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Dark Crystal on Netflix for Fantasy fans


Calm

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It is out and on fire apparently.

My daughter is through the roof in joy.  She has been waiting for it for years.

So it appears to be well done in appearance and sound.  They use a lot of gelfling language which makes her giggle (sure, she is almost 30, but she is having a flashback to childhood)  

She said nothing about the storyline...not sure she isn’t too overwhelmed by the glory to pay attention to that part. 

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5 hours ago, juliann said:

I watched a bit. It looks like some dark themes (torture, death) with ridiculously over done villains done as a puppet show for kids. 

Yeah, that's about it.  Cool, right?

:tribal:

As my daughter said yesterday, you either love it, it's meh, or you hate it.

I have some of its symbols up as art in my living room, along with maps of Tolkien and Narnia with the map of the Hundred Aker Wood in the kitchen because its colors didn't work.  It looks a lot better than it sounds or will once I get it done, we painted the main floor white this summer because with the deck my husband put on a few years ago and our dark floors, my dark sage green and brick red walls suck the life out of the air.  I meant for it to be creamier, closer to straw in tone, but in daylight it reminds me of dorm room white, so going with very warm or intense colours since I  Must Have Color in my rooms.  Just found laser cut wood Gallifreyan personalized names circles and will be ordering some of those as well for Christmas.

Edited by Calm
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6 hours ago, Calm said:

Yeah, that's about it.  Cool, right?

:tribal:

As my daughter said yesterday, you either love it, it's meh, or you hate it.

I have some of its symbols up as art in my living room, along with maps of Tolkien and Narnia with the map of the Hundred Aker Wood in the kitchen because its colors didn't work.  It looks a lot better than it sounds or will once I get it done, we painted the main floor white this summer because with the deck my husband put on a few years ago and our dark floors, my dark sage green and brick red walls suck the life out of the air.  I meant for it to be creamier, closer to straw in tone, but in daylight it reminds me of dorm room white, so going with very warm or intense colours since I  Must Have Color in my rooms.  Just found laser cut wood Gallifreyan personalized names circles and will be ordering some of those as well for Christmas.

I love that!  I’m totally going to copy you and get some maps of literary worlds. 

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We just got this book to put on the side table:

https://www.amazon.com/Writers-Map-Atlas-Imaginary-Lands/dp/022659663X/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=Literary+fantasy+maps&qid=1567309626&s=gateway&sr=8-1

Amazon has way too much fun stuff.  I screwed up my sleep schedule way too much those couple of weeks mr and my daughter were planning it out.

Hopefully my daughter in law doesn't read here, but I am so looking forward to Christmas because we just bought her a White Rabbit's backward running pocket watch (only 8 inches big, but it actually runs backwards).  She is a huge Wonderland fan.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B073YHYDD1/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Edited by Calm
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23 hours ago, juliann said:

I watched a bit. It looks like some dark themes (torture, death) with ridiculously over done villains done as a puppet show for kids. 

The transformation from that darkness to light is the whole point of the story, and I thought it so glorious that for me it was almost a Christian parable and fulfillment of the Gospel Plan.  You may not have waited long enough to enjoy the wonderful denouement.  In the end, the shackles of dour humanity are thrown off or disappear.  We must literally "endure to the end."

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8 hours ago, Robert F. Smith said:

The transformation from that darkness to light is the whole point of the story, and I thought it so glorious that for me it was almost a Christian parable and fulfillment of the Gospel Plan.  You may not have waited long enough to enjoy the wonderful denouement.  In the end, the shackles of dour humanity are thrown off or disappear.  We must literally "endure to the end."

There are some that are saying it's comparable to the church. Is that true? Such as tithing etc. I guess I could watch and see for myself.

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1 hour ago, Tacenda said:

There are some that are saying it's comparable to the church. Is that true? Such as tithing etc. I guess I could watch and see for myself.

Yes, watch it.  You'll find it charming, Tacenda.

Another yarn ("Knowing," 2009) with a more present-day environment takes place mostly at MIT in Massachusetts and surrounding areas.  Stars Nicholas Cage as an astrophysicist who thinks that everything is just random.  The story is a set of dire circumstances ending with the destruction of Earth, but the story ending on a happier note as angels put two children in a Garden of Eden on another planet -- with a tree which looks suspiciously like the Tree of Knowledge.

 

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Tacenda, I would watch the movie first and then watch the new series, especially if you don't latch on to fantasy that easily....the movie will give you a full picture in a shorter time.  My daughter says there are a lot of questions from the movie that get answered in the series plus it is a prequel, but she also described some developments of characters you might not appreciate as much if you didn't know where they ended up first.

She finished the binge watching, I am waiting for a bit to dive in as I tend to binge too and been watching a bit too much lately due to getting hooked on two Korean series and need a breather, lol.  She also said there was much less death then she was expecting given the state of affairs at the time of the movie.

It is a beautiful world creation, tragic in many ways, but redeeming.  The works themselves are obviously labours of love.

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Last week, I went back and re-watched The Dark Crystal (1982) in preparation for the new series, and was reminded of how underrated the original was. How quickly they go about the world-building of an authentically original fantasy realm with its own mythos is really well done. Throw in some villains who are engaging in some genuinely terrifying stuff and you've got a great set-up for a pair of gelflings out to save the world. 

I'm starting in on the series now - only a couple of episodes in. So far, I'm enjoying it. Real puppets, better writing, etc. - though I'm a bit concerned that the writers may have changed one of the major plot points which, if that turns out to really be the case, will cause a significant disconnect between the series and the film (of which it's supposed to be a prequel to). Maybe I'm overthinking it though. I'll reserve judgement until I've made it to the end; I might be pleasantly surprised. 

 

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7 hours ago, Calm said:

Tacenda, I would watch the movie first and then watch the new series, especially if you don't latch on to fantasy that easily....the movie will give you a full picture in a shorter time.  My daughter says there are a lot of questions from the movie that get answered in the series plus it is a prequel, but she also described some developments of characters you might not appreciate as much if you didn't know where they ended up first.

She finished the binge watching, I am waiting for a bit to dive in as I tend to binge too and been watching a bit too much lately due to getting hooked on two Korean series and need a breather, lol.  She also said there was much less death then she was expecting given the state of affairs at the time of the movie.

It is a beautiful world creation, tragic in many ways, but redeeming.  The works themselves are obviously labours of love.

You'd laugh at how my husband and I are when it comes to science fiction movies, but we're getting better. I'll watch the old one to prepare for the Netflix series for sure. I like Nicholas Cage, so that will be good. Just checked and it's free to me, haha. What a world we live in compared to the old days of going to a video store to pick up these older movies! 

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9 hours ago, Robert F. Smith said:

Yes, watch it.  You'll find it charming, Tacenda.

Another yarn ("Knowing," 2009) with a more present-day environment takes place mostly at MIT in Massachusetts and surrounding areas.  Stars Nicholas Cage as an astrophysicist who thinks that everything is just random.  The story is a set of dire circumstances ending with the destruction of Earth, but the story ending on a happier note as angels put two children in a Garden of Eden on another planet -- with a tree which looks suspiciously like the Tree of Knowledge.

 

Thanks Robert, starting it right now! 

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1 hour ago, Calm said:

I am not see Cage in the cast. Maybe you are thinking Sorcerer’s Apprentice?

He is in the movie "Knowing", that Robert mentioned seeing before the new Dark Crystal Netflix series. Watched "Knowing" today, and it was very interesting at the end!

Big ETA: I read over the thread and realized Robert didn't tell me to watch "Knowing" before watching the new Dark Crystal series, he was just mentioning it was a present day version. And I believe you wanted me to watch the 1982 version of "Dark Crystal", not "Knowing" before watching the new series, right?

Edited by Tacenda
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5 hours ago, Tacenda said:

He is in the movie "Knowing", that Robert mentioned seeing before the new Dark Crystal Netflix series. Watched "Knowing" today, and it was very interesting at the end!

Big ETA: I read over the thread and realized Robert didn't tell me to watch "Knowing" before watching the new Dark Crystal series, he was just mentioning it was a present day version. And I believe you wanted me to watch the 1982 version of "Dark Crystal", not "Knowing" before watching the new series, right?

I lost track of the conversation, no worries.  If you want to try Dark Crystal, I would try the movie first though the tech isn't as great, just a smaller bite to digest to begin with.  But fantasy isn't for everyone, so if it is not enjoyable for you, I won't be the least offended.

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So, I just finished the last episode of the season; here are my initial thoughts:

The show can, at times, be darker than the original film (which had been criticized as being too dark for children - even though, you know, "dark" was literally in the title), but I think only very young children run the risk of being frightened by anything.

My only quibbles were with a couple of potential plot inconsistencies, and I thought the pacing could have been a bit better. There are times where it feels like things are dragging. Oh, and without giving anything away, I feel the ending could have been much stronger if they hadn't tried to leave things open for a potential second season. 

Overall though, I thought the series was remarkably good. It's definitely worth watching if you are a fan of either the original film or the genre in general. It will be interesting to see if they end up doing anything more with the property - apparently it was quite costly to produce, so unless it ends up pulling in some major awards / critical acclaim, I'm not sure how likely that will be. 

 

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