I think Labyrinth may be one of those things that is heavily affected by whether you first saw it in childhood (Sam says you also have to be a girl). I saw it first as an adult, and reacted in much the same way as Alcott. But those on-set practical effects were charming, and the kind of thing you don't see any more (and rarely saw even then).
I did see The Dark Crystal as a kid, though, and remember liking it very much, and thinking there was a lot of deep chewy stuff in it. The business about the bad dudes having some sort of essential duality with the monk-like good creatures, so that if you killed one of the bad ones, one of the good ones would disintegrate in a ball of flame while its fellows looked on unsurprised (at least that's how I remember it)... that made a deep impression on me.
My mom the psychologist commented afterward about how their eventual fusion into the glowy beings was a sexual metaphor; looking back I think it was partly that, but not completely or even chiefly.
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branchandroot
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Date: 2008-08-12 01:58 am (UTC)I did see The Dark Crystal as a kid, though, and remember liking it very much, and thinking there was a lot of deep chewy stuff in it. The business about the bad dudes having some sort of essential duality with the monk-like good creatures, so that if you killed one of the bad ones, one of the good ones would disintegrate in a ball of flame while its fellows looked on unsurprised (at least that's how I remember it)... that made a deep impression on me.
My mom the psychologist commented afterward about how their eventual fusion into the glowy beings was a sexual metaphor; looking back I think it was partly that, but not completely or even chiefly.