Jim Henson, if he was still alive today, would have turned 75 on September 24 and in homage of this date, the Singapore International Film Festival (SIFF) organised a special screening of documentaries and rare footage highlighting Henson’s 40-year career in television and fi lm.
Joining the celebrations was Arthur Novell, a close friend of Henson and former Executive Director of the Jim Henson Legacy, who fl ew in from New York to speak at a series of post-screening discussions, held at the Lido Cinema complex. Novell, 75, who worked with Henson from the early 1980s, shared anecdotes and insights about the fi lmmaker’s work and life right up to his untimely death on May 16, 1990.
One of the most surprising of stories was the unknown adoration between Henson and famed Italian fi lmmaker, Federico Fellini. “Jim wanted to be the American Fellini,” said Novell.
“He loved his work and style of fi lmmaking. We only found out after Jim’s death that Fellini in fact loved the Muppets and had deep respect for Jim’s work… Fellini loved the Muppet Show.”
Novell also noted that Henson was thinking about his global television audience well before localization became a buzz word. “Fraggle Rock (1983) was specifi cally made for the overseas market. It was set generically underground and the characters were developed with international kids in mind – no defi nable ethnicity.”
He added that as well as the character of (Fraggle) Uncle Travelling Matt visiting different locales and people around the world, the opening and ending of each episode (the US version featured Sprocket the dog and Doc) could be easily reversioned with local characters and situations in different territories.
The topic of the new Muppet movie, which debuts later this month, was mentioned a number of times during the talks with Novell. Produced by Disney, this is the fi rst Muppet feature to be released in theatres since 1999.
Novell, who is not associated with the production, said understandably, a lot is riding on the movie to bring the Muppets and all their classic, politically incorrect, antics back into popular culture.
“It’s been a while since we had a Muppet hit and a lot of that comes down to Jim dying too soon and Disney being left with all these characters but not understanding the medium,” he said. “Jim loved parody and that’s what the Muppets were good at. If they can get this formula right, then I can see the Muppets coming back to our screens more regularly. Jim, I’m sure, would be very happy about this.”
The event concluded with Novell and attendees singing Happy Birthday to Henson along with a Muppet cake, featuring Miss Piggy, hecklers Statler and Waldorf and of course Kermit the Frog.
