Jim Henson's Fantastic World: Muppet mania!
The antic genius of the man who created Sesame Street and The Muppet Show is in full display in a family-friendly and fairly fuzzy exhibit now showing at EMP/SFM.
Jim Henson's Fantastic World, a traveling exhibition sponsored by the Smithsonian Institution and the Jim Henson Company, brings together sketches, photographs, storyboards, rare video and the artist's actual puppet creations to create as complete a picture of Jim Henson's life and work as you can imagine.
Every aspect of Henson's remarkable creative career is touched upon in Fantastic World. His pre-Sesame Street commercial work makes an appearance in the form of Wilkins and Wontkins, the slap-happy puppet spokesmen for Wilkins Coffee. The puppeteer's many unique films and television shows, from The Dark Crystal to Fraggle Rock, are represented in varying degrees.
And an amazing array of Sesame Street and Muppet Show artifacts are on display, from Henson's original sketches of the puppets to the puppets themselves. Kermit The Frog, Bert and Ernie, Rowlf The Dog, and even the puppets that sang "Mahna Mahna" on The Muppet Show are all on hand, happily looking out from glass cases. Even in repose, they have the power to hold both children and grown-ups utterly entranced.
If looking at all these cool puppets gives you the urge to put on a puppet show of your own, the Experience Music Project | Science Fiction Museum and Hall of Fame has you covered. Seattle Children's Museum has furnished puppets that you can use to put on a show for your family and friends, and you can even watch yourself on television monitors while the show's in progress — just as a certain puppeteering genius once did.
- by Geoff Carter, Seattle Reporter for HelloMetro
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