A Heartfelt, Animated Tribute to Jim Henson

Good luck stay­ing dry-eyed through this mov­ing trib­ute to Jim Hen­son, which fea­tures a group of pup­pets try­ing to cope with the death of their beloved cre­ator. It’s a long time since we’ve seen the so-called stages of grief dra­ma­tized so beau­ti­ful­ly and with such econ­o­my. (The film­mak­ers recent­ly fol­lowed up their 5‑minute short with a trail­er for what looks like a promis­ing fea­ture-length ver­sion.)

Hen­son fans may also want to check out his 1969 video primer on how to make pup­pets, as well as this new exhib­it at the Muse­um of the Mov­ing Image, which hosts a won­der­ful trib­ute to the pup­peteer’s long time col­lab­o­ra­tion with Frank Oz.

Sheer­ly Avni is a San Fran­cis­co-based arts and cul­ture writer. Her work has appeared in Salon, LA Week­ly, Moth­er Jones, and many oth­er pub­li­ca­tions. You can fol­low her on twit­ter at @sheerly.