would a Jim Henson version of In Search of Dr. Seuss work?

[minor muppetz]

Has anybody seen the TV movie In Search of Dr. Seuss? Wouldn't a Jim Henson version of that movie be great? I don't mean substituting Dr. Seuss and his creations with Jim Henson and the Muppets, but a similar style. Of course, I guess it would be funny for The Jim Henson Company to have the puppets from The Wubbulous World of Dr. Seuss talk about Jim Henson.

I have thought about this after hearing the news of the planned Henson biopic Though I've thought about a Jim Henson biography movie for years, I recently started thinking that a direction like in that Dr. Seuss movie would also be good. Ironically, when I first heard about The World of Jim Henson, I was imagining it being like In Search of Dr. Seuss (which was first broadcast weeks before The World of Jim Henson's first broadcast). At the time I wasn't too familiar with documentaries where real people talk about certain topics, so I wasn't expecting what I got (though that was still good).

 

[minor muppetz]

A few plot ideas that I've thougth of for such an idea:

• Two kids go to the library to do research on Jim Henson for a school report, and at one point they either enter a room that's restricted from vistors or press a red button, and suddenly walls burst and the kids are taken through a sequence simialr to The Jim Henson Hour's opening, with several square images of clips and plenty of Muppets flying by, before getting to a room where Kermit and other Muppets talk to the kids about Jim Henson.
  
• The other idea is more similar to In Search of Dr. Seuss. A reporter visits the Muppet Boarding House to interview Kermit about Jim Henson.

 

[kermiegirl]

What I think

A few plot ideas that I've thougth of for such an idea:

• Two kids go to the library to do research on Jim Henson for a school report, and at one point they either enter a room that's restricted from vistors or press a red button, and suddenly walls burst and the kids are taken through a sequence simialr to The Jim Henson Hour's opening, with several square images of clips and plenty of Muppets flying by, before getting to a room where Kermit and other Muppets talk to the kids about Jim Henson.
• The other idea is more similar to In Search of Dr. Seuss. A reporter visits the Muppet Boarding House to interview Kermit about Jim Henson.

I like your other idea better for some odd reason. If only we could tweak some things from the movie and add in some Muppety stuff, it could work.
I used to have a copy of the movie, but it somehow ended up lost - I think my parents sold it at our garage sale because I was getting old and wasn't interested in it anymore. Thanks to the power of YouTube, I can finally watch it again. I have seen it many times since then.
On my next post, I am going to explain what the Jim Henson movie would be like and I'm going through every tiny detail of it.

 

[kermiegirl]

Here is the beginning of my version of the movie. Once again, it's a little like ISODS, but I hope you will like it.

The movie starts when a young, inexperienced reporter named Jill Henderson - probably played by Julia Louis-Dreyfus - comes to the doorstep of a peaceful house in the country. She starts ringing the doorbell and knocking the knocker, but it seems like no one is home. After a while, she sees the door slowly open and out pops Kermit the Frog and Jill - who doesn't know that's Kermit - asks if this was the home of Jim Henson. Kermit says yes. She then tells him her name and that she is a reporter for the town's local newspaper, The Greenville Times wanting an article about Jim Henson. Kermit doesn't know who he is and starts to shut the door on her, but is stopped by Jill's foot, telling him she just saw something and comes in the house. As she runs in, Kermit starts to regret about letting her inside the house.

As she walks around the house, Jill marvels at the puppets and his drawings/doodles that are hanging on the wall. Suddenly, Kermit immediately tells her to get out because he thinks that she is weird and that he's never heard of him before; he doesn't live in the house. Jill keeps telling him that her boss wants her to do an article about Jim Henson for the Jim Henson Festival they are doing in town to celebrate his life and legacy; the article will be read at the opening ceremony. Kermit reluctantly says yes, but then tells Jill that if she ever touched anything in the house and if it ended up being broken, she would have to get out. Jill agrees. He then gives her a mini tour of the house. After the tour is over, Jill asks Kermit for his name but he tells her that his name is not important. Jill explains that she needs his name for credit of source. Then, he walks over to a picture of himself and stands next to it, posing just like the picture. Jill, suddenly being freaked out, then decides not to use Kermit as a credit of source. She then notices a very large book. The book reads "Reading is Good For The Soul" or something like that. Kermit tries to persuade her not to open it for it contains the story of Jim Henson's life, but Jill's curiosity makes her open it anyway. As she opens it, she sees a montage of pictures - kind of like the Jim Henson Hour theme and Jim Henson's voice saying one of his famous quotes.

As the montage ends, something taps her on the shoulder. She turns around surprised and sees Kermit. Kermit asks her if she wanted the story of Jim Henson's life or not. She regains her posture and says yes.

He then tells her a little factoid about Jim Henson. Jill notices the old Kermit puppet from "Sam and Friends" and asks what it is. He tells her that it used to be himself before he was remade. He then tells her that they are going on a little tour, so they walk over to a door and enter the limbo world.

Well, what do you think so far? I'll post part 2 of the story later in the week.

 

[Infinity Sirius]

Kermit tyring to kick someone out of the Muppet Boarding House doesn't fit into his personality. Maybe the movie could be like The Muppets Tribute to Jim Henson or did I get that name wrong?

 

[minor muppetz]

My thoughts would be to have a reporter come to the boarding house to interview Kermit about Jim Henson, and throughout the special (or movie) Kermit would get interrupted by other Muppets, some of whom just report problems in the house, others who want to talk about themselves (and maybe some can use a household problem as an excuse to get Kermit away so they can talk about themselves).

I wonde rif any post-1990 Henson productions should be represented, since the docuemntary is about Jim Henson, and he obviously didn't work on those productions (though Dinosaurs was based on his idea). I think I would have post-Henson characetrs (like Pepe) make appearances in the special.

I wonder how people would feel if a Jim Henson docuemntary did not include very many of the clips that fans would expect to be included. It would be funny if the reporter could ask "Will you please not include Bein' Green, the Rainbow Connection, Happy Feet, Turn the World Around, Mahna Mahna, Rubber Duckie, I Love Trash, C is for Cookie, The First Time it Hapens, or Just One Person?" If it is to focus more on the kidns of clisp that don't normally appear on such retrospectives, then maybe it could focus on Fraggle Rock more than Sesame Street or The Muppet Show (as most Henson biographies seem to just put FRaggle Rock into a small section compared to the others). Maybe even show Sam and Friends clips that don't normally appear in biographies.

At one point Kermit coudl ring the doorbell to sell Kermit something. Kermit could comment that Grover always tries to sell him stuff that he doens't need, and it could turn outt hat Grover wants to sell him a kit that teaches people about Sesame Street, useful for the interview. Other Sesame Street characters could eventually appear out of nowhere, and characters from the international versions of the show can also appear.

There could be a scene where Kermit takes the reporter to a special room filled with Muppet merchandise. Kermit could mention how Jim Henson was careful about the quality of the merchandise, and then maybe introduce the ideal toys commercial for the first Muppet dolls.

At the very end, the reporter could eb taken to a room filed with Muppets. They would basically fil the screen, and the reporter would ask if that's every Muppet in existence. Kermit could comment that he doens't know, and it could be implied that there are more Muppets who the various crowd of Muppets are standing on top of (and those Mupepts underneath that could could already be on top of more Muppets).

 

[Fragglemuppet]

Well, I've never seen the Dr. Seuss movie, but I would think that if there were to be a documentary on Henson, it should it should try to cover all of his projects, (at least the fairly well-known ones), more or less equally. I like the idea of a reporter doing an interview and getting interupted by arious muppets.
Oh, and Kermiegirl, a bit of inconsistancy in your outline. At first Kermit said that yes, this was the home of Jim Henson, but then he insists that he's never heard of him?

 

[kermiegirl]

Oops! Thanks for pointing that out, fragglemuppet. I didn't notice that before. What I was trying to make clear was that since Kermit was living in Jim Henson's home, it seems that he wants to make sure that none of Jim Henson's things were broken or stolen, so he's kind of like a watchdog. He used the line "I've never heard of Jim Henson before in my life!" just to get Jill Henderson out of the house. I hope you get it now. And infinity sirius, if I made you a little angry or upset, I didn't mean to make Kermit kick someone out of the house; I was trying to show that kind of feeling Kermit had in IAVMMCM when he found out that the Muppet Theater was closing. I'm very sorry about that.
By the way, I might post part two of my version of the movie sometime this week or next week. I'm still getting ideas for it. But I have a bad feeling that you don't like my ideas for the movie. If you do, I'll stop posting in this thread.

 

[animalrescuer]

I've been thinking about something like that happening in exactly the style of "In search of Dr. Suess". I'd be very interesting if someone wanted to know a lot about Jim Henson about his work and his creations.
It'll all start with Sam and Friends, then the commercials in the 60s, Rowlf in the Jimmy Dean Show, Sesame Street, Saturday Night Live, The Muppet Show, all the Muppet movies and specials, especially Emmet Otter's Jug-band Christmas since it was technologically groundbreaking itself, The Dark Crystal, Labrynth, Fraggle Rock, his death and the post-Henson productions that followed and let's not forget all the people that had the pleasure of working with him, the Muppeteers, producers, directors, puppet builders, songwriters...everybody!