When last I saw this, I still was a child, so I did miss a lot of what’s going on here. Clearly, twelve (or whatever) year old House couldn’t quite realize how much the Skeksis track as mythical fantasy versions of the kind of American-style capitalist that now rules the world as the cursed tech bro, or a monstrous US president, caricatures of human beings who only survive by sucking the soul right out of you.
Though I suspect our version isn’t going to fuse with their better halves and turns into alien angels. More’s the pity.
In more pleasant things, little me also could not appreciate how cleverly Jim Henson subverts elements of the Chosen One trope here. If you look at it, Jen our supposed Chosen One, isn’t actually terribly great at anything beyond having an innocent heart: he hasn’t even been taught about the world he’s living in. Neither has he any useful powers or skills for what he is supposed to do. In fact, Kira, his female counter part is the one who acts heroically throughout, understands things and still sacrifices for the greater good, so that our Chosen One can plop down on a big magic crystal. One might think Henson wants to say something about heroism, the need of cooperation to reach a goal, perhaps the reductive energy of the Chosen One as read into mythology by Campbell. Or simply about how awesome women are.
And of course there’s the incredible beauty of the whole thing, the attention to detail and the hand-made effects that really make you believe you’re watching something that takes place in a completely different world with its own, strange biology and its very own idea of beauty, best expressed through puppet work and some of the most beautiful matte work I’ve ever seen.
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