11 January 2008

What Power remains for Dark Crystal?

With the imminent release of the new Henson's 'The Power of the Dark Crystal' - sequel to the 1982 classic 'The Dark Crystal', skeptics like myself are wandering if the puppets of the original naive world of the Gelflings will be replaced by the super chick computer generated characters of the 'Lord of the Rings' films.

On the other hand, the original "The Dark Crystal," is said to have frustrated Jim Henson by the limitations of the technology. Henson, who died in 1990, took to discussing two different "Dark" visions in interviews: the film his imagination had longed for and the version hindered by fishing line and awkward action sequences.

"Puppetry has come a long way since 'The Dark Crystal,' " said CEO Lisa Henson. "When 'The Dark Crystal' was made, it was the first time that all those techniques were really refined to the degree that they could be put in a feature film. Since then, puppetry has come so far that the puppets we're going to use are going to be much more emotive than the originals. In addition to that, we can augment them with digital effects, but very subtly."

So all we can do is sit back and wait to see if they can get the balance right between the charm of the puppets from the original film and the special effects of today!

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