Caught a screening of The Jim Henson Legacy’s collection of the Muppet mastermind’s numerous commercials and experimental shorts over at the Museum of the Moving Image. Fascinating to see how he evolved as an artist throughout his early career, from honing his comedic timing in a series of playfully subversive advertisements (nowadays, you probably wouldn’t get away with threatening naysayers with physical harm) to pushing the boundaries of animation and editing in order to explore abstract and intangible concepts. The compilation was a wonderful celebration of Henson’s contributions to the medium of cinema beyond the fabrication of puppets, and I sincerely hope that it gets a home video release (including complete cuts of The Cube and Youth ’68, which were merely excerpted for this particular presentation).
[Originally written August 20, 2017.]
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