The Helldivers 2 devs have a pretty simple process for designing new Stratagems: they just make a new one whenever they get bored of the old selection. That's perhaps oversimplifying the process a bit, but Arrowhead Studios CEO and creative director Johan Pilestedt says it's all about having a fun idea and iterating on it until it makes sense in the game.
Jim Henson’s kids explain why Dark Crystal and Labyrinth would never get made today
21.02.2024 - 21:15 / polygon.com
“They don’t make ’em like they used to” is a phrase you’ve heard a thousand times. But for famously puppet-forward, dark fantasy films like Jim Henson’s Labyrinth and The Dark Crystal, the reasons seem apparent, from the Game of Thrones-ification of fantasy to the decline of the musical.
Still, Lisa Henson, producer and CEO of The Jim Henson Company and daughter of Jim Henson, says there’s one reason she encounters the company may never replicate the cult success of Labyrinth or The Dark Crystal. “Technique-wise, these movies would be very hard to get made [today], because there’s so much pressure to do things with CG.”
Polygon sat down with Lisa and director, performer, Jim Henson company chairman (and her brother) Brian Henson, on the occasion of this month’s rerelease of The Dark Crystal and Labyrinth on digital platforms like iTunes, Amazon, and YouTube. The films are available separately, or in a bundle with an impressive collection of material usually left out of digital purchases, including commentary tracks and behind-the-scenes features.
To Lisa, the rerelease, in partnership with Shout! Studios, in part reflects the changing ways that people are watching movies — but also that the special features were just as important as the movies themselves.
“We never want these movies not to be available, or not to be explored in the full depth of getting to see the behind the scenes,” she told Polygon. “The more you know about these movies, the more you appreciate them. [...] For years we have had those box sets or those Blu-ray releases that have so many ways to interact with the movie — you watch the movie, then you watch the extras and you see the interviews, and you see how things are done, and you go back and watch the movie again. And if you don’t have the supplemental materials, you might be missing a whole layer to it.”
The making of The Dark Crystal in 1981 was an inflection point for Hollywood special effects, as a group of prop makers, puppeteers, artists, and designers came together to build the world of Thra and all its characters and creatures. Later organized under the name “Jim Henson’s Creature Shop,” the group moved on to the production of Labyrinth, and from there to working on a swath of Henson and third-party productions, on the forefront of a revolution in physical special effects.
“In the height of the animatronics era, and visual effects known as animatronics, which was the late ’80s and ’90s — almost all those techniques were pioneered in The Dark Crystal. I remember actually being in a meeting,” Lisa recalled, “where they were trying to figure out what titles to put in the credits for people that did that kind of work for The Dark Crystal, and they found a union category
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