Another World. Another Time. In the Age of Wonder.

"When single shines the triple sun
What was sundered and undone
Shall be whole-the two made one
By gelfling hand, or else by none"

One of my favorite films of all time...nearly eclipsing Star Wars in the dreams and imaginings of my childhood is The Dark Crystal. It took Jim Henson and his crew 5 years to create an entire world, mythology and an entire cast of live action puppeted characters for the film. The wise and gentle mystics, the evil shrewish skeksis, the gelflings forced to fullfill a prophecy and all the other friendly monsters that help them along the way: they all combine in a world that has been created to the minutest detail. When you consider the film is almost 25 years old, it is a testament to the detail of thie film that itstill stands up to repeated watching, even now as a "grown up". Unlike many films that I watched as a kid, this is not a dumbed down tale with randomly inserted songs. I find I still know the words, and still the film calls up emotions and memories from long ago. The song the two gelflings play on the river is beautiful and haunting to me... I must admit I still sing Kira's part sometimes when at the lake on the dock alone watching the water sparkle and lap the shore...


The past few days J has been working days AND nights to train at work, and I've been here alone hacking away getting over my cold. J gave me the collectors set of this film for Christmas...it has a few documentaries on the making of the film, as well as a collection of artwork, including a booklet of some of Jim Henson's original sketches and ideas for the film and a print of the film. Today was a miserable day...I had a long experiment fail for reasons I don't yet know and I still don't feel fully well. Due to a stupid mixup on my part, I've had to replace my friend Heather's same collectors edition of this film...so I've sat down to watch it tonight to be sure it is a "good" copy before I give it to her. This set is getting very hard to track down, so I want to be sure I've properly replaced her copy with one that plays...but I'm rambling. I am pleased to say tho, that I found what looks like a shard of the dark crystal at a lake in the mountains a few years ago. To celebrate I yodelled to the mountainside. I'm keeping it just in case...but again, I'm rambling.

Even now, watching the film, I just forget about everything. I get lost in it and I feel like the little who girl helped her big brother pester her Mom incessantly until she took them into the city just to see what we were sure would be "the best film ever". My parents aren't movie goers, but Mom took us both to this film and I am still grateful...this film fills your imagination with ideas. It shows you what other worlds could be like and sparked my interest in astronomy, legends, religion and magic and made them so much more real than words in a book.

What am I getting at?
Well, if you haven't seen this film-you must.
After all this time it is still one of the most imaginative and original films ever made.
And I loves it so...
Apparently they're making a live action sequel to the film, coming out next year called The Power of The Dark Crystal.
I hope they do justice to Jim Henson's greatest work.
I am looking forward to it with squeaky joy...