Reseñas de la crítica

Ron Howard’s genial account of the legendary Muppeteer plays it safe, with a fairly traditional documentary-making approach — but it still manages to be adequately inspirational, celebrational and, yes, even Muppetational.

While “Jim Henson: Idea Man” may not break any new ground regarding Hensonian research or documentary filmmaking in general, it should prove valuable to younger viewers curious to know more about the man behind so many beloved childhood icons.

Howard does a fine job of communicating the range of Henson’s interests and activities, the public celebrity and the inner Jim (such as he let it be known), the team leader and the family man, and knits a cavalcade of old and new clips and interviews into a film with narrative clarity and emotional force.

Idea Man is neither overly saccharine nor sanitised. Despite the involvement of Henson’s children and Disney, who acquired the rights to the Muppets franchise from the Jim Henson Company in 2004, it largely resists bland hagiography.

It is, mostly for better but occasionally for worse, exactly what you’d expect of a documentary about Jim Henson directed by Ron Howard: sweet, heartwarming and rather unadventurous.

This is primarily a by-the-numbers doc that's geared to audiences who have almost no real knowledge of Henson, or merely want to see Howard play the hits. Jim Henson was a force of great creativity, and maybe someone will eventually get around to making something that attempts to match his magnetism.

But by skirting over Henson’s grief over the sudden death of his brother in a car crash, and his decision to leave his wife, hole up in a New York apartment and begin life as a single man, Ideas Man misses the chance to let us into the soul of its hero. When it comes to great American lives, Howard is a burnisher not a bloodhound.

[I]t’s a soft and fairly satisfying movie — one with a great and well-earned appreciation for the man being chronicled, but very little of Henson’s boundary-breaking spirit. Jim Henson Idea Man is a very conventional movie that dedicates its time to proving how unconventional Jim Henson was.

Howard knows the beats to hit: While the film maintains a gentle undercurrent of unease (how could someone like Henson ever really feel fulfilled?), the director ratchets it up in the final act.

“Jim Henson Idea Man” is likely to be as honest a portrait as you’ll get of the man who never set out to be a children’s entertainer but ended up as one of the greatest. If at times it gets a little tiring hearing yet another person sing Henson’s praises, there’s never a feeling that the filmmakers are glossing over unpleasantries or trying to polish his image, and anyone who grew up with Henson’s creations will find it hard to begrudge all that praise.