Last week, I had the pleasure, the very wonderful pleasure, of taking my youngest son Sammy to our local indie theater for a viewing of Being Elmo: A Puppeteer’s Journey. The film follows the rise of Kevin Clash, puppeteer and voice of every child’s favorite furry, red Sesame Street character, Elmo. With a lot of documentaries, I expect to be amazed at the amount of turmoil or struggle that the subject had to endure to make it where they are today. Not so with Clash; it was refreshing to see that he had very supportive parents, who instead of making excuses when others ridiculed his hobby of making puppets, they encouraged him and found ways to to help him achieve his dreams, and Kevin Clash was a big dreamer.
The film makers did an excellent job of telling Clash’s story, narrated briefly in part by Whoopi Goldberg. At the young age of nine, Clash had already started making his own puppets, in large quantities no less, giving them names, distinct personalities, and using them to hone his craft. He hoped to someday work with The Muppets or on Sesame Street, and as the years flew by, he moved up to local children’s shows, eventually landing a puppetry and acting gig on then popular and now classic Captain Kangaroo. Through the love and support of his family, not to mention an opportunity to meet famous Muppets creator Kermit Love (thanks in no small part to his mother), Clash eventually attained that life-long goal of working with all things Jim Henson.
The story of how the character of Elmo emerged in the midst of it all is one to only be seen in the film. One thing I will note is that the actual name and puppet of Elmo was in use for awhile on Sesame Street before Clash made him who he is today. The character was so unlikable that the puppeteer that brought him to life couldn’t stand having to do so when the time came. Now anyone who has children, and even a lot who don’t, can tell you what Elmo represents, because of those three little words that he says that define his personality: “Elmo Loves You.” Clash certainly embodies the love that the character of Elmo represents, by using his talent to allow children to have private visitations with him and Elmo, courtesy of the Make a Wish Foundation, which gives children with a terminal illness a chance to live out their biggest hopes and dreams. This was the point in the film where tears started to flow freely from my eyes, and I looked over to my son and saw that same expression of sadness and joy combined on his face, reflected in the glow of the projection on the screen.
The film runs only a little over an hour, and when the credits began to roll, I exclaimed out loud, “No, don’t be over yet!” There were only a few of us in the audience, but my son and I started to clap and the rest of the theater joined in our applause. It might have been the clapping of only a few hands that night, but it was richly deserved. I would recommend that if you have any chance of seeing this movie in a theater, that you don’t miss the chance to do so.
I was compensated two tickets by the Robinson Film Center in Shreveport, LA for the viewing of this film for the purpose of this review.
Hope I can find it somewhere around here…looks like a beautiful film (and when I first started teaching, I won over the little kids by doing the ‘elmo’ voice with any of their toys.)