![]() ![]() Beautifully constructed, the productions utilize various techniques, such as intricate puppets, elaborate costumes, and animating figure drawings on Grecian urns.Īlthough the plots are hardly the stuff of bedtime stories, they do invite great philosophical discussion, prompted in part by the narrator’s shared observations. Ironically, it is the same two things that make these episodes worth watching with your older children. Meanwhile the tales delve into the faultiest of human foibles, like a man who would kill out of jealousy (Daedalus and Icarus), a parent who values his own life more than his child’s future (Perseus and the Gorgon), a spouse who lets his doubts rob his marital happiness (Orpheus and Eurydice) and a son who’s glory-lust destroys his father (Theseus and the Minotaur). Resembling his efforts in Labyrinth and The Dark Crystal, it is unfortunate the greater his success at realism, the greater becomes his chances of frightening the viewer. Using his genius as a puppeteer, Henson creates the many monsters and creatures who populate the myths, including the snake haired Medusa with her stone cold stare, the bull-headed Minotaur with his hunger for blood sacrifices, and three ghoulish witches that squabble over a disembodied eye. While some scanty costumes and a few naked statues may give parents a moment of pause, the greatest concerns for families will come from two less likely sources the quality of the production and stories themselves. To lighten the mood, he is joined by his faithful dog (a puppet voiced by Brian Henson), who interrupts the momentum whenever the yarn gets too tense, too sad, or too long. To explain the themes, each episode is carried by a storyteller (played by Michael Gambon), who rummages through a maze of ruins uncovering artifacts that weave into dramatized flashbacks of the tale he is narrating. ![]()
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