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The Dark Crystal

Really, for fans of the original, does it get better than this?
Yes. Jim Henson could miraculously come back to life.

Not likely, I admit.
 
I like Dark Crystal a LOT more than Labyrinth, but that ending sure irks me.

When Jen puts the piece of the crystal back in and the Skeskis and the Mystics morph back together those resulting creatures are pretty damn mellow and benevolent. One would assume that recombining 50% good to 50% evil would make for quite the bipolar race. I just hope the Gelflings got out of there before their next mood swing.
 
If it turns out to be any good, it'll be great to see a new, old fashioned puppet film again. CGI is getting so unimpressive.
 
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If it turns out to be any good, it'll be great to see a new, old fashioned puppet film again. CGI is getting so unimpressive.

It is a shame that this is only 16 mins, maybe it'll lead to something else with enough publicity? It's available to view online. I've always preferred models and puppetry to CGI, not just for the aesthetics but because it's physical it never ages, computer graphics will always age and seem weak after a while, and no matter how good the graphics the human mind will always be able to differentiate between what's real and what's not.

Strings was a good film,

 
...and no matter how good the graphics the human mind will always be able to differentiate between what's real and what's not.
Always?

Probably not, with the continuing advance of CGI and AI. One day, the machines will outsmart us...

Perhaps they already have, but are too smart to allow us to realise it! :eek:
(Letting us think we're still in control is part of their cunning plan...)

And anyhow, thousands of psychology experiments show that the human mind is rubbish at differentiating between what's real and what's not. :p
 
Anyone seen Paranorman?
I thought it was CGI, but I was looking at a 3D printing video on Youtube today, and they showed all the 3D prints that were made to give the main character facial expressions (800 in total).
They made it as a stop-motion film.
 
The guys who made Paranorman made Coraline and Boxtrolls as well, they really are geniuses at stop motion. These puppets in Lessons Learned are nicely designed, but it looks (and sounds) pretty cheap otherwise. Give them a reasonable budget, someone.
 
The guys who made Paranorman made Coraline and Boxtrolls as well, they really are geniuses at stop motion. These puppets in Lessons Learned are nicely designed, but it looks (and sounds) pretty cheap otherwise. Give them a reasonable budget, someone.

Hang on, I thought Boxtrolls - which is fantastic, incidentally - was CGI. Beautifully textured, yes, but still CGI. Or was the gag in the credits a double-bluff?
 
Hang on, I thought Boxtrolls - which is fantastic, incidentally - was CGI. Beautifully textured, yes, but still CGI. Or was the gag in the credits a double-bluff?
According to Wikipedia, Boxtrolls is stop-motion animation - not CGI. Maybe there are CGI elements in there, woven in among the stop-motion frames.
 
Hang on, I thought Boxtrolls - which is fantastic, incidentally - was CGI. Beautifully textured, yes, but still CGI. Or was the gag in the credits a double-bluff?

It is stop motion, and as usual Laika (the studio that made it) put a reference to their methods in the credits, like the demonstration of how they made the puppets at the end credits of ParaNorman. This time they left in the images of the puppeteers moving the figures, but only in time lapse photography. They're very proud of their stop motion, they're the American Aardman in that respect. They do add in occasional CGI like mist or lightning, etc.
 
I stand corrected, thank you both. I blame that Mark Kermode. What does he know about films?
 
A bit of a surprise but very welcome. I should perhaps have guessed that something was in the offing when the original film popped up on Netflix a month or so ago.

Just idly clicking around with my daughter, she was quite transfixed by the opening few minutes, but part of that seemed to be the musical mood and a compulsive need to stare at horribleskeksis.
 
I watched these (Dark Crystal and Labyrinth) as kids, and again recently, and while I liked them as a kid, I cannot for the life of me figure out as an adult what is so good about them...
 
I watched these (Dark Crystal and Labyrinth) as kids, and again recently, and while I liked them as a kid, I cannot for the life of me figure out as an adult what is so good about them...
I never liked Labyrinth, it was like a pg version of A Company Of Wolves for me that I still feel is a vastly superior film. I love/loved anything from Jim Henson though, I saw Dark Crystal at the cinema and although I'm not into elves and fantasy type films I really enjoyed it for the puppets and the art work that went into it. I couldn't tell you what the story line was though (boy meets girl, boy rescues girl from baddies as far as I can remember), I think they were just having fun showing weird things on screen.
 
I watched Labyrinth for the first time as an adult while I was on morphine tablets after an operation, and it seemed like the most profound thing I'd ever seen. So as soon as I could I watched it again. Still found it enjoyable, but I realised it was better when I was of my face on morphine. I never much liked The Dark Crystal.
 
I think you have to have seen Labyrinth as a teenage girl to get the most out of it. The puppets are great, I even like Bowie's music, but it was pretty anaemic as far as a good script went. Dark Crystal was more my type of thing, though even that has story issues.
 
We've known for a while that Netflix was cooking up a new series based within the world of The Dark Crystal, the 1982 Jim Henson classic that one uncle of yours is still super into at the age of 43, but until today we haven't been sure who might be voicing the extensive cast of puppets that make up the show.

Netflix just shot over a press release announcing that cast, and good lord - they've got everyone in here. Check out this murderer's row of talent:

"Leading the voice cast are Taron Egerton (Kingsman), Anya Taylor-Joy (The Witch), and Nathalie Emmanuel (Game of Thrones), as Rian, Brea and Deet, three Gelfling heroes.​
Full cast and more pics:

https://birthmoviesdeath.com/2018/1...was-just-cast-in-netflixs-dark-crystal-series

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It's a shame it's a Netflix exclusive because it's unlikely it's going get a release on blue ray.
 
It's a shame it's a Netflix exclusive because it's unlikely it's going get a release on blue ray.

Not true: collectors can pick up stuff like Daredevil and Black Mirror on Blu-ray, so there's every chance it could be.
 
Not true: collectors can pick up stuff like Daredevil and Black Mirror on Blu-ray, so there's every chance it could be.
But the big movies studio pushing for streaming by trying too kill off physical media and people just want things in an instant and they don't care about having good picture and sound but go and buy 4K TVs and streaming will never be as good a blue ray/4K uhd disk and then there's this crap https://www.slashfilm.com/digital-movies-purchases/
 
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