Google’s string of hitting home runs with their logo manipulations continues with their latest Doodle, an impressive honoring of the great Jim Henson. In typical new Google Doodle fashion, the Jim Henson logo responds to user input, allowing Google visitors to play the role of giving a voice to the Muppets that comprise the letters in Google’s name.
As indicated, the latest doodle is indeed interactive, done with the mouse inputs. Google visitors can select which Muppet they wish to manipulate by clicking the hand signal underneath the characters. Once selected, the selected Muppet follows the movement of the mouse and when a button is pressed, the selected Muppet opens its mouth, allowing the user to take add a voice to the animated character. The Henson Doodle represents another successful interactive Google Doodle, a string that has seen the awesome Les Paul logo, as well as Freddie Mercury and Alexander Calder, to name a few.
Like other doodles, when clicked, the user is taken to a “Jim Henson” search results page, and it’s a fantastic way to remind people just how awesome Henson’s creative talent was, and it should also go a long way in explaining why his talent is still missed.
According to the Google blog, the logo will be visible for 36 hours. The logo was also created with cooperation from The Jim Henson Company. The Google blog includes a guest post from Brian Henson, the son of the late Jim Henson, and it closes by adding some insight into the man responsible for Kermit the Frog and Miss Piggy:
Jim was clearly a great visionary. But he also wanted everyone around him fully committed creatively. If you asked him how a movie would turn out, he’d say, “It’ll be what this group can make, and if you changed any one of them, it would be a different movie.” Every day for him was joyously filled with the surprises of other people’s ideas. I often think that if we all lived like that, not only would life be more interesting, we’d all be a lot happier.
There’s also a video celebrating the doodle, again, courtesy of Henson’s company:
Another cool tidbit, courtesy of the latest Google Doodle: when you right-click the characters and select the “Open image in a new tab” option, you are greeted with the various expressions the logo-comprising Muppets make. An example of these images:
With Google continuing its impressive streak of logo manipulations, it makes one anticipate the next offering a great deal. Let’s just hope Google doesn’t get caught up in trying outdo themselves. As long as they continue with the kind of quality we see with the Henson logo, everything will be just fine.