Jim Henson Double Feature: The Dark Crystal & Labyrinth
Jim Henson Double Feature:
The Dark Crystal & Labyrinth
"Another World, Another Time...
In the Age of Wonder."
As a child growing up in the 1980s, Jim Henson was a huge part of my childhood, from Sesame Street, to Labyrinth, and The Dark Crystal, Jim Henson helped to fuel my imagination and wonder. I didn't grow up on Disney like many kids my age or kids a bit younger than me did, I grew up on Sesame Street and the Muppet Babies, and the Muppet movies (I especially loved The Muppets Christmas Carol!), and of course I remember watching Fraggle Rock in the morning before school as a kid. I think my love of fantasy films and literature was greatly fueled by The Dark Crystal and Labyrinth.
The Dark Crystal, released in 1982 was directed by Jim Henson and Frank Oz, and written by David Odell, with character designs by Brian Froud. The film was distributed by Associated Film Distribution, Universal Pictures (US), and United International Pictures (UK). The Dark Crystal was a moderate success grossing $41.4 million on a $25 million budget. However the film was met with mixed critical reception upon release, though later it would go on to become a well loved cult classic.
The Dark Crystal stars Stephen Garlick as Jen (the main Gelfling protagonist), Lisa Maxwell as Kira (the only other living Gelfling, who partners with Jen to heal the Crystal), Billie Whitelaw as Aughra (The Keeper of Secrets and an astronomer), Percy Edwards plays Fizzgig (Kira's pet), Barry Dennen plays The Chamberlain (a Skeksis who attempted to claim the throne but lost and was exiled), Michael Kilgarriff plays The General (the short tempered new emperor of the Skeksis), Brian Muehl plays The Master (a Mystic who raised Jen), and Joseph O'Conor plays the Narrator as well as Unglm who is a urSkeks that we meet at the end of the film. In this film we never see a human, neither in real life nor in puppet form, all of the creatures of this planet are non-human creatures, that being said the actors that they got to voice the creatures were incredible. I think my favourite performance with Billie Whitehall (who fans of horror films might recognize as the nanny in the Omen, or as Joyce Cooper in Hot Fuzz which was her final film performance) as Aughra, she has some of the best lines, and how she performs the character is just fantastic. I also love the whining, simpering character of The Chamberlain as performed by Barry Dennen, he performs the character so perfectly. Also each characters puppet takes upwards of 4 or more people to perform the movements of the character.
The actual story of The Dark Crystal is quite simple and straightforward, many many years before the film the crystal was damaged and the urSkeks were divided into two races, the gentle Mystics and the evil Skeksis. A prophecy said that a Gelfling would come and heal the Crystal with the Crystal Shard at the moment of the Great Conjunction. Well the Skeksis thought that they wiped out all of the Gelflings making them safe, but it seems that they missed two of them, one was Jen the Gelfling of the prophecy raised by the gentle Mystics, and then there was Kira raised by the kind Podlings. So Jen sets off to first find the Crystal Shard from Aughra, then he meets Kira, and they set off together to the Palace where the Skeksis live, and where the Crystal is, so that they can heal the Crystal during the Great Conjunction. But can they make it as the Skeksis become aware of their existence,and send off their evil Garthim to stop the Gelflings.
I have always loved this film, I love the beautiful practical effects, and the puppetry. Even watching this on a high def 4K television, the film still holds up and looks absolutely beautiful. This is a film that was criticized for its dark tone, as parents took their kids expecting a happy kids movie like the other works of Jim Henson that they were familiar with, but I agree with Henson who felt that it was unhealthy for children not to feel fear, and that it is good for children to watch a dark fantasy. This is a film that can appeal to kids with the fantastic creatures, but also to adults who can pick up some of the more darker elements of the story. Overall this will always be one of my favourite films from my Childhood, and one that I often return to. Sadly I don't have Netflix (I actually don't use any streaming services), so I haven't seen the prequel series that they aired, but I have read the two part manga that was released, and greatly enjoyed it. This is just a great film that is a must see, and can be enjoyed by the whole family.
Labyrinth stars David Bowie as Jareth the king of the goblins, Jennifer Connelly as Sarah Williams a 16 year-old girl who must rescue her baby brother from the goblin king (it is her fault that the baby is stolen by the way), Toby Froud (creature designer Brian Froud's son) plays Toby Williams (Sarah's baby brother), Christopher Malcolm (best known as Brad Majors in the Rocky Horror Show) plays Sarah's father Robert, and Shelly Thompson plays Sarah's stepmother Irene. While traversing the Labyrinth to save her brother Sarah gets help from new-found friends Hoggle (Brian Henson), Ludo (Ron Mueck), and Sir Didymus (David Shaughnessy) and his trusty steed Ambrosius. The elaborate crystal-ball movements done by Jareth are performed by professional juggler Michael Moschen. The casting of this film is absolutely fantastic, Connelly so perfectly plays the teenager girl who is on border of being a child living in a world of her own imagination and play, and becoming a young woman, and the 14 year old actress plays this so well. Yes, she is bratting, and whiney, and feels like the world is unfair and that being asked to have any level of responsibility is like the worst thing in the world, and she feels like she is "practically a slave" because she is asked to babysit her baby brother. This representation of the character is quite authentic. Throughout the film she is forced to grow as she has to take responsibility, and is faced with the adult decision of choosing to stay in a world of fantasy, or to face reality and save her brother. Then to add into the complexity facing a young girl is finding out that she is the object of affection by Jareth the king of the goblins, is an amazing piece of cinema where she finds her power and her strength, and you get this sense that she chooses to live in reality, but knows that her imaginary friends are there for her anytime she needs them. David Bowie is perfectly cast as Jareth, he has this charisma and sexuality, he is terrifying, beautiful, and creepy all at the same time. He was given creative freedom in the songwriting for the film, and he created perfection.
Labyrinth has always been one of my favourite films, it works so well as a fantasy-musical film, but also as a coming of age story. The world of Labyrinth is found all over Sarah's bedroom, if you focus on the amazing detail that the filmmakers used in creating her room, you will see every element of the Labyrinth right there in her bedroom, leading the film to be interpreted as nothing more than the fantasy/dream of a young girl, rather than a literal thing that happened to her. The film is absolutely beautiful, so much attention to detail, so many fantastic creatures and sets, this is definitely Jim Henson at his best. The story is both enchanting, and quite creepy at the same time, especially when you realize that Jareth is in love with young Sarah, and wishes to have her serve him as his queen, and that everything that he does throughout the film, he does for her, and Bowie plays that part so masterfully. This is truly a fantastic film, in my opinion one of the greatest films ever made, though I know that historically it has not been viewed very positively by the critics. This is a film that I grew up on, but it is more than nostalgia that makes this film great to me, I think it is more so that I as a kid really identified with the character of Sarah, I also struggled with choosing to live in the real world, and created worlds of fantasy as an escape from the world around me, I took comfort in books and films as an escape, I like her in the opening scene loved dress up and performing plays to my stuffed animals and in the park, and to be honest there are still times that I find comfort in those things as a way to escape the darkness of the world around me. It is a lot easier to face fantasy dangers than to face real ones. I think maybe the critics who hated this film so much never knew what it was like to be a little girl with an active imagination. This is the coming of age story for us little girls with active imaginations that find worlds of fantasy far better than the world that we are born into. I will always love this film, it is beautiful, it is dark, it is funny, it is disturbing, it is uplifting, it is sad, it is joyful, it is everything I want in a fantasy film. Also just a bit of interesting information, Labyrinth features the first use of CGI in a feature film with the CGI owl in the film, everything else was captured through the use of practical effects.
If you haven't seen the Dark Crystal or Labyrinth I highly recommend checking them out, both films are must-see films for viewers of all ages. Younger audiences can delight in the fantastic creatures and older audiences can enjoy the deeper complexities and darker themes of the films. Though Jim Henson is best known for his Muppets and Sesame Street, I feel like he was best doing dark fantasy films. Sadly the lack of success of Labyrinth both critically and in the box office would see Jim Henson not doing another dark fantasy film, though his son Brian Henson would definitely go on to work on more various types of films including Mirror Mask, and Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy among countless others. I don't know if we will ever see films that use practical effects to create the amazing works that Jim Henson did in Labyrinth and The Dark Crystal, as it is more common to do films with CGI effects these days, but the pure magic of these films is beautiful and unforgettable, and the only film that probably comes even close to their magical beauty might be The Neverending Story (but that is a story for another time). If you haven't already added these to your collection, I really highly recommend it.
Comments
Post a Comment