That's why I won't do two shows a night anymore

[zustifer]

Beetle Juice (1988), Tim Burton. August 8, 9:45pm. View count: One more than last time. Shall we say seventeen?

Labyrinth (1986), Jim Henson. August 10, 8pm. View count: Probably around seven or eight?

We had the beautiful and ephemeral chance to see Beetlejuice at the Castro on friday, so we seized upon it and wrestled it to the ground and stepped on its windpipe. This was a thing I had to do. Hell, man, I could see the arm of Adam's LL Bean-plaid shirt through his sheet. I could see that Delia's hairdo in the dinner scene involved three weird little ponytails in the back, one on top of the other. I could read the headlines of the papers that the hanged functionary was carrying around in the netherworld. I could make out the carousel-creatures on Beetlejuice's hat better than I'd ever been able to. It was good.

Also showing at the Castro this weekend was Labyrinth, but we felt less like slogging back out, so we watched it at home. Todd Alcott recently thoroughly slagged this, which I think is fair to some extent, but I don't agree with the whole of it. Part of the reason for this is that I grew up on the Muppets, so I'm pretty completely familiar with the whole human/puppet dynamic. Secondly, though, and this is more important, Labyrinth is A Child's Garden of Movie. Its plot is comprehensible and straightforward. Intent lies behind everything, and all obstacles can be surmounted. The script is dull and clunky to the point of tears (even though Terry Jones worked on it?), but all the talking is just to get across simple ideas about attitude and intention. The beautiful, imaginative visuals (RON MUECK worked on and puppeteered Ludo!) are there to give the viewer something to think about, not the script. (Admittedly, though, as chmmr noted, Dark Crystal does each of these better, but it's tonally so different as to be meant for entirely another age group; Labyrinth wouldn't even think of including the concept of death, and makes a goofy song about dismemberment. All punches are pulled.) It's like a safe little world with small challenges and beautiful scenery. I think that this is an okay thing to have. I would have preferred to have it work on multiple levels, but muppety straightforwardness has its place as well.

Comments

[diaryarena.livejournal.com]

Things like Meet the Feebles (and I suppose Avenue Q, but I've not seen it) always disappoint me because the true core of Muppet Strangeness, this smooth alien plush universe, is so much more disturbing and beautiful and strange than "muppets acting like bad people".

[eyeswideshut75.livejournal.com]

well.. laugh?

[mmcirvin.livejournal.com]

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.

[madeofmeat.livejournal.com]

I totally saw the Jim Henson exhibit at the Smithsonian when I was out in DC. They only had sketches and photos from Labyrinth, and for physical artifacts from Dark Crystal, they only had a couple of weird vessels from Augra's lair and Kira's dress.

Cool overall, mind.