Why Watch? If it’s part creepy and part endearing, it must be from Jim Henson, right? io9 keenly celebrated this find from the ATT Tech Youtube channel – a short created by Henson in 1963 for a business owner seminar from The Bell System. Even without seeing his name on the work, you could have guessed it. His unique artistic sense is on display here in a fantastic, desperate monologue from a robot that loves ingesting vast oceans of information smoke. Adorable and unnerving. Yeah, it’s Henson alright. What will it cost? Only 3 minutes. Skip Work. You’ve Got Time For More Short Films.

“But I don’t want to hunt worms. I want Snuffy to come and visit. And if he can’t come and visit, I don’t want to be here anymore. I want to go home!” If you asked a million Muppets fans why they love The Muppets, you would likely get a million different answers, but most of those reasons would probably be rooted in the caring world created by Jim Henson and Frank Oz, a world of family and friendship, of acceptance and education. And while Muppet flicks like The Muppet Movie and The Great Muppet Caper embody all those traits (and are much more likely to be the feature titles viewers think of when they think “Muppet movie”), my favorite Muppet flick that has always best exemplified all those traits is the very first Sesame Street film – Follow That Bird.

What is Movie News After Dark? It’s a nightly movie news column that, at least for tonight, will divert your attention away from it being a slow news day by using a rousing round-up of visual stimuli. That’s right, we’re busting out infographics! We begin tonight with one of a few hot-off-the-press photos from Ridley Scott’s Prometheus, featuring the cast. Among them was this shot of dreamy Michael Fassbender and Noomi Rapace, also dreamy. There’s also some pretty kick-ass science fictiony stuff promised alongside this oozing sexuality.

After cutting his puppetry teeth on short films and episodes of Sesame Street in the late 60s and early 70s, legendary puppeteer Jim Henson finally got a chance to give his felt faced creations a spotlight show of their own in the mid 70s. That show was The Muppet Show, and it was awesome. So awesome that it eventually spawned a series of feature films. While there’s always room for conflicting opinions, some consensuses (consensii?) about these movies have popped up over the years. It seems that all Muppets are not created equal. Generally everyone agrees that the original film, The Muppet Movie, was the best. And it’s also largely agreed that the first three movies, the ones that still had Jim Henson involvement, are better than the ones that came after. While there’s some general truthiness to these beliefs, I can’t say that I think those divisions hold up as absolute truths. Thank God, this column would have been a wreck otherwise.

“Life’s like a movie, write your own ending. Keep believing, keep pretending”. ~ Jim Henson When Jim Henson died in 1990 there was speculation about the fate of Kermit the Frog. Had Kermit died with his creator? Could Kermit, Henson’s alter ego, survive the sudden loss of the man who had lent him his voice? The answer was Kermit and his Muppet family would carry on, even without the brilliant creative force that was Jim Henson. The art of puppetry goes back thousands of years, but it’s an ancient art that Jim Henson revolutionized. What makes the Muppet world so believable even when we know we’re looking at fabric creatures? For starters Henson’s use of fabric made his puppets malleable and expressive; the faces of his puppets aren’t static. Henson also understood the power of television. On stage the puppeteer is hidden behind a curtain in a puppet theater environment. That carried over to television with, for example, the classic Kukla and Ollie puppets of Kukla, Fran and Ollie fame. Henson was inspired by them, but he didn’t use the static traditional puppet theater. He opened it up by having the cameras focus on the puppets. By keeping the puppeteers out of the frame, Henson liberated the puppets and their puppeteers, allowing them to move more freely and take on a life of their own.

Why Watch? It’s a class full of Muppets. Teaching you how to make Muppets. Then Jim Henson is surrounded by them while they all sing “Frère Jacques.” Why wouldn’t you watch it? What does it cost? Just 6 minutes of your time. Check out Making Muppets for yourself:

It seems appropriate that Jim Henson’s legendary creation, the Muppets, got their start on children’s programming and public television because they have a lot to teach the world. Not only did they spearhead the low-rent show Sam and Friends on WRC-TV in Washington DC, they were also instrumental in making Sesame Street a primary education powerhouse. But even when the Muppets branched out from their roots to land in their variety show and later major motion pictures, they still had a lot to teach us. Like many folks out there, I grew up with the Muppets, and these are some of the most important lessons I have taken away over the years.

Asking someone to choose his or her favorite Muppet is tough. It may not be as tough as asking a parent to choose his or her favorite child; it’s maybe more akin to asking someone to choose his or her favorite ice cream flavor. Sure, there are some you like more than others, but can you rally make the defining choice between Baskin-Robbins mint chocolate chip and rocky road? But if you watch some of the old episodes of The Muppet Show or spin through the multiple Muppet movies, you’ll find that there are at least one or two characters who rise to the top…

Why Watch? There’s something simple and raw about this footage. In it, Jim Henson takes a group full of puppeteers and Muppets through some numbers (including a musical one). It’s a window into the way the master worked. At least, it’s a view to how he taught, and those methods are all part of the magic that we never got to see because it stayed backstage while the magic took the stage. What does it cost? Just 6 minutes of your time. Check out Muppets Counting for yourself:

Some screenplays never get turned into movies. In fact, a ton of them don’t, and the ratio doesn’t shift when talking about working screenwriters (or even legends of the game). Most have drawers of work that never made the jump from page to screen, so it’s always intriguing when someone takes an interest in something covered in dust. Of course, the dust is shinier when it’s collecting on something from the brilliant mind of Jim Henson. According to LA Weekly, Archaia (which just scored Eisner Awards for two of its titles) has converted Henson’s A Tale of Sand script (which he wrote with writing partner Jerry Juhl) into a comic book complete with a font born from Henson’s own handwriting. “It’s the last and only screenplay that Henson never got to produce in his lifetime,” said Archaia Editor-in-Chief, Stephen Christy, “so we’re bringing it to life as a graphic novel.” Christy also went on the LA CBS affiliate to discuss the project in-depth share some images from the novel. In a film culture where screenwriters are being asked to turn their work into graphic novels before getting green lights, this development might actually renew interest in the story itself as what it was originally intended to be. At least, it would be wonderful if it did. It seems ridiculous, but even if it means a production house gets to slap “Based on the Graphic Novel” on the poster, it would be thrilling to see new Henson work in theaters.

What is Movie News After Dark? It’s a nightly column chronicling all that is good and true(ish) in the world. But enough gay banter, its author caught the new trailer for The Muppets this evening — it’s attached to Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides — and it was adorable. Not Pirates, that wasn’t great, the Muppets trailer. Speaking of Muppets, here’s something sad… 21 years ago today, Jim Henson passed away. Our friends over at /Film are remembering him by posting a wonderful documentary called The World of Jim Henson. It’s worth your time, as you might imagine.

There’s nothing more likeable than a Muppet. I’m pretty sure that’s a proven fact. Whether you were a Sesame Street kind of kid, a lover of The Muppet Show or a fan of Fraggle Rock, chances are any show involving Muppets had the ability to bring a smile to your face – and hopefully it still does.

Constance Marks’ delightful documentary takes you beyond the foam heads and wacky personalities of the Muppets to get to know the people who bring them to life, specifically Kevin Clash, the man behind the most loving 3 ½ year old of all time, Elmo.

What is Movie News After Dark? This is a question that I am almost never asked, but I will answer it for you anyway. Movie News After Dark is FSR’s newest late-night secretion, a column dedicated to all of the news stories that slip past our daytime editorial staff and make it into my curiously chubby RSS ‘flagged’ box. It will (but is not guaranteed to) include relevant movie news, links to insightful commentary and other film-related shenanigans. I may also throw in a link to something TV-related here or there. It will also serve as my place of record for being both charming and sharp-witted, but most likely I will be neither of the two. I write this stuff late at night, what do you expect?

What is Movie News After Dark? This is a question that I am almost never asked, but I will answer it for you anyway. Movie News After Dark is FSR’s newest late-night secretion, a column dedicated to all of the news stories that slip past our daytime editorial staff and make it into my curiously chubby RSS ‘flagged’ box. It will (but is not guaranteed to) include relevant movie news, links to insightful commentary and other film-related shenanigans. I may also throw in a link to something TV-related here or there. It will also serve as my place of record for being both charming and sharp-witted, but most likely I will be neither of the two. I write this shit late at night, what do you expect?

The Daybreakers directors urge us to go grab our own cameras, to be Willem Dafoe and to have faith in a Dark Crystal sequel.

The screenwriter of Moulin Rouge! and the directors of Daybreakers carry on the Henson torch.

Fresh with a new name, the Muppets will be saving the Rec Center and achieving greatness.

Would you see a movie where Miss Piggy is murdered, turned into bacon, and force fed to Kermit the Frog? Of course you would you sick bastard. But that will never happen…

The Weinstein’s love for the Asians is well documented… they love to buy, abuse, shelve, and then dump onto DVD as many great Asian films as they can. Well apparently that fetish has grown tiresome as now they’re turning their predatory eyes elsewhere. Towards the children!

The legend of Jim Henson will come to life on the big screen. Most likely it will involve the use of puppets.