Being Elmo: A Puppeteer's Journey - Film Review

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Being Elmo (2011) is the heartwarming story of Kevin Clash, the puppeteer behind the iconic Sesame Street character, Elmo. It is directed by Constance Marks, and narrated by Whoopi Goldberg.

While this documentary didn't make me cry the way I Am Big Bird , the story of another Sesame Street puppeteer, Caroll Spinney did, it did at least make me go "awww". It is always lovely to hear about someone realising their childhood dream, especially when that dream is so strange and nerdy.

I can only imagine how overwhelming it must have been for 18-year-old Kevin, who like so many people, grew watching Sesame Street, to actually meet Jim Henson. Not only did he meet Jim, but he eventually got to work with him on the movie Labyrinth. Kevin was one of the brilliant team behind the challenging sequence where one of the 'Fireys' pops out his own eyes, rolls them like dice, then throws them into the air, swallows them, and pops them back out.



As a puppet enthusiast, I appreciated this movie giving some little peeks into puppeteering and how puppets are made. We even get to look inside the muppet workshop with its drawers full of eyeballs and a treasure trove of brightly coloured fur.

The film covers Kevin's journey, from falling in love with puppetry and making his first puppet as a child to becoming Sesame Street's first black puppeteer and travelling the world, training the puppeteers who work on Sesame Street in other countries. Through interviews with other puppeteers, as well as Kevin himself, we also learn about how he came to create the character of Elmo, who proved to be so relatable to younger children.

I confess that I am in the camp of people who were annoyed by Elmo, because of the way his newfound prominence in Sesame Street meant less screen time for some of the other characters, like Kermit and Big Bird. Mainly though, my issue was that Elmo seemed to be EVERYWHERE for a while in the '90s, especially in 1996 when the Tickle Me Elmo doll became a bizarrely popular fad. Even Kevin seemed to be a bit thrown by all the hype. This movie won me over, since it shows how much the character really mattered (and still matters) to so many younger fans.

Being Elmo: A Puppeteer's Journey is a feel-good documentary that will appeal to the nostalgic, people interested in puppetry, and anyone who is a kid at heart.




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More articles by Jennifer Muirhead:
I Am Big Bird - Film Review
Fraggle Rock Volume 1 - Book Review
Jim Henson's Storyteller: Dragons - Book Review
3 Short Films To Make You Think
Beyond the Wasteland - Film Review
Merchant Ivory - Film Review
Jim Henson's Labyrinth 2017 Special - Book Review