This week the Jim Henson’s Creature Shop Challenge opened
its doors to one of the movies that was very near and dear to my heart growing
up, The Dark Crystal. As a child this
movie was on a constant play back in our house, everything from the little bugs
to the giant Mystics where given a special place in my heart. Most importantly, however and perhaps oddly
my favorite, were the keepers of the crystal known as the “Skeksis.” The Skeksis combination of bird and scales
gave them an awesome creepy factor that terrified me and intrigued me, not to
mention my father teasing me with the “hmmmmm’s” of the Chamberlin. What I found to be the coolest though, was
their clothing. I loved the opulence on
top of the grotesque. The ideals of a
ruff collar on a shriveled body, just gives an awesome design element when pair
with the tiny hands and hunched over way of almost scuttling around.
So this week, the creators were asked to make a
functioning Skeksis, keep in mind that it took the studio weeks to design and
fabricate even just a few of the original Skeksis, our designers put in groups
of three and given three days. I love
how this show asks for miracles, and the hits keep coming when they are given
the added element of a banished Skeksis that is being called back from a harsh climate,
oh and everyone has to puppeteer something.
The teams are broken into Tina, Russ and Ivonne who
represent the arid desert. Team two was
divided into Jake, Ben and Lex who were given a frozen wasteland to play
in. And finally, Robert, Melissa and
Josh who chose decaying forest. Right
off the bat, I was waiting for the sparks to fly as Russ’s face sunk to have to
work with Tina again, but it was short lived as he wanted to opportunity to
make right the mistakes of the last challenge.
The other interesting note is having top and bottom creators in one team
was interesting as Josh and Robert are lumped together. This week’s mentor was also a nice little surprise
as the show introduced Julie Zobel, a fabrication supervisor for the creature
shop. To say that this woman is familiar
with the Skeksis, is not doing justice to all of her work on fabulous pieces throughout
my childhood. Yeah, I geek-ed out a bit…
I was already on a high from the Skeksis what do you want?
So, with the groups and climates assigned everyone goes
to work on the areas where they believe their talents will shine and for the
most part that is true. Robert is relieved
to be free of a foam application and feels right at home connecting the servos
for his animatronics, it’s clear that this build is definitely in his
wheelhouse. I love seeing artists when
they are confident in their work, there is always so much more love put into
the pieces you feel good about. Melissa
also shines as she discovers that with two people trying puppet this creation,
the key to a successful move will be to make the structure as light as she can
without losing any of Chad’s beautiful design or Roberts well done sculpt.
In the frozen wasteland, everyone seems to be plugging
away in a copasetic movement to their goal of an almost mutated kind of Skeksis. Their take is have a Skesis that has spent
hundreds of years in the waste and is now shriveled and has taken to covering
himself in the carcasses of dead larger animals for warmth. I love to watch a team this is content to do
more than yell at each other.
In our third group, yelling isn’t what we find but, there
is clearly aggravating circumstances as Tina may have bit off more than she can
chew trying to set up the mechanics of the creation. She is quickly overwhelmed and in the weeds
because she lacks focus. Tina isn’t untalented,
she is just scattered when it comes to the project. She’s a starter, not a finisher and with this
major dead line unfortunately, she is a boot on the wheel of progress. Russ steps in to try to put this creation
back on track but, it leaves Ivonne to finish up the design and painting. What is Tina put on? Well she decides to make a creature to pee on
the Skeksis. Right away this thing looks
ridiculous and feels somewhat sophomoric.
As the last day comes to a close the creatures head out
to choreograph their Skeksis with the master puppeteer and it feels like a
scramble as problems start to threaten the abilities of the frozen group to
keep their creation strong for the duration of the test. It would appear that the head has become too
weighted down by the amount of servos running through it but it is remedied by
placing an extra grip inside the head itself.
As the screen tests begin, they must deliver the Skeksis
through the hall of the crystal to a staff at the forefront of the stage. The crystal and props in the room? From the movie… Yes I did geek-gasim. So, the first was “Skeksisth” the decaying
forest dweller. I loved this look
because it gave you the feel of a classic Skeksis with its layers of fabric and
decaying adornments. The addition of the
“chicken bug” as a side prop was also amazingly detailed and gave Skeksisth someone
to bounce a little bit of action off of.
The judges didn’t care for the ruff on the neck, but in my opinion it
was really reminiscent of that bird meets frilled lizard idea. The only issue I had with the creation was
that it was very dark and, in my opinion could have used a pop more of color in
the body.
The next creature up for the judges was Skekdero, of the
arid desert. As soon as this came out, I
just didn’t get Skeksis, it was a beige blob that seemed to lilt to one side. The “pee creature” seemed fake and gross all
at the same time and none of the servos worked.
The eyes of the creature were set in so deep that the shadow of the
lights made the mechanisms worthless anyway.
It just didn’t read right to me or the judges.
Last to go up, team frozen wasteland whose Skagath came
onto the scene complete with a glowing orb.
Oooohhhh shiny! I really loved
the design in this Skeksis because it clearly screamed frozen waste, from the
icy paint job on the face to the large pelt slung over his back it was such a
cohesive idea. I have to hand it to
these three; if it weren’t for a few minor details they would have clenched the
look of the day. The sad fact is,
however it was the minimal movements and the offset eyes that lost top
spot. Brian Henson made the excellent
point that it would be hard to believe and direct a creature whose gaze was
unbelievable.
In the end it was Robert’s redemption as he took the top
prize for his beautiful head and range of motion. His ultimate joy was absolutely precious to
see, his confidence is restored. On the
other end however, Tina is sent home for the disastrous malfunction of the
servos. I wish her luck on all her
projects and that this experience puts her back out in the world renewed and reenergized. Bye Tina.
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