Review of Being Elmo: A Puppeteer's Journey (2011) by Sony J — 26 Dec 2011

This was such a feel good portrait of a very nice man whose dreams of being a part of the Jim Hensen's muppet crew came true. The documentary starts with his childhood, where he first fell in love with Sesame Street. Kevin grew up in a poor environment, but he had a very loving and supportive family, who encouraged his fantasy making from a early age. When he cut up his father's coat to make his first puppet, his father's response was "Just ask next time". By the time Kevin was 14, he was putting on full fledge puppet shows for the neighborhood kids. Always trying to learn everything he could about how to create a better puppet, he literally created hundreds of puppets in his teens. This brought on a lot of derision from his peers. But even though he got teased, he grew more popular with the younger kids and their parents, which led to professional gigs like birthday parties and charity events. The story takes off from there, and you see how he came to create Elmo, and how much Elmo means to so many children and adults. It was just incredibly moving, and inspiring, especially his visits to kids in hospitals.

Two things I took away from Kevin's story is that you should always follow your dream, no matter how silly and far-fetched it seems to others, and that you can never know how what you do may affect other people. This one definitely gets two thumbs up from me.