What struck me was how truly archaic these hand stitched Muppets under glass look today...
I'm reminded how the restless Jim Henson that I knew, was always one to embrace the newest technologies...
No sooner was he done The Muppet Movie... And he was onto The Dark Crystal and Labyrinth fantasy films. Even Fraggle Rock had its robotics, and mechanics, and computer driven machinery...
My hunch is that today, if Henson were still alive, he would be soooo far away from Muppets and the art of puppetry performance.
He'd have surely been far more into the technologies that brought us Pixar's Toy Story and The Rise of the Planet of the Apes... And who knows what new direction he would have explored or invented? He was a businessman with a curiosity and the drive to see new visions through...
The foam pig and the hand puppet frog??? Probably, not so much...These lifeless puppets entombed in glass showcases are merely historic museum pieces today...
Makes one wonder what would have been Henson's fantastic world of today?
Sadly, we'll never know...
See Time Out New York piece on Henson Exhibit including a slide show.
Update: The New York Times' And a Frog Shall Lead Them: Henson's Legacy
