Being Elmo: A Puppeteer's Journey (2011)

An action-packed slog

It's fun, it's light, [but] it has a hard time when its tries to get heavy.

n my opinion it was a great movie with some interesting elements, even though having some plot holes and the ending probably was just too messy and crammed together, but still fun to watch and not your casual movie that is similar to all other ones.

This is a dark and sometimes deeply uncomfortable drama

"(He's) a six year old's Brad Pitt" proclaims a father of two whose kids get the once in a lifetime chance to meet Elmo, the Sesame Street puppet. You can see the smile on the kids' faces as they are simply entranced with meeting one of the most recognizable characters in Television history, right up there with Homer Simpson and Spongebob Squarepants. Being Elmo: A Puppeteer's Journey revolves around Kevin Clash, an optimistic soul who has wanted to be a puppeteer since his youth, and achieved untold greatness along with the everlasting support of his parents and his family.I realize how cliché that sounds, but the documentary shows us how parental encouragement and motivation can push us through rigid and unforgivable instances. Clash's main point of criticism at a young age was he liked to play with dolls and showed little to no interest in sports or athletes. To him, the real heroes were those who communicated with children through puppets. Instead of idolizing Micky Mantle, he idolized Jim Henson, the creator of the Muppet characters.Clash spent hours perfecting his puppets, but was greatly limited in resources. Nowadays, when going to hobby stores and collector outlets, just about anything can be made. All it takes is imagination and persistency. Doll houses, bracelets, and crafts of all shapes and sizes can be made. The possibilities are endless, and thanks to the internet, it can play a huge role in collecting the items needed. But when growing up in humble Baltimore, with very little spending money, things like softer, more versatile fabric and fleece weren't accessible to Clash. He had to make due with the minimal equipment he had. When sifting through old puppets with a friend, he finds one that has the wrong color thread sewn to the mouth.It wasn't long before his puppet shows for the neighbors paid off, when Clash got to meet and work with his idol, Jim Henson, on a number of different shows and skits. Alas, this all lead up to his role of Elmo. Before Clash, Elmo's character was rowdy and ill-behaved. It wasn't until he got a hold of him and made the character bleed with charisma, silliness, and his most pivotal trait, love and happiness, did the true Elmo begin to see the light. Seeing the character as wacky and as silly as ever in the documentary brought a grand amount of emotion to me, especially in the third act. The character doesn't show an ounce of dislike for anybody, and seems to show the more limitless side of Clash himself. One person in the documentary explains that he believes Elmo is how Clash truly wants to act, but doesn't want to endure all the strangeness that will rub off on his coworkers. His solution is to project his feelings onto a puppet that is instantly recognizable and insanely lovable.Whenever I think of Elmo, my mind sails off on a tangent back when I was two years old. Every kid watched Sesame Street. I think that was almost a federal mandate. This was around that time the "Tickle Me Elmo" dolls were becoming increasingly popular, and clerks and customers alike were being trampled because people were scrambling to buy one for their children. My mom even said there were ads in the classified sections selling dolls for upwards of $200. My uncle won an "Elmo" doll in a drawing at K-Mart and was given it in seclusion in a shoebox, so as not to be mugged or conspicuous when walking out the door. I was given it on, what I believe, was my birthday. My mom turned the doll on, and it began shaking and laughing repeatedly. I was shaking and crying repeatedly. I was terrified of the doll, as I hated toys that moved and spoke. I'm sure my uncle was just overjoyed with my reaction.As far as the documentary itself goes, it's a whimsical event, but a short one at that, clocking in at roughly seventy-two minutes minus credits. It feels thin, unfinished, and slightly underdeveloped. We only learn about Clash's journey with Elmo towards the end of the documentary, and the film seems to gloss over specific parts such as Elmo's popularity, his fans of all ages, and just in pop culture in general. One can say this was more about Clash's life, but a small segment on how his popularity has spread like wildfire would've been appreciated. Nonetheless, this is a wonderful documentary, projecting light on a character we all know, and the puppeteer, whose name, at first, doesn't ring any bells.Starring: Kevin Clash, Whoopi Goldberg, and Rosie O'Donnell. Directed by: Constance Marks.

The super-sweet story of Kevin Clash, the puppeteer behind Elmo and a variety of other characters, which doubles as a heartwarming look back at the attitudes and atmosphere behind the scenes with Jim Henson's troupe in the glory days. Clash is a master at his craft, a by-product of spending every afternoon since childhood with an arm inside a furry marionette, and when he's not on the air with the cast of Sesame Street, he's contentedly passing that knowledge on to the next generation. It's an attitude he inherited from Henson and his close associate Kermit Love, who took Kevin under their wing and showed him the ropes without any pretense or hesitation. Too often we're too concerned with job security to share the intimate details of our craft with others, least of all the rising young stars, but Love and Henson adopted Clash with selfless warmth and care, a lesson he hasn't forgotten and continues to roll forward to others today. They're a perfect embodiment of everything the Muppets have stood for, complete with a contagious smile that didn't leave my face for hours.

In 1985, seasoned puppeteer Richard Hunt was growing exasperated with his attempts to find a voice and personality for a mediocre, bit-part furry red muppet. Believing it to be futile, he threw the role to Kevin Clash, a young, talented puppeteer who had only recently joined the Sesame Street crew. Adopting a falsetto tone and a desire for a muppet to represent 'love and kindness', Elmo was born.Marks' story is ostensibly that of Kevin Clash, but we soon learn that the puppeteer and his puppet are essentially one and the same. Growing in a large, working-class family in Baltimore, puppetry was always Clash's calling. Ignoring the social embarrassment of the hobby, the artform's future star would perform impromptu shows for local kids in his garden, build new muppets out of his parents' clothes and eventually garner his first local TV role before he finished high school. Those same kids who teased him would now vote him most likely to be a millionaire. They weren't wrong.Whoopi Goldberg is the somewhat questionable narrator of the rest of Clash's journey to stardom. With a lot of hard work and the odd phone call from his mother on his behalf, Kevin is soon rubbing shoulders with the likes of Frank Oz (of Miss Piggy and Grover fame), muppet designer Kermet Love, and eventually the father of the artform, Jim Henson himself. The grandfather-grandson relationship with Love is the film's high point; inviting the young puppeteer into his workshop, Henson's chief designer unlocks the magical world that Clash has longed to immerse himself in. Thereafter, it appears only a question of how hard Clash is willing to work until he gets his big break with Elmo.There is a whole other documentary in the character of Elmo himself (and I'm sure they exist), but to see the giant Clash operate the lovable monster as he meets Make-A-Wish children and their families is as heart-warming as their situation is heart-breaking. To be responsible for and continue to operate a character that means so much to so many is a wonderful testament to the character of Clash himself. Given a world dominated by the gritty and complex, Elmo's simple message of love and care is a much-needed comfort - for all ages and sizes. There are admittedly parts of the puppeteer's story that Marks chooses not to explore; the black Clash is implored to use his race as a card to get himself onto a Jim Henson project, yet the question of race is not mentioned thereafter (despite the obvious lack of black puppeteers in most of the footage shown). Similarly, his relationship with his ex-wife is skimmed over despite allusions to problems associated with treating their new-born daughter as just another puppet. If the intention was to keep a story about Elmo fairly up- beat and happy, fair enough, but there's not much of a moral message in simply ignoring the lulls of life.Having not grown up exposed to the Sesame Street phenomenon or the wider cinematic world of Jim Henson's band of muppets (Muppets: A Christmas Carol still confuses me to this day), I was concerned I would miss something with Marks' 'Being Elmo'. I need not have worried. While Mark's film is not the in-depth look at the artform of puppetry that many may have hoped, it is nevertheless a charming biopic about Clash and the rewards of hard work and persistence in chasing one's dream. And ultimately, it is rather comforting to know that the love and care personified by Elmo is in no way artificial - if Clash wasn't the gregarious, warm character we see, would we think differently of the muppet on his arm?Concluding Thought: If Elmo is a quintessentially Kevin Clash creation, when the puppeteer retires, does the puppet go with him?

If you've enjoyed watching the Muppets/Sesame Street/or the like you'll love this movie. The story of Kevin Clash is not so dramatic as much as it is fascinating and a thorough exploration of the unique world and craft of Muppets. I frequently found myself giggling or chuckling during several scenes, and I was always excited whenever someone put a puppet on to see how they would bring it to life with their voice and motions. The movie showed me where to find the deep hidden meaning in puppets and shows like Sesame Street. This movie made me feel happy, and I don't know that I can explain why except that this is part of the magic of puppeteers like Kevin Clash and their craft.