In which I love Jim Henson

This blog post is about a month or so coming, as I thought about it at the middle of April. What can I say? Laziness + My World Exploding = No blog posts. It happens, right?

Right?

So this post started from two places: First, I watched Mirrormask at a friend's house. Wow. That's all I really have to say. It was a mental mindfuck of the good variety, a great Alice in Wonderland-type Labyrinth-like adventure produced by the Jim Henson studio. And it really made me feel like Mr. Henson himself had a hand in it. It made me miss him.

The second is a birthday present I got from another friend. She and I both love the muppets, and she found this at a yard sale:

That's my cat, Molly, playing Vanna White to the present. It's a Kermit the Frog suncatcher! Guessing by the way it looks and just how cute it is, it seems handmade, which is so much cooler than anything I've ever seen.

I feel like I own something no one else has!

Anyway, my love for the Muppets began a million years ago, when I was little. I remember watching The Muppet Babies on tv all the time, and The Muppet Movie, as well.

I was afraid of Animal, though, especially that scene where he gets HUGE and threatens Doc Hopper? OMG huge Animal going to kill people!

I'm going to be honest and say I haven't seen the other original muppet movies, such as Muppets Take Manhattan or Great Muppet Caper. I fell in love with Muppet Christmas Carol (I love Christmas, and A Christmas Carol, though Mickey's will always be my favorite), and Muppet Treasure Island has Tim Curry in it! (You can't go wrong with Tim Curry, honestly.)

Another thing that made me love Jim Henson was Labyrinth. I didn't grow up with Labyrinth. My best friend in the entire world introduced it to me when I was 15. And I loved it.

I mean, David Bowie? Tight pants? What's not to love?

Seriously, it's such a fantastic movie, and I feel terrible for not having seen it sooner. Though this past summer I was able to see it on the big screen thanks to the nearby cinema's college movie nights.

Now THAT was amazing! (I got to see Back to the Future there too.. Gotta love that!)

You'll notice there's one Jim Henson movie I'm leaving out here. That would be The Dark Crystal.

Now I'm going to post a disclaimer: my feelings are not everyone's. If you don't feel the same way, that's fine. Don't condemn me, please?

I hated The Dark Crystal.

I can't ever watch The Dark Crystal.

Why? Well, my boyfriend at the time LOVED this movie, but alas, he didn't have it on DVD. Now I'm a good girlfriend, so I bought it for him! He, in turn, decided to introduce me to it..

Now I don't know how it happened, or what caused it, but for 3/4 of the movie, I was violently ill. I ended up with my head on his leg, bright green, trying my hardest not to throw up.

And I've seen some pretty gross horror movies..

This movie just... wrecked me. I was so sick to my stomach and so nauseated. And I can't tell you why. I don't get this sort of reaction to other movies, except for The Last Unicorn. I get a migraine from that one. (And I've tried to watch it about 4 times)

It makes me sad that I can't enjoy a movie by the great man, but I guess that's just one of my flaws.

So Jim Henson? We miss you. You need to come back as a zombie and bite some Disney reps for making Muppet Wizard of Oz and all.. Oh, and make them bring back Fraggle Rock.