Walt Disney World: It's Not Just for Kids

I got out to the “Jim Henson’s Fantastic World” exhibit at the National Heritage Museum in Lexington, MA today.  I loved it, and highly recommend you go if you’re in the area. after all, it’s free.  Even if you’re not a hard core Muppet fan, seeing Kermit, Ernie, Rowlf, and Mahna in person is wicked cool.

Kermit the Frog-from open.salon.com/blog/shiral/top_rated

You start off seeing a timeline of Jim Henson’s life.  While a lot of the dates were not that interesting, two things stood out to me.  Muppet Vision 3-D was the last project worked on by Jim Henson-cool, huh?  Also, Henson passing away in 1990-I still remember being six years old when it happened and being devastated by his death.

The first puppet you see is Kermit the frog.  The pictures and journal pages which surround it are fascinating.  They show some characters that Jim Henson had pitched for Chrysler at the 1964 World’s Fair in New York City.  It didn’t happen, and I can’t be the only person wondering what would have happened if he had met Walt Disney there.

From there, you went into the room with some 1970′s Muppet Show stuff.  Having had the good fortune to big-kid sit a kid who loved the Muppets, I was familiar with Hey Cinderella.  The monster who takes Cinderella to the ball, was in pictures, and you could see the King puppet.

From there, there was a Rowlf with a piano.  A poster discussed how Kermit and Rowlf puppets by Ideal Toys were marketed with Kermit and Rowlf selling themselves in puppet form.  Apparently Henson then strongly opposed this practice, and was certain to avoid it with Sesame Street Marketing later on.

There were then some more Muppet Show pictures and stuff.  You then got into Sesame Street.  Bert and Ernie were there-did you know that Bert and Ernie were based on Jim Henson and Frank Oz?  The concept art for The King of Eight was included.

The exhibit ended discussing the Dark Crystal and Fraggle Rock.  It also discussed Muppet Vision 3-D accompaniment, The Muppets at Walt Disney World and Muppet Vision 3-D being the last project worked on by Jim Henson.

On the whole, I loved the exhibit.  I highly recommend it for all ages.  The multimedia parts were well-done.  While I know this was “Jim Henson’s Fantastic World,” I would have liked it if they’d touched on some stuff that happened after he died.  I think information about The Muppet Christmas Carol and other films by Brian Henson would have fascinated the viewers.  Also, some information about how the Muppets ended up as the faces of “Give a Day, Get a Day” could be interesting.

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Related posts:

1. “Jim Henson’s Fantastic World” Coming to Lexington, MA
2. WDW Not Just for Kids Review: The Muppets