Saw Being Elmo, A Puppeteer's Journey, a documentary about the life of Kevin Clash, the voice and puppeteer of Elmo. The film is short and very sweet, intended to rekindle happy memories of childhood TV programs and promise more magic to come. The story of Kevin's life is a whirlwind rags-to-riches adventure where he dreams as a child of being a puppeteer and, through fanatical devotion and rapid ladder-climbing, he achieves his dream. There's a lot of interesting information about Kevin. We are told that he created muppets in high school and was (of course) bullied for it. We then instantly turn to talking about his performances for mentally disabled children. And the whole documentary is kind of like that. We come within a hair's-breadth to turmoil and conflict and then trip merrily off to heart-warming pleasantness.
This isn't a weakness exactly. I mean, the film is clearly meant to just be heartwarming and nice and there's nothing wrong with being heartwarming and nice, it's just that there's a large and obviously unhappy hole missing in the story of Kevin's life. The unending sweetness seems unreal and illusory. I don't feel lied to exactly, just that I was not told the whole story. Kevin starts off the film talking about the magic houses and kingdoms of Captain Kangaroo and Walt Disney, and how he wished he could crawl inside of the television into that more wonderful and happy realm. To go by this documentary, he appears to have actually succeeded. He has achieved his dreams and does meaningful work which he loves. The story of this journey is heart-warming and sincere and forces smiled on your face but as far as I can tell real life isn't like that. This film is sweet and substantive, but not analytical. I think it's very good and appropriate for mass audiences that this isn't biting or incisive, but it leaves me personally feeling suspicious.
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