I Am Big Bird: The Caroll Spinney Story

Sesame Street was an integral part of my childhood. Sure, I had Mr Rogers, Sharon Lois & Bram, and Mr. Dress-Up too, but Sesame Street was by far my favourite show. I remember rushing downstairs in the morning to watch Big Bird and all his pals have fun, I remember begging my parents to buy me an stuffed Elmo doll, hell I even remember my parents rummaging through my aunt and uncle's attic to find VHS tapes of when they had taped Sesame Street off the TV for my cousins when they were kids back in the 80s. I was a nut.

This documentary is based around the life of Caroll Spinney, the man who plays Big Bird and Oscar the Grouch on Sesame Street. It not only does a fascinating job of chronicling his life as an actor, but the discourse pertaining to his philosophy on life, and how he translated that into the Big Bird who we all know and love. We get to know Big Bird like never before, on the part of Caroll Spinney as himself, Caroll Spinney as an actor and Caroll Spinney as Big Bird. It's wrapped in these fantastic layers that might seem daunting in text, but when the movie is over with, you go "My god, that makes perfect sense!". It showcases how Spinney really is one of our most remarkable and unseen actors of our age, and how delicate (metaphorically, of course, playing Big Bird as a puppeteer is a task and a half) his performance has been on to generation after generation of kids.

The movie also goes into detail on the journeys that both Big Bird and Spinney have had in their life - such as being the first Western pop culture (with Bob Hope) to venture into China after it opened it's doors, becoming a household name in America, and, one of the biggest shocks and surprises, nearly taking part with the crew on the NASA Challenger spaceship, which of course exploded a minute after launch, killing all on-board.

This movie is why I love being immersed in pop culture. There's a lot of people who have told me over the years that it's a bad thing to be surrounded by commercial products, but this movie packs a punch in that it personally warps me back to a simpler time, a time when my bestest friend was Big Bird and he taught me how to love the world.

Sure, I Am Big Bird has it's flaws. I would have liked for it to go deeper into the darker parts of some of the times of Caroll Spinney's life, but in the end I think that it would detract from the overall magic of the movie. I Am Big Bird is a heartwarming documentary for fans of puppeteering, but at it's core, an even warmer story for us who grew up with that lovable yellow bird.

"He didn't fit in, and he knew it." Frank Oz

I Am Big Bird: the Caroll Spinney Story is a big, feel good doc about the man under the bird for over 40 years. While Big Bird is arguably the best known animal icon for kids in the world, relatively few know the soul of that puppet, much less the workings of its animated presence on Sesame Street.

Caroll Spinney's story, as told in this documentary for all ages, is an upbeat survey of a life well lived for children by him and other geniuses like Jim Henson, for whom puppets were an expression of the highest creativity even when the circumstances are not as perfect as the kids' perception of Big Bird.

Directors Dave LaMattina and Chad N. Walker do not sugar coat or dumb down Spinney's story: He was initially wracked with doubt about his abilities, his director did not like him for unknown reasons, and his role was alone amidst the very social other members and roles of the cast. Yet out of this isolation came a character that showed his humanity in ways different from everyone else, to such a successful extent that NASA invited him to fly with Challenger. That role's last minute cancellation spared Spinney's life and saved him for generations of youngsters.

The Challenger tragedy and his contemplation of suicide keep this doc from being too sweet, peppering it with the kind of reality Sesame Street never shied away from, and in the case of Henson's death, was able to turn the grief into a lesson for the kids.

Seriously you will run through a gamut of emotions watching this. It's undeniable the amount of positivity that jim henson and his friends put forth into this world. Caroll spinney being one of the most important of them. You can see that this man puts out pure love into the world. Even if you aren't a sesame street fan or muppets fan, which i don't know who you are, you should watch this. It'll reach into all of your soul ans make you smile and cry and wish this man were still alive putting greatness out into the world. He is missed but luckily the impact that he made can only assure us that there is more good in the world thanks to him.

This film is all about the life and work of Carroll Spinney, the puppeteer responsible for Big Bird and Oscar the Grouch from "Sesame Street". Unlike many of the other Muppet folks, Spinney generally did not do other characters (like on "The Muppet Show") and a major portion of the documentary is about the life and history of Big Bird. It's all very interesting and touching--especially if you grew up with these characters. It's also depressing, as the film also talks about the untimely death of Jim Henson--and I challenge any Muppet fan to watch this with dry eyes. Because of that, at times, the film is a bit depressing to watch...which isn't a problem unless you are already depressed.

By the way, this film is NOT captioned...which really sucks as my youngest wasn't able to enjoy the film unless I sat there translating it into sign language.

The real winner of this film is the subject himself, Carrol Spinney. The film making itself is pretty straight-ahead, and the sound track is lousy (No percussion at all? Who's idea was that? This is a movie of men and muppets, for the love of puppetry give us an occasional rhythm or beat!).

That said, Carrol Spinney, the man behind the bird and the grouch, really carries the film just by being himself. Big Bird and Oscar the Grouch are iconic world-renowned characters that continue to enjoy a long legacy. And Mr. Spinney demonstrates himself to be a person full of creativity, love, joy, pain, and a genuine passion for his work and for his wife.

I would recommend this film as a solidly entertaining watch with lasting pathos. The subject is very strong and magnetic, despite the bland filmmaking and schmaltzy soundtrack.