Oddworld inspiration

[Zukan]

I once recall Lorne saying he was influenced by Jim Henson, the guy behind the muppets, aswell as Sergio Leone ("The Good, The Bad and The Ugly", "Once Upon A Time In The West" etc...) for Stranger's Wrath. It's not that hard to see why Stranger was inspired by the western legend so it's kind of a given.
However I recently saw the film "The Dark Crystal" by Jim Henson. It's a very unique fantasy/adventure film that almost entirely uses puppets and animatronics as its actors. A funny thing is that some of the tiny creatures in that film remind me of the animals from Oddworld. There's one spieces that look like bouncing furballs, remember the fuzzles and chippunks? The environments in that film are as odd as Oddworld itself, very imaginative and alien looking.
There's also this evil race called "Skeksis" that sort of represent the greedy twisted aristocratic class, feeding off of the weak in order to gain massive personal wealth and prolonged life, with little to no respect for the rest of the world. Sounds familiar?
Another interesting tidbit is that apparently Sherry McKenna went on to become a visual effects producer on Henson's next film "Labyrinth".

I realize I may be pulling random stuff out of my behind here, most of it borderlines on far-fetched material but still it's always fun to speculate, you rarely see stuff like this in modern films.

Have you seen anything that may have helped inspire the Oddworld franchise? I'd love to hear it.

[Wil]

Jim Henson and his Muppets (and other creations) are an inspiration for Lorne in the way that he can bring very lifeless felt and ping pong balls into life in an extraordinary way. So imbued with energy and feeling are the Muppet characters that they are celebrities quite in their own right. Lorne wanted to bring this sense of life and personality to the inhabitants of Oddworld.

There are other important inspirations.

• As you say, Lorne wanted Stranger’s Wrath to have the sun-withered earthy characters of spaghetti westerns (rather than the attractive, well-known actors) as well as the long drawn-out combat.
• The X-Files is a source of inspiration because of its dark atmosphere and some elements of its mythology storytelling, such as the idea that over time many of the antagonists turn out just to be answering to ever-higher authorities.
• Naturally Star Wars is a huge inspiration because of its rich universe, but also by the way George Lucas was able to incite basically a new religion, as Lorne puts it. It has a very important spiritual backbone that gives characters the heart to fight for what’s right. Or something. Never really got Star Wars myself.