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(This was going to be a review but it was reading too much like a topic so I changed it and posted it here instead)
There are good films. There are great films. There are fantastic films. There are also terrible films that, for some reason, are still made. Then there are films that, from a personal point of view, are elevated above almost anything else you have ever seen. Films that may mean nothing to others but have had a life changing impact on your life.
For me, one such film is The Dark Crystal.
Thanks to a superb hour-long documentary on the DVD a number of interesting details are drawn to your attention. Firstly (and fans will already know this) it was the first film ever to have a cast consisting entirely of puppets. Secondly, when Jim Henson and Co were beginning the film, they had no idea what it was going to be about. They set about creating the world it was to be set in from scratch and tell a story within it from there ("Another world, another time, in the age of wonder" as the narration describes it). Creatures, plant life and whole environments were envisaged and realised throughout the creation, many of which never made it into the film but contributed to it's genesis.
The story became one of a prophecy about to be fulfilled. A thousand years ago The dark Crystal Cracked and a single piece of it was lost, and a once healthy world was torn apart. Two races emerged: the evil Skeksis and the peaceful Mystics. The prophecy in question is that of a Gelfling (another specie of the world, in particular the one being taught by the wisest of the Mystics) who will find the shard of the crystal and heal it, bringing goodness and life back into the world before the suns align and the world is forever doomed.
Why is this a life changing film? Well I first saw it when I was quite young and it embedded a fascination with realms of fantasy, prophecies and magic into my character which is as strong today as it ever was. It shaped the style of my imagination in a way which has been apparent in my life through work and play. While at school, the books I liked were the ones which took you away from the real world and into another one created between the author and your own imagination (anyone remember The Faraway Tree and The Wishing Chair?). It shaped my interest in films, my interest in cartoons (most obviously Dungeons and Dragons but also Thundercats and even Transformers could be traced back to this film) and my continuing interest in certain console RPGs. The chance to actually play a part in a fantasy adventure was simply too good to pass up.
Take a film that gets rave reviews from critics around the world and I probably won't be interested. Stick a dragon or two in there and I'll be the first in the queue.
Great films along this line have been non-existent in recent years and even ones since then have been relatively scarce (Labyrinth is one highly notable example, and a lesser known animation called Flight of Dragons). Although I haven't read them myself, the Harry Potter books seem to be having a similar effect on their audiences today. Hopefully the film will go some way to showing that there is a mass market for this genre and bring some life back into it - with a little help from The Lord of the Rings.
So how about you? Has a film had such an impact on your life?
There are good films. There are great films. There are fantastic films. There are also terrible films that, for some reason, are still made. Then there are films that, from a personal point of view, are elevated above almost anything else you have ever seen. Films that may mean nothing to others but have had a life changing impact on your life.
For me, one such film is The Dark Crystal.
Thanks to a superb hour-long documentary on the DVD a number of interesting details are drawn to your attention. Firstly (and fans will already know this) it was the first film ever to have a cast consisting entirely of puppets. Secondly, when Jim Henson and Co were beginning the film, they had no idea what it was going to be about. They set about creating the world it was to be set in from scratch and tell a story within it from there ("Another world, another time, in the age of wonder" as the narration describes it). Creatures, plant life and whole environments were envisaged and realised throughout the creation, many of which never made it into the film but contributed to it's genesis.
The story became one of a prophecy about to be fulfilled. A thousand years ago The dark Crystal Cracked and a single piece of it was lost, and a once healthy world was torn apart. Two races emerged: the evil Skeksis and the peaceful Mystics. The prophecy in question is that of a Gelfling (another specie of the world, in particular the one being taught by the wisest of the Mystics) who will find the shard of the crystal and heal it, bringing goodness and life back into the world before the suns align and the world is forever doomed.
Why is this a life changing film? Well I first saw it when I was quite young and it embedded a fascination with realms of fantasy, prophecies and magic into my character which is as strong today as it ever was. It shaped the style of my imagination in a way which has been apparent in my life through work and play. While at school, the books I liked were the ones which took you away from the real world and into another one created between the author and your own imagination (anyone remember The Faraway Tree and The Wishing Chair?). It shaped my interest in films, my interest in cartoons (most obviously Dungeons and Dragons but also Thundercats and even Transformers could be traced back to this film) and my continuing interest in certain console RPGs. The chance to actually play a part in a fantasy adventure was simply too good to pass up.
Take a film that gets rave reviews from critics around the world and I probably won't be interested. Stick a dragon or two in there and I'll be the first in the queue.
Great films along this line have been non-existent in recent years and even ones since then have been relatively scarce (Labyrinth is one highly notable example, and a lesser known animation called Flight of Dragons). Although I haven't read them myself, the Harry Potter books seem to be having a similar effect on their audiences today. Hopefully the film will go some way to showing that there is a mass market for this genre and bring some life back into it - with a little help from The Lord of the Rings.
So how about you? Has a film had such an impact on your life?
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(This was going to be a review but it was reading too much like a topic so I changed it and posted it here instead)
There are good films. There are great films. There are fantastic films. There are also terrible films that, for some reason, are still made. Then there are films that, from a personal point of view, are elevated above almost anything else you have ever seen. Films that may mean nothing to others but have had a life changing impact on your life.
For me, one such film is The Dark Crystal.
Thanks to a superb hour-long documentary on the DVD a number of interesting details are drawn to your attention. Firstly (and fans will already know this) it was the first film ever to have a cast consisting entirely of puppets. Secondly, when Jim Henson and Co were beginning the film, they had no idea what it was going to be about. They set about creating the world it was to be set in from scratch and tell a story within it from there ("Another world, another time, in the age of wonder" as the narration describes it). Creatures, plant life and whole environments were envisaged and realised throughout the creation, many of which never made it into the film but contributed to it's genesis.
The story became one of a prophecy about to be fulfilled. A thousand years ago The dark Crystal Cracked and a single piece of it was lost, and a once healthy world was torn apart. Two races emerged: the evil Skeksis and the peaceful Mystics. The prophecy in question is that of a Gelfling (another specie of the world, in particular the one being taught by the wisest of the Mystics) who will find the shard of the crystal and heal it, bringing goodness and life back into the world before the suns align and the world is forever doomed.
Why is this a life changing film? Well I first saw it when I was quite young and it embedded a fascination with realms of fantasy, prophecies and magic into my character which is as strong today as it ever was. It shaped the style of my imagination in a way which has been apparent in my life through work and play. While at school, the books I liked were the ones which took you away from the real world and into another one created between the author and your own imagination (anyone remember The Faraway Tree and The Wishing Chair?). It shaped my interest in films, my interest in cartoons (most obviously Dungeons and Dragons but also Thundercats and even Transformers could be traced back to this film) and my continuing interest in certain console RPGs. The chance to actually play a part in a fantasy adventure was simply too good to pass up.
Take a film that gets rave reviews from critics around the world and I probably won't be interested. Stick a dragon or two in there and I'll be the first in the queue.
Great films along this line have been non-existent in recent years and even ones since then have been relatively scarce (Labyrinth is one highly notable example, and a lesser known animation called Flight of Dragons). Although I haven't read them myself, the Harry Potter books seem to be having a similar effect on their audiences today. Hopefully the film will go some way to showing that there is a mass market for this genre and bring some life back into it - with a little help from The Lord of the Rings.
So how about you? Has a film had such an impact on your life?
There are good films. There are great films. There are fantastic films. There are also terrible films that, for some reason, are still made. Then there are films that, from a personal point of view, are elevated above almost anything else you have ever seen. Films that may mean nothing to others but have had a life changing impact on your life.
For me, one such film is The Dark Crystal.
Thanks to a superb hour-long documentary on the DVD a number of interesting details are drawn to your attention. Firstly (and fans will already know this) it was the first film ever to have a cast consisting entirely of puppets. Secondly, when Jim Henson and Co were beginning the film, they had no idea what it was going to be about. They set about creating the world it was to be set in from scratch and tell a story within it from there ("Another world, another time, in the age of wonder" as the narration describes it). Creatures, plant life and whole environments were envisaged and realised throughout the creation, many of which never made it into the film but contributed to it's genesis.
The story became one of a prophecy about to be fulfilled. A thousand years ago The dark Crystal Cracked and a single piece of it was lost, and a once healthy world was torn apart. Two races emerged: the evil Skeksis and the peaceful Mystics. The prophecy in question is that of a Gelfling (another specie of the world, in particular the one being taught by the wisest of the Mystics) who will find the shard of the crystal and heal it, bringing goodness and life back into the world before the suns align and the world is forever doomed.
Why is this a life changing film? Well I first saw it when I was quite young and it embedded a fascination with realms of fantasy, prophecies and magic into my character which is as strong today as it ever was. It shaped the style of my imagination in a way which has been apparent in my life through work and play. While at school, the books I liked were the ones which took you away from the real world and into another one created between the author and your own imagination (anyone remember The Faraway Tree and The Wishing Chair?). It shaped my interest in films, my interest in cartoons (most obviously Dungeons and Dragons but also Thundercats and even Transformers could be traced back to this film) and my continuing interest in certain console RPGs. The chance to actually play a part in a fantasy adventure was simply too good to pass up.
Take a film that gets rave reviews from critics around the world and I probably won't be interested. Stick a dragon or two in there and I'll be the first in the queue.
Great films along this line have been non-existent in recent years and even ones since then have been relatively scarce (Labyrinth is one highly notable example, and a lesser known animation called Flight of Dragons). Although I haven't read them myself, the Harry Potter books seem to be having a similar effect on their audiences today. Hopefully the film will go some way to showing that there is a mass market for this genre and bring some life back into it - with a little help from The Lord of the Rings.
So how about you? Has a film had such an impact on your life?