A Quick Couple of Questions

[Fusion]

So yesterday I was in a store with my friends and Labyrinth was playing on the various TVs they had there. Neither of my friends had seen the movie, nor had they even heard of it. Now when I was growing up I had seen this movie multiple times, and I was always under the impression that, while it bombed at the box office, people at least knew what it was.

So here are my questions for you:

Before this post, had you heard of the movie Labyrinth?

Have you watched it before?

Before this post, have you seen any other non-Muppets Jim Henson productions, like Dark Crystal?

I know this is a weird topic, but I was just kind of confused. If this is really a rare movie I have no idea how my parents even knew about it, especially without a consistent internet at the time.

Also, should this topic die, feel free to ask about some other movies you saw as a kid that apparently no one else did. I'm sure one of us has seen it at some point. Especially me, it seems.

[the best]

The only people who I know that know anything about Labyrinth or even more rarely The Dark Crystal seem to be hardcore or very specialized science fiction fans, or fans of David Bowie. I love Jim Henson movies, they're really creative and special effects without cgi always intrigues me. I saw The Dark Crystal a while ago when I saw it showing on the SciFi channel, I was pretty interested and glad I watched it. To me the Labyrinth was just silly though it's still cool how they did it, but it was still just silly.

I know Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon isn't exactly that old, but it reminds me of old movies, and it's really good, I'm probably the only person I know irl that has seen it, most people I know who like fighting type movies think those kind are too slow.

P.S maybe your parents are total hardcore David Bowie fans and that's how they know heh, idk, my parents have this odd amount of knowledge regarding older movies so maybe it's connected somehow.

[willinator]

I've seen Labyrinth quite a few times, and I've seen Dark Crystal once or twice. I don't remember how I came to know about them, I think I looked up David Bowie's music and saw that he had a filmography, and was perplexed.

[Marth8880]

Freakin' love Labyrinth; I started watching Dark Crystal on Netflix a lil' bit ago but forgot about it lol.

[tirpider]

Both Labyrinth and Dark Crystal are groovy. Saw them at the theater and rented the VHS (for both) several times through the years.

Hidden/Spoiler:

The Muppet Show was big for me back then. I watched religiously.

I can see how they might be obscure these days though. (though I never was a fan of Bowie's performance in that one. He wore Absolute Beginners better, imo.)

Our modern entertainment moves to different beats. Folks are used to big flashy productions with multi-million dollar budgets. Big explosions and simple story formulas are big now. Chair shaking sounds and rapid action swooping across larger-than-life landscapes. 20 min credit rolls listing city sized crews.

How can 4 guys working a single puppet compete with that? Sometimes the lips don't even sync or you can see the wires. I think that messes with folks that are used to perfectly timed CG.

I also prefer the Muppet Yoda to the various CG Yodas.

[Fusion]

Okay, good, I'm glad some people at least know about it. I was starting to doubt my childhood.

P.S maybe your parents are total hardcore David Bowie fans and that's how they know heh, idk.

Not that I know of. I honestly think it was the Muppet connection, as I know both of them were total nerds. like me

But yeah, even though puppetry occasionally has some slip-ups, at least it'll always look like it was intended to. CGI in movies that aren't intended to be animated has the issue of being outdated until we can pull off photo-realism. Look back at how bad the Quidditch scenes look in the first and second Harry Potter movies and think about how bad the Transformers will look in 2020, or heck, even the CGI in the Prequel Trilogy. Geonosis in particular really sticks out in a bad way. The sand impressions as Padme falls out of the gunship looked really bad the last time I forced myself through it, for instance.

While it's a shame that people will always go for the super flashy "experiences" nowadays, at least the movies that really matter will always be looked upon fondly.

[Teancum]

I've seen Labyrinth quite a few times, and I've seen Dark Crystal once or twice.

[Dohnutt]

I've never seen Dark Crystal. I had never seen Labyrinth until I watched it with my lady a couple years ago. It's our favourite movie.

[RevanSithLord]

Easily one of my favorite movies from my childhood. My closest circle of friends and I love it and often quote the movie.

Have also seen Dark Crystal once or twice, but I need to refresh my memory on that one. This is one of those generations where people start looking at us older folk in an odd manner when we mention these things.

I was born in 1990 (4 years after), but Labyrinth was played multiple times in our household.