posted
Hard to believe it turns 30 this year. I'll admit it was a rather frightful experience when I first saw it in elementary school (with Chamberlain's penalty for failing at trial by stone and the examples of essence extracting being the most nightmare-inducing), but give Henson credit for trying to go outside the grain. The puppetry as usual is stellar, with all the characters well-designed and realized, and the story (with producer Gary Kurtz perhaps adding a few ideas from several earlier Star Wars drafts he was familiar with, as in early concepts of Lucas's vision, the Jedi and Sith fed off crystals) works well as fantasy. It's no surprise it's become a cult classic over the years.
It's worth asking, do you think the Skeksis should have spoken in their own, Egyptian-derived language as Henson originally intended, or does it work better with them speaking regular English? I can understand the intent, and it was a good one, but to be sure, I found it better to completely understand what they mean.
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aTomiK
.... has green eyes as well....
Member # 6575
posted
I have to say that i don´t remember ever seeing this movie. Just bought the SE dvd so that will be soon fixed Posts: 5092 | From: Finland | Registered: Feb 2008 | Site Updates: 7
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aTomiK
.... has green eyes as well....
Member # 6575
It´s a good movie but only after watching the one hour documentary "The World of The Dark Crystal, i understood how much work there was behind this film. Huge, huge project!
And Chris, i believe that it would have been a commercial suicide if the Skesis would have spoken their own, foreign language. Not necessary overseas but in the US anyway.
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posted
Taken to see E.T. back in '82, the movie had just finished - ended up seeing Dark Crystal instead. I liked it at the time, but watching it again a year or two ago I could only admire the set designs and the overall ambition, the actual movie left me a little cold. I put that down to the somewhat formulaic plot, and the emotionless Gelfling faces. Skeksis however, still rock.
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