My wife and I just watched episode one of “The Storyteller”, entitled "The Soldier and Death.
Great episode, and when I look up Jim Henson, I see he died 20 years ago today.
What a great guy with such a defined passion. I wish we had more people like him. I wonder what he would think of Pixar movies, which seem to be the closest to regularly produced “puppet like” shows. I see there is a Muppet movie coming, but nothing can beat the stuff he put out back then.
By the way, I highly recommend looking up The Storyteller on Netflix, where it streams. It’s not on DVD, I think.
He died on my birthday, so I can’t help but remember. As did Sammy Davis, Jr., and now, Ronnie James Dio as of today. Sad reminders, but at least their works live on. Every day someone dies, it’s someone else’s birthday, and we can’t let those deaths mar them for us, only remember them with fondness and be happy that these people were alive and the world got to witness their talent.
Good lord, has it been that long? I still think of him as “recently dead”.
There have been a few CG muppets, but I think they were all from after his death. The Ghost of Christmas Past in The Muppet Christmas Carol was CG, as are Moya and Talyn from Farscape.
I was a puppeteer at my church, and was pretty darn good. I picked up a lot of techniques from the Muppets that I was able to use in church. My biggest dream back then was to be able to perform with Jim Henson.
I found out Sammy Davis, Jr. passed, and I was sad. Then I found out about Jim Henson, and was absolutely devastated. A small part of me died that day.
Sammy Davis, Jr. was a legend. Jim Henson was a pioneer.
The first digital muppet (and likely the first digital puppet ever) was Waldo C. Graphic, performed by Steve Whitmire. Waldo first appeared on The Jim Henson Hour, a sadly short-lived show that allowed Jim do some of the more out-there stuff that he loved to do. Waldo was performed using a heavily sensor-bedecked glove (also called a “waldo”; the character was named after the device), and could appear on screen in real-time, although as a low-res render; the graphics were “polished” by computer before broadcast, normally. Waldo first appeared around 1989, and Henson started experimenting with the technology in the mid-80s. Here’s Henson interacting with (and performing) Waldo.
He loved tinkering with new technology and the medium of television; that being the case, I’m sure he’d love the stuff that’s being done with computers today, and he’d be doing things no one else has even thought of.
Also, The Storyteller is indeed out on DVD; I know, because I have it. Also the Greek Myths spin-off. They must’ve stopped printing them, though, because Amazon’s marketplace prices are pretty steep.
As a kid I had this irrational worry that when Jim Henson died, there’d be no more Muppets; and Sesame Street and the Muppet Show being two of my favorite things, I dreaded that. Somewhere along the line I saw an interview with him and I specifically remember thinking “Oh, he’s not that old. When he dies, I’ll probably be all grown up and it won’t matter to me so much.”
He died on my 18th birthday, first day of official adulthood. Suffices to say, it mattered. Still does a bit.
Cool, I didn’t know about Waldo. I’m glad to learn that Henson got to see and play with at least the origins of that technology before he died. I’m also glad that he gave it a name from Heinlein.
Waldo also played a prominent role in the fantastic Muppetvision 3D show at Disneyland and Disney World. And IIRC, that was Jim Henson’s final completed project before his death (or if not, one of).
I saw a ‘making of’ The Muppet Christmas Carol, and it said that the Ghost of Christmas Past was a puppet that was operated and filmed in a tank of extremely low viscosity oil. At least for the first day. It turned out to be nearly impossible to clean the Ghost between days, so they gave up and started using water.
I think they said that fortunately, the most critical scenes had been shot early. And a computer was probably used to insert the images. The coolest bit of computer manuputation, for me, was the sceen switch with the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come, where the background twisted into a vortex tunnel for them to walk through.
Man, I remember the news coverage when he died. It was so sad that he was gone. It was quite a funeral though. A very loving tribute.
Look up the rest of the videos on YouTube under “Jim Henson memorial”
The introduction in the book “Street Gang” by Michael Davis will get you blubbering too.
Why are there so many songs about rainbows
And what’s on the other side?
Someday we’ll find it, the rainbow connection,
The lovers, the dreamers and me.
Thanks for sharing that. They had the waldo at a SIGGRAPH conference, and I was able to play with it for a bit. I had been a ventriloquist when I was a child, and was excited to see puppetry and CG come together. Sadly, all the technology remained out of my price range while I was still doing animation.
By the way, where are the digital puppets? The patents have expired on the 3D sensor that was the basis for tracking, and we should have cheap data gloves that should plug into a Wii. I want to see a Muppet branded Wii system and glove that will allow folks to play with Muppets. A whole virtual Muppet Show.
I picked this up because it has the story of Medusa on it. It’s probably the version of the story that’s closest to the original myth – if you want the real story of Medusa and Perseus, this is the place to look.
Jim Henson’s was one of the few celebrity deaths that was a real kick in the gut (Douglas Adams & Mr. Rogers were a couple of others). He’s greatly missed.
Loved all his work with The Muppet Show, Muppet Movies, Seasame Street, The Dark Crystal, etc.
But I still contend that his work on Star Wars should have begun and ended with Yoda.
