Fizzgig returns!<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Award-winning animation director Genndy Tartakovsky, the man who made Samurai Jack and those impressive Clone Wars cartoons, has just made my day. He's\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lookingcloser\/2006\/02\/fizzgig-returns\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Fizzgig returns!\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Award-winning animation director Genndy Tartakovsky, the man who made Samurai Jack and those impressive Clone Wars cartoons, has just made my day. 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{"id":14252,"date":"2006-02-01T21:57:00","date_gmt":"2006-02-01T21:57:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lookingcloser.wordpress.com\/2006\/02\/01\/fizzgig-returns\/"},"modified":"2012-11-05T11:18:35","modified_gmt":"2012-11-05T18:18:35","slug":"fizzgig-returns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lookingcloser\/2006\/02\/fizzgig-returns\/","title":{"rendered":"Fizzgig returns!"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

$\"\"$ <\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Award-winning animation director Genndy Tartakovsky, the man who made Samurai Jack<\/em> and those impressive Clone Wars<\/em> cartoons, has just made my day.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s directing the sequel to the greatest puppet-animation film ever made\u2026<\/p>\n

\u2026and here\u2019s the scoop!<\/a><\/p>\n

The script for The Dark Crystal<\/em> needed a lot of help, and the narration ranks among the most annoying of all time: \u201cAnd so Jen set off on his journey\u2026 the journey\u2026 of\u2026 Jen<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n

But the visuals in this film were so enthralling, it meant as much to me as Star Wars. <\/em>When it comes to Jim Henson\u2019s astonishing work, I am a total geek. I still wish ToyBiz or McFarlane had produced detailed action figures, just so I could have a Skeksis and an Ur Ru stalking each other on a window sill in my house. The film inspired me to write stacks and stacks of stories about similar characters, similar worlds. When I was twelve, I even did a 30-minute long puppet show for the neighborhood kids, with handmade Dark Crystal-ish puppets, dreaming that someday I\u2019d be the next Jim Henson.<\/p>\n

Well, I strayed from the path of puppetry, but I stuck to the path of fantasy storytelling, and today I\u2019m turning in Auralia\u2019s Colors<\/em> to the publisher. It too is, in essence, a fairy tale about a society in trouble, greedy villains, mystical mages, and a young girl and a young boy with extraordinary gifts.<\/p>\n

Thus, it seems fitting that today I\u2019d learn another Dark Crystal<\/em> film is on the way. And it sounds like it\u2019s in good hands.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s just hope they write some better narration this time.<\/p>\n

And stick to puppetry<\/em>, instead of overdoing it with CGI. Digital animation\u2019s thrill is fading. Because we know digital animators can do virtually anything now, it\u2019s difficult to do anything truly awe-inspiring. But puppetry\u2026 there\u2019s a life and a magic to the hand-crafted STUFF of puppets, creatures captured in real light, interacting with real actors, filmed in real time, that other forms of animation can never match. I hope Tartakovsky doesn\u2019t misunderstand why The Dark Crystal <\/em>is such a landmark work.<\/p>\n

Oh\u2026 one more thing\u2026<\/p>\n

The original movie poster remains my all-time favorite poster design for a film. My brother Jason gave me a new, glorious print of it for my Christmas last year. It\u2019s hanging over my computer at home. I can only hope they maintain that standard.<\/p>\n

$\"\"$ <\/a><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"