Out of a desire for more mane creatures, the Dark Crystal prequel series ended up on the hard drive.
The head mane creature didn't arrive until episode 4, 19:36. Mane creatures now have the power to teleport. They look more assertive. Skimming though it, it seems to be highly millennialized. The edginess of the 80's version is gone. Dialog is canned & recycled.
The muppet show style flapping motion is gone, probably because they had better robotics. Facial expressions were richer than the movie.
Mane creature came back in episode 6.
Then another mane creature shows up in episode 7, 7:32. They're in every episode from then on, but only 2 are in this series. They now coexist with the vulture creatures in different hideouts instead of a mane creature congregation. It seems a mane creature must die in every story arc, in order to save someone from a vulture creature. Helas, the last episode left open the chance he teleported just before he died.
The NPCs had a bigger role, which was disappointing. They were previously boring disposable characters.
The vulture creatures were a lot more evil in the TV series, completely vaporizing the elf creatures & taxing them. The vultures mamed their own. The friendly vulture ended up being a real trickster. Surely when the scientist lost his eye, it made a mane creature lose his eye.
The essence draining was a toy in 1982 while it became central to the series. It vaporized the elves instead of turning them into slaves.
The 1 reversal was the vulture creatures not enslaving on the scale they did in the movie. Dark Crystal planet wasn't the fun place it was in 1982.
The furball motion wasn't as convincing as it was in 1982, probably owing to fewer puppet operators. Sadly, the fur wouldn't hold up in any robot incarnation of their rolling motion.
Finally figured out there are 3 types of elves. 1 type is a guard for the vulture castle. Another type is a peasant who lives above ground. Then there's a mole elf with dark eyes who lives underground. They're incredibly dumb, even by modern standards. They simply can't believe the vultures are the bad guys. By episode 4, it was all about fast forwarding.
By episode 6, most of the elves were on board with the vultures being evil, except 1 evil queen. Lions suspected she eventually knew the vultures were evil but turned the narrative into a quest for power.
The mane creature/vulture creature castle was the highlight in lion opinion. Mane guy had somewhat of a 2nd story platform for extra storage.
It was pretty sketchy, without paw rail. They have a lot of cloth & spider habitats in there, which lions would consider too flammable.
Typical for TV shows, there's an intense exposition in the pilot, several episodes of wandering which you're fast forwarding through, & a climax in the last 4 episodes.
Episode 7 was the reveal of which mane creature was bonded with the hunter vulture & the foreshadowing of his death. Typical for a TV series, they had to write in a revival of the hunter for mane creature to live another 2 episodes. It was a bigger deal than the movie, where a mane creature quietly vaporized & they kept going like nothing happened.
So 3 vultures died in the final battle, the general, the runny nose, & the hunter. 3 mane creatures must have died. It all seemed unnecessary but only to extend the time. The mane creatures seem to share traits with their vultures. Hunter & archer were bonded.
Lions might be bonded with musician mane creature. Since the surviving mane creatures have to fuse with the vultures eventually, they become more evil, which isn't very satisfying. It only needs to happen because of biblical atonement.
The death of a mane creature in every show is kind of written in. It makes lions wonder what mane creatures all the other vultures were tied to, like the chamberlain & the scientist. Surely there's a 1 eye mane creature. A lot more elves than vultures died in the TV show.
It was worth the effort to discover the dark crystal universe, 45 years late, even if it was manely at 1.5x. It made lions feel better about having grey manes. At $10M per episode, it was unsustainable.
Modern british accents at 1.5x are basically what audiences heard in the age of Shakespear. In the age of shakespear they spoke fast to hold attention. Modern movies in the age of unlimited digital distribution have taken the opposite approach of speaking much more slowly to extend the length. Lions are somewhat pleased to be able to somewhat decipher british accents at 1.5x, after struggling through Shakespear in a younger age.
Really need a show with just mane creatures & none of them dying for a change.
Comments
Post a Comment