“Jim Henson: Idea Man” honors the Muppets creator without downplaying the role that came before them.

TFD – On May 31, Disney+ will debut “Jim Henson: Idea Man,” a documentary that delves into the creative genius and complex personal life of the Muppets mastermind. Through interviews with his children and colleagues, the film offers a profound look at Henson’s enduring impact on entertainment.

“Jim Henson: Idea Man” threads a tricky needle by honoring the Muppets mastermind’s creative genius without avoiding or sugarcoating the more difficult parts of his personal life, as told by his grown children. The end product is an especially insightful Disney+ documentary that portrays both the man and the concepts that will give him a certain kind of immortality.

Henson is characterized as introverted and reserved, an unlikely performer who brought Kermit to the world, fell into a family-friendly producing role with “Sesame Street,” and attempted, somewhat unsuccessfully, to stray from that with films like “The Dark Crystal” and “Labyrinth,” which have gained greater appreciation over time.

Frank Oz, whom Henson hired to work with him straight out of high school, describes Henson as “a very rare creature,” and he and others tell funny stories about Henson, such how he made Kermit out of his mother’s clothing and a ping pong ball that he sliced in half to make the eyes.

Ron Howard, the director of “Idea Man,” and Henson’s children, Brian and Lisa, who followed him into show business, don’t sugarcoat his more complex personal life, which included being absent a lot (Lisa Henson remembers it as “an incredibly busy life”) and having arguments with their mother, Jane, on a regular basis.

When he fled to England to produce “The Muppets Show” after US networks rejected his pitch, Brian Henson talked about the tension that arose at the dinner table and his father’s struggle with success. Despite this, Henson was still eager to explore his creative side, as evidenced by the experimental films he made early in his career.

When Henson passed unexpectedly from toxic shock syndrome in 1990 at the age of 53, he was in the process of negotiating the sale of his firm to Disney, partly so that he could return to his filmmaking and not be distracted by financial worries. Henson’s status in the culture is summed up in a videotape of ABC News anchor Peter Jennings saying that the news was “like a death in the family.”

In the documentary, those close to Henson talk about his restlessness, which may help to explain why and how he managed to accomplish so much in such a short amount of time. Henson skillfully emphasizes this with clips from his early works, his directing endeavors in the 1980s, Orson Welles interviewing him, and Oz.

Kermit may have sang about how difficult it is to be green, but after viewing “Jim Henson: Idea Man,” it’s extremely simple to recognize the shortcomings of the human mind that created the Muppets and much more.

On May 31, “Jim Henson: Idea Man” will debut onDisney+.