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Jim Henson's Fantasy Film Collection
Score: 90%
Rating: PG
Publisher: Sony Pictures Home
                  Entertainment

Region: 1
Media: DVD/3
Running Time: Labyrinth: 101 Mins./The Dark
           Crystal: 93 Mins./MirrorMask:
           104 Mins.

Genre: Fantasy
Audio: Labyrinth: English 5.1
           Dolby Digital; The Dark
           Crystal
: English 5.1 Dolby
           Digital, English 2.0 Dolby
           Surround, Spanish;
           MirrorMask: English,
           Portuguese, Thai 5.1 Dolby
           Digital, French Dolby
           Surround Labyrinth:
           English, Spanish; The Dark
           Crystal
: English, Spanish;
           MirrorMask: English, French,
           Spanish, Portuguese, Chinese,
           Korean, Thai


Features:
  • Return to Labyrinth/Legends of the Dark Crystal Comic Book
  • Labyrinth:
    • "Inside the Labyrinth"
    • Making-Of Documentary
  • The Dark Crystal:
    • "The World of The Dark Crystal" Making of Documentary
    • Original Language Work Print Scenes
    • Deleted Funeral Scenes
    • Character Drawings & Profiles
    • Isolated Music Score
    • Theatrical Trailer
  • MirrorMask:
    • Poster and Cover Art Gallery
    • Director and Writer Commentary
    • Interview with Writer Neil Gaiman
    • Interview with Director Dave McKean
    • Beginnings - The Genesis of MirrorMask
    • Cast & Crew Interviews
    • Day 16 - Time Lapse video of one entire day of production
    • Flight of the Monkeybirds - Making the Monkeybird sequence
    • Giants Development - Design and creation of the Giants Sequence
    • Questions & Answers from the San Diego Comic-Con

The Jim Henson's Fantasy Film Collection is a great mix of two classic tales, Labyrinth and The Dark Crystal, plus a newer movie from the Jim Henson Company, MirrorMask.

Labyrinth follows a young girl, Sarah (Jennifer Connelly), who unintentionally wishes that The Goblin King would come and take her little brother away because he is such a bother. But when the King himself appears, played by David Bowie, she is determined to do whatever it takes to get the baby back. Her challenge, make it through an immense maze to get to the castle at the center and retake her brother. And she only has 13 hours to do it in.

Along the way, Sarah will find that everything is rarely what it seems. Doors talk to her and ask her riddles, goblins torment her and she will meet characters of all shapes and sizes. Only her determination and desire to get her brother back will get her through the perilous Labyrinth.

The Dark Crystal is also a classic tale from the mind of Jim Henson. Taking place in another world and another time, a young gelfling is charged with uniting an ancient crystal before a massive conjunction between the planet's three suns that will insure the eternal rule by the already ancient evil Skeksis.

The evil bird-like race has ruled over the world for a thousand years and, in that time, they have all but eliminated the Gelflings, a small, eerily human-like race that is prophesied to bring an end to the Skeksis rule. But one young Gelfling, raised by the equally ancient Mystics, has survived and as the solar conjunction nears, he has been sent out to find a shard of the dark crystal and bring peace back to the world by making the crystal whole again.

The last movie in the collection, MirrorMask, is different from the other two in that it wasn't crafted by the master puppeteer himself, but instead is the latest creation from the Jim Henson Company. MirrorMask is a through-the-looking-glass type of story, just like Labyrinth. In this movie, a young girl who has grown up in a circus goes to sleep one night and wakes up in a strange world where an evil shadow is encroaching on the City of Light. Now Helena must wake the White Queen and bring balance back to the strange world. Along the way, she will meet with floating giants and people in masks. The visual style of this movie is very different from most films. I can only describe the look as just out of focus and blurry as if the whole thing were in a dream (and maybe it is).

This collection is for any fan of the darker stuff Henson has done. The addition of MirrorMask completes the collection with another wild fantasy in the same vein.



-J.R. Nip, GameVortex Communications
AKA Chris Meyer

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