Like the wizard behind the curtain, Caroll Spinney is the 80-year-old man inside Sesame Street’s Big Bird and underneath Oscar the Grouch and as the title of the film suggests, this is his story.
The movie charts the familiar path of such stories – a child that likes playing with puppets and a disapproving father and continues on in this fashion, throwing up small narrative road block after small narrative road block for the rest of its duration.
Caroll moves to New York to work on his dream job of Sesame Street but find New York hard he almost quits, but he doesn’t. A director is mean to him, but this makes his performance better. I am a huge fan of Henson’s creations and as such I am the perfect target market for this film and I can honestly say there was nothing new in the documentary to justify watching it.
I Am Big Bird spends a lot of time telling you that Caroll’s genius is that he never lost his child like wonder that makes the yellow bird so loved but it never shows you this wonder. If this film was a Muppet it would be Elmo – all sugar and no soul.
BY JACK FRANKLIN
