For Americans of a certain age, like me, this documentary about Caroll Spinney, the puppeteer who operated Sesame Street’s Big Bird and Oscar the Grouch since the children’s show started in 1969, is a massive nostalgic sugar rush. In an era when so many celebrities from our childhoods have turned out to have feet of clay or worse, it’s tremendously reassuring to find out that Spinney is just the sort of kind-hearted sweetheart you’d expect, a man who’s spent a lifetime making children happy. And it’s a kick to see archive footage and interviews with some of the old, non-puppeteer cast members – such as Robert “Bob” McGrath, Emilio “Luis” Delgado, and Loretta “Susan” Long – as well as Muppet masterminds Frank Oz and Jim Henson. But that said, apart from a troubled childhood, an unhappy first marriage, and a murder that randomly happened on Spinney’s property, there’s not a great deal of drama.
