Henson’s grown-up moppets keep family tradition going
Posted on Tuesday, August 19, 2008
As co-chief executive of Jim Henson Co. and former president of Columbia Pictures, Lisa Henson, the oldest daughter of the late Jim Henson, Muppets creator, is carrying on the family tradition of children’s entertainment. Unstable Fables, a series of animated films, is one of her latest projects, with the inaugural 3 Pigs and a Baby available on DVD and The Tortoise and the Hare due out next month.
Q. When you are making a film, is it part of the plan to keep parents watching as well ?
A. Absolutely; we like to make something that is funny for adults and funny for children, particularly if we are aiming at children who are a little bit older. This [movie ] is not aimed at preschoolers. We are really talking about elementaryschool-age kids. We want adults to endorse the film and tell their friends about it.
Q. Do you find school-age children more challenging to entertain ?
A. Well, they are exposed to so many more things and they have so many choices. One of the challenges now is how to get children’s attention. When I was a child, I had just the three networks and a few hours of kids’ programming. It’s a whole new world for kids today. They are programmed to very niche things. So it is a challenge to do something that will reach the widest audience of children.
Q. How much influence do your children have when it comes to determining the appeal of a project like Unstable Fables ?
A. They had no more influence on these projects than any of the other kids we showed it to. At different points in the process, we did show the film as a work in progress just to make sure they could understand the plot lines and weren’t confused by anything.
Q. What do you think about embedding moral messages into children’s entertainment ?
A. We do feel that we have a positive mission as a company, but in general we’ve been all about comedy and characters. Presenting a show with good characters and funny comedy is first and foremost, but if the project didn’t mean anything or have anything positive to say, we would probably feel uncomfortable with it.
Q. Is there a certain responsibility studios must assume when they deal with subjects that people under 18 will be watching ?
A. I think that we do. We are aware that as artists, writers, animators and creators who reach a wide audience, that we have to realize that there is a responsibility associated with that. Different people within our company might feel varying degrees of social responsibility or responsibility toward certain issues.
Q. You and your brother Brian are running the Jim Henson Co. Did you get along as children ?
A. That’s so funny. Actually we got along very, very well. We have five kids in our family and we have owned the company together since my father died. We have done a lot of complicated transactions and done some big decisions together as a family and we almost never fight. It’s pretty amazing. You know what ? I think it really is a tribute to my father’s values. He really did encourage people to get along, not just in the microcosm of his family, but in the whole world.
Q. Did your dad have a kind of blueprint for what each of you would do within the company ?
A. Yeah, he actually would groom us to various jobs at different times. I was always being encouraged to be a producer or an executive. My brother Brian was learning at his elbow the directing and puppetry techniques and getting quite a lot of direction as well in his life.
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