So what a delight it was to discover how uncynical the end result was: an exquisitely immersive adventure, which expanded far beyond the original’s concise narrative to give a real sense of the entire kingdom of the mythical Thra, ruled by the evil, vulture-like Skeksis with the help of their noble but naive Gelfling subordinates, while seamlessly combining the old-school puppetry with more state-of-the-art CGI vistas. This prequel to the classic 1982 Jim Henson fantasy drama seemed like a potentially cynical commission, cashing in on the same Eighties retro-mania as the streaming platform’s mega-hit Stranger Things.
