Thursday, 10 July 2008

Dark Crystal

I didn't take notes off the whiteboard at the last movie night, which is probably just as well as there were some unusual illustrations. For the record we watched 2 more episodes of Crime Traveller (which I will review when we've finished, and this time I won't show Heckler my notes before hand), The Dark Crystal and an episode of Wonder Woman[1].

So The Dark Crystal (Trailer) - a fantasy movie where all the actors are puppets from Jim Henson. It looks like if you search youtube you can find the whole film up there if you've not seen it or forgotten about it some time in the last 25 years. The first question is, does it show it's age? Visually, no, because although there has been puppetry in films since then, the state of the art doesn't seem to have advanced greatly. Storywise, it's a little simple - it's definitely a kids film[4], and other than looking good (Aughra's Orrery has stuck with me since) doesn't make much attempt to hold the attention of adults.

That simple story - The Last Gelfling™ has been brought up by the Gentle Mystics™ to find a Shard of The Crystal and use it to Repair the Crystal in Accordance With The Prophecy, or The Evil Skeksis™ will destroy the world. Not that there aren't some good bits - (Jen - Wings? I don't have wings! Kira - Of course not. You're a boy. And: Jen - The prophecy didn't say anything about this! Kira - Prophets don't know everything!)

On balance not as good as the next time Jim Henson went for fantasy with puppets - Labyrinth. Which not coincidentally came as part of the three pack of Henson Fantasies (with MirrorMask). We watched Labyrinth before Heckler and Kochk started up, but I have the notes, so I'll briefly cover that real soon now.

[1] Notes made during Wonder Woman:
Wonder Woman is a Super Secretary
The Falcon really doesn't like Aubergines[2]
Are you going to change in front of the window Diana Prince?
Wonder Woman has flat stunt boots and heeled posing boots[3]
Good thing they use the same notation on Paradise Island. What, Greek letters?


[2] I have not the faintest clue what this was about
[3] So that's how she does it!
[4] LeMat was saying how it scared him when he first saw it

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