival footage and interviews about his work and life. Though it borders on hagiography, it\u2019s not blind to Henson\u2019s faults, and it boasts a flair for the unexpected. <\/p>\n The film, directed by Ron Howard, starts with Henson and two of his Muppet friends, Fozzie Bear and Kermit the Frog \u2014 Henson\u2019s alter ego \u2014 being interviewed on TV by none other than Orson Welles. In his sonorous baritone, Welles calls Henson \u201cRasputin, as an Eagle Scout.\u201d The movie sets out to show what he meant.<\/p>\n A few years ago, Marilyn Agrelo\u2019s documentary \u201cStreet Gang: How We Got to Sesame Street\u201d<\/a><\/strong> <\/strong>(for rent on major platforms<\/a>) \u2014 also very much worth watching \u2014 filled in some of the story, with digressions to illustrate the zany, hilariously violent sense of absurdist humor that Henson brought to his early commercial work. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n