We cheerfully buy into the illusion, not only because these women and men are so skilled in the art of design and puppetry, but because we know that we're tourists wandering through someone else's imagination - we assume things look and act different, there.īut Gelfling? They've got disturbingly human-like faces, and we know how those work. Pigs, podlings, bears or bog monsters - it doesn't matter. Frog) or their mouth's that of a toucan with a skin condition (assorted Skeksis). create wildly inhuman, or un-human, creatures, we'll blithely accept them, whether their eyes are ping-pong balls (C. The problem wasn't simply that they were thin, underwritten characters, though they were certainly that. Or to gaze admiringly at the procession of Mystics (the good wizards of this universe - part giant possum, part ALF) as you attempted to figure out precisely how the puppeteers were puppeting those puppets. Or to grimace during the feast scene in the Castle of the Crystal, which existed at the place where food porn met body horror. And that's to say nothing of the plain craft of the thing - you could watch it just to admire the way the corner of that one Skeksis' mouth-beak curled into a sneer. The sheer idiosyncratic imagination stuffed into every frame - and brought to vivid (often terrifying) life by the Henson Creature Shop's skilled teams of puppeteers and craftspeople - conjured a rich narrative universe into being, steeped in myth, magic and mummery. It was far, far too weird a thing for that. The Jim Henson/Frank Oz film, which like the series teemed with all manner of creatures, plant life, settings and costumes conceived of by Henson and production designer Brian Froud, was anything but basic. But as soon as you place them - as do both the original 1982 The Dark Crystal film and Netflix's new, 10-episode prequel series - at the center of a world as gorgeously wrought, breathtakingly detailed and astonishingly elaborate as that of The Dark Crystal, they become something even worse: They're basic. On their own, they'd be generic enough - a first-pass attempt at your garden-variety Tolkien-adjacent high-fantasy race. Dark Crystal's wan, elf-like protagonists - is "Gelfling." Similarly, the plural of Skeksis - this fantasy world's eeeeEEEeevil villains, which look like what would happen if Gonzo schtupped a turkey vulture - is "Skeksis." Clip and save for your records.) I am reliably informed that the plural of Gelfling - the o.g. Look, if I wanted to watch dead-eyed, expressionless creatures sniping at one another over backstories I can't follow without consulting the Internet, I'd watch Real Housewives. Let's get the cheap joke out of the way up top: The vile creatures drool, belch, whine, and cough constantly.The three sister-princesses of the Vapra clan await the apology they feel they are owed in the Netflix prequel series Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance. As with all villains, their evil seems to exude from their pores. The disgusting rulers cover themselves in robes and necklaces, all while demanding more tithes from the poor Gelflings. The Skeksis are evil, pustuled vultures that have been gaslighting the citizens of Thra for generations. The Gelflings are all under the influence of the villains that guard the crystal. Each community suffers from the effects of the Darkening, a magically destructive form of climate change. The first is an underground colony that farms magical phosphorescent moss, the next community lives in a lush woodland area, and the last inhabits the high mountains. The story introduces viewers to the Gelflings – residents of the three main clans in the universe of Thra. The crystal contains a powerful life force being drained by dark forces. Producers display an obvious reverence for Henson’s genius and his vision of the Thral universe. Whether you watch the film before or after, you’ll appreciate the continuity and how the stories connect. Both the original and the prequel are available to stream on Netflix. It’s not a requirement to watch the film before the series, but Netflix makes it easy. The reboot has a complex storyline but continues the same themes of climate change and genocide from the original. The ten-episode fantasy series is a prequel to the iconic 1982 film that Henson considered one of his biggest successes. The new Netflix series is a beautiful homage to Jim Henson’s movie, The Dark Crystal.
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