I Am Big Bird: The Caroll Spinney Story (2015)

Content by Tony Macklin. Originally published on May 21, 2015 @ tonymacklin.net.

In the present contemporary era of video games and an increasingly militarized society, gentleness is going the way of humility. It's hard to find. But Big Bird still has it. He's an 8-foot tall, yellow bundle of joyful sweetness; he always was and he always will be.

Big Bird was created by puppeteer Jim Henson as a muppet for the children's television show Sesame Street in 1969. Since then he has been inhabited by Caroll Spinney - that's more than 45 years of graceful spinning.

Big Bird's glass is more than half-filled. His glass of birdseed milkshakes made by Mr. Hooper is full to the top. It's brimming with human - ah, avian - kindness. Children love and understand the majestic galoot.

Now a documentary pays homage to Big Bird and the man who has lived inside him since the beginning. Henson was supposed to be that man, but he didn't fit comfortably or effectively in the feathery outfit. Spinney, who worked with Henson, was recruited to be the Bird. He was able to make the intricate inner gadgets work, and most of all he gave life and child-like spirit to the indomitable creation. He became Big Bird. [As well as Oscar the Grouch.]

He's sometimes understudied by Matt Vogel, whom he chose and gleefully commented, "Vogel means bird in German." But Caroll Spinney still is the main man and Big Bird.

Caroll Spinney was born in Waltham, Massachusetts, on December 26, 1933 - the day after Christmas. As a youngster, he always seemed a little behind. He says he was, "the littlest guy in class, with big ears. It didn't help I was named Caroll."

He was an outsider, and all his life he didn't join anything easily. He was divorced from his first wife after 11 years, when his son was only a year old. She is absent from the film. She had no admiration for his puppetry, and probably thought him a dodo bird. But his three children from that marriage all speak lovingly of their father. His second wife Debbie was reluctant to date him, but he was awkwardly and unknowingly persistent, and she finally gave him a chance. Their marriage seems ideal. She certainly understands and marvels at his work.

I Am Big Bird: The Caroll Spinney Story is full of engaging images and heartfelt appreciation. But director/writer Dave LaMattina (Chad N. Walker was co-writer) gives context that includes regret and loss. It keeps the film from being overly sentimental.

Caroll's father was a mean man, cold and abusive. But at the end of his life he seems changed, and Caroll forgives him.

Caroll had an unsettling conflict on set with director/head writer Jon Stone. Caroll was saved from death on the space flight of the Challenger when Big Bird was replaced with a teacher. And Caroll tells how R.O.T.C students at Georgia Tech tore feathers and violated the body of Big Bird when the crew was out eating. The R.O.T.C - who would have thought?

Perhaps the ultimate spirit of Big Bird, Caroll Spinney, and the film, come down to a memorial for Jim Henson after his sudden death. There is footage of Big Bird in a cathedral singing, "It's not easy bein' green."

He looks up above at the end of the song, and softly says, "Thank you, Kermit."

It's a love song fraught with loss and wonder.

So, too, is the film.