Some things best forgotten

I've been reading Michael Ende's The Neverending Story, and unlike many childhood loves that turn out to be ridiculously dumb when read/viewed as an adult, I'm enjoying every minute of it. The book is translated from German, which gives some of the language a slightly strange feel now and again, but this adds beautifully to the feel of the story. As a child, I adored the film, and hadn't realized (in relative terms)just how true much of the dialogue was to the book.

I know it may be treason in some circles to say this, but I've realized as an adult that "The Dark Crystal" was something of a boring movie. I recalled certain scenes with delight after seeing it as a child--the moment when the cute fuzzy creature bursts out of its burrow, with hugely wide open jaws, the death of the "good guy leader" vs. "the bad guy leader" when the good fades away, and the bad just sort of crumbles to dust. I seem to remember something about creatures with very looong skinny legs that ran quickly. That's about it. I had wondered why I'd so throughly fogotten the rest of the film, and it turns out that I had remembered the only parts that were really interesting. The rest of it is a sort of yawn-worthy blur of slow moving, chanting muppets. Sorry, die-hard fans.

One thing I would like to see again is "The Last Unicorn." I have a feeling that though the animation may be a bit dated, it will turn out to be as magical as I remember it being. That's another book I ought to read. I was amused to find that there were several t-shirts available on Amazon. This one rocks. "The Last Unicorn" is a Rankin-Bass production, so that's in its favor. Rankin-Bass also did the animated version of "The Hobbit," which contains my definitve golum voice. The music from Rankin-Bass productions is always memorable.

Enough rambling. I'm going to update my Netflix que.