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NPChloe is the weekly inward musings of one pensive and culture-loving feline, Chloe. The words and art below have been ripped directly from her diary and spread out on the internets here for all to see.
I recently sat down to watch the 1982 Jim Henson film the Dark Crystal. Wow, what a beautiful world! It was refreshing to see such wonderful design and imagination all brought to life via puppets and sets and matte paintings. A dying art, no doubt, in this age of computer graphics. I was particularly drawn to the Skeksis, the reptile-like bird villains. Or are they bird-like reptiles? I couldn’t help but think of the Arakkoa in World of Warcraft. I looked it up later and apparently the Skeksis were Blizzard’s inspiration for those Outland bird baddies! I sketched a Skeksis, adding kitty ears and whiskers. While the feline additions are undoubtedly an improvement to this intriguing race, I’m not entirely happy with my sketch. Perhaps more study is needed.
Bink came in the room about mid-way through the film. I fully expected him to make some sarcastic remark and then leave, but instead he sat down and watched the rest in silence. I even think he was a little scared by the Skeksis.
A classic Henson film… his imagination and energy are sorely missed. With the technology involved to make it, and the depth of its vision, the Dark Crystal was easily the Avatar of its time… even though not everyone noticed back then.
I love that film! I know I am dating myself here, but I actually remember seeing it in the theater and going “wow those are scary!”. My son who is nine loves them and we have watched it on many occasions. He knows about WoW and actually said “Hey those were stolen from the Dark Crystal!” when i was playing BC. lol It is a great movie and the story is fun as well. Fizzgig for the win!
I remember watching that movie for the first time and being in awe of the art and puppets in the movie. It is quite sad that movies no longer require that amount of work with the green screens and CGI that we have now. Happily we do have such classics to watch and remember the good ol’ days before CGI. I can just hear myself telling my kids, “Back in my day our movies had puppets and actual sets! None of this no good computer animations!”*
*Note: That should be imagined with a old lady voice.
Yeah I love that stuff. But as an animator and digital effects artist, I do have to say that effects these days are still a ton of work. Perhaps even more work as we come to expect more. We have better tools at our disposal, but everyone still has to put in the hard time and creativity to make great effects and animation.