Review: The Dark Crystal and Labyrinth

Two new releases from AllTheAnime.com, and two classics from the Henson studios.

First up is The Dark Crystal. Following the success of Jim Henson's Muppets on television in Sesame Street and then their own The Muppet Show, the idea was mooted for a film which could feature them. Furthermore, there would be no human performers at all ...

The Dark Crystal takes this idea and runs with it big time. Everything on screen is puppetry and animatronics in real time: no CGI no AI no animation ... and yet this major selling point for the film becomes its biggest downfall. You just don't care much about the lead characters Gelflings Jen and Kira. They can't emote and act as a human performer would, and so while you can follow the plot and Jen's journey to complete the titular Dark Crystal, you don't really care. 

It's also all taken dead seriously, with the Skeksis being evil and cackly and the peaceful Mystics being, well, slow and peaceful. And this impedes the film. It's all a little ponderous and heavy.

There are some gorgeous sets and shots. A favouite is a long slow pan across a forest where everything is alive from the plants and fungi to the trees and animals and insects ... all created through puppetry. It's beautifully done and testament to the skill of the makers.

I know the film holds a special place in many fans' hearts, but sadly it just doesn't do it for me. I admire the talent and inventiveness that went into it, but I wish they had used real actors for the two Gelflings to give more humanity and emotion to the performances.

And speaking of using human actors brings us to the second film realeased by All The Anime.com, Labyrinth.

For this film, while it's the same production team, and it features puppetry and animatronics, they very wisely decided to use humans for the main protagonists, and in a genius move of casting, paired a young 14 year old Jennifer Connolly, with the pop icon David Bowie. And the magic happened.

Take an inventive and clever script from Monty Python's Terry Jones and combine with the visual flair of artist Brian Froud (who also worked on The Dark Crystal) and they managed to capture lightning in a bottle with the story of a young girl who asks the Goblin King to take her baby brother away, and then has to traverse the eponymous labyrinth to rescue him, making friends and meeting all manner of strange creatures along the way.

The film is a tour de force and Connolly and Bowie are perfectly matched in their battle of words and deeds to rescue baby Toby. But it's some of the subsidiary characters who stick in the memory, in particular Hoggle (who is deliberately mis-named as Hogwort by Bowie a couple of times - was this film perhaps a favourite of a certain J K Rowling?), a masterpiece of animatronic face (controlled by four operators) and actor-in-a-suit to bring it all to life. Likewise is the amazing lumbering Ludo, an orange-haired ape creature with a single operator within to bring it to life, as well as having an animatronic face. Add the voice talents to the visuals and the effect is seamless, the creatures leaping off the screen and into your heart.

It's all just so well done. The merging of elements like M C Escher's paintings, the toys in Sarah's bedroom coming to life, the goblin myth and legend, and above it all, striding as some beautiful, powerful Goblin King, the master himself, David Bowie.

Bowie's performance is towering. He's such a talent, and composed the songs for the movie himself, as well as performing them. When you compare this performance with his equally powerful role in the film The Hunger, you can see what a talent he was. Charisma on a stick!

As you can probably tell I love Labyrinth. It takes the seeds that were sown in The Dark Crystal and matures and improves on them at every turn. I don't think the film puts a foot wrong. Even down to the tone, which this time is distinctly humourous. Yes, the leads take it all very seriously, but there is humour in nearly all the subsidiary characters from Didymus and Ludo through to the incompetant guards and other elements which appear throughout the movie.

The prints on these two releases are great quality and show off the films to their best advantage, and they come with a wealth of extras, from documentaries to outtakes, and even to casting reels, which for Labyrinth show that they really did make the right decision casting Connolly. A shame that her audition reel is not included though.

Available from www.alltheanime.com