"Time Piece" is a 9-minute short film from America from the 1960s and the main reason why this is still somewhat known today is that it was made by the late Muppets creator Jim Henson. He wrote it, directed it and also played the central character. It sure is fascinating how different this is compared to all his Muppets stuff. Henson was still in his 20s when he made it and as it scored an Oscar nomination it was one of the biggest successes of Henson's career. However, I am not impressed. I am not a Muppets fan at all and this one here I don't like either, even if for completely different reasons. It is a very experimental film, there is no plot in here, no spoken language either, which is good because you don't need to understand English to see it, but honestly why would you want to see it? It's tough to find a reason in it. Maybe for the sound effects as this is the only component that was slightly memorable or at least not as forgettable as everything else and that is also only really because they were very much over the top, also in terms of volume. Maybe that's where the film should have been nominated. Anywhere I am glad it lost to the French entry in the short film category because that one is much much superior to this one here. This one here sure is packed with tons of metaphors and symbolisms, many about the subject of time and fugaciousness, but that makes it only a slightly smarter watch. Maybe it could have been a success if we heard Pink Floyd's Time while watching the visual side. But that one only came out a bit under a decade later. "Time Piece" gets a thumbs-down from me. Not recommended.

Just saw this early experimental short by the creator of the Muppets, Jim Henson, on YouTube as linked by Amid on Cartoon Brew. It's basically an abstract animated slide show of Henson walking to work, having dinner with his wife, jumping on a pogo (with other people on that at various moments), etc. All done to a constant drumbeat with occasional cries of "Help!" from Henson. There's some adult humor here so I don't recommended this to children. Some of the cuts and montage that I remember from the Muppets' later TV show "Seseme Street" probably came from here. Anyone who thinks of Jim Henson as mainly a children's puppeteer would probably really be blown away with Time Piece. If you liked this, there's a short Henson did with sound man Raymond Scott called Ripples, also on YouTube. Highly recommended!

This is an experimental film done early in Jim Henson's career--before he achieved national prominence. While I didn't enjoy it and didn't see it as a great artistic triumph (despite the Oscar he received for Best Live Action Short), I am thrilled that he made it because it gave him a chance to experiment and hone his craft. Interestingly, the film has none of his Muppets--even though for almost a decade he'd been using them on local (Washington, DC).The film has a beat (such as drum or cymbal) every second and the action changes--almost slide show style. Much of it seemed rather random, though some of the seemingly random images weren't (such as the obvious phallic imagery). Clever at times, but not a film I'd want to see again.

I remember seeing this short in elementary school (stop doing the math!) and have loved it ever since. It was screened at the same time as "Help, My Snowman's Burning Down" and "Clay", both exemplary shorts on their own, but my favorite was always "Time Piece". The hapless subject's strange situations and his plaintive cries of "help!" (especially when his head was, literally, served up on a platter) were priceless and led to a spirited discussion of the meaning of the film. Now that I know it was done by Jim Henson, I'm not surprised it was so good! A definite must-see for its composition and the execution of the scenes as each jump-cut leads to a new, sometimes visually jarring, sometimes amusing, image.