Moon Garden: A Chimerical Glimpse Into the Power Within

With CGI in almost every film today, long have I missed the practical effects of films when I was growing up. Film artists the likes of Jim Henson, Frank Oz, George Lucas and Steven Spielberg set up fantastical worlds I loved exploring as a child.

Watching the worlds play out in colorful, whimsical and sometimes frightening imagery, set my imagination ablaze. The puppetry of more characters than I can remember made the creatures and characters real and far easier for actors to interact with, yielding better connection to the audience.

Moon Garden, written and directed by Ryan Stevens Harris, is a new Fantasy/Horror, that uses entirely practical effects and 35mm film, to capture a bizarre, disturbing and wondrously imaginative vista rife with visions not seen in far too long.

down into the depths

Emma (Haven Lee Harris) is a sweet, imaginative little girl who lives with her parents. Mom, Sara (Augie Duke) and dad, Alex (Brionne Davis), both who love Emma very much, are arguing all the time. Emma struggles with hearing them screaming and being abusive to one another and wishes she could make both of them happy again.

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During an incident where Emma steps in on a particularly intense fight, she trips over her toys on the landing while she’s running away, which causes her to fall down the steps, knocking her into a coma. Within the constructs of her coma, Emma steps out on a perilous, but life changing journey to find her way back to her parents and her life in the 3D world.

Within the world, are many “windows” for her to see what is happening in the 3D, and she also meets some outlandish characters that assist her along her way. She isn’t entirely powerless within the world and those whom she meets impart objects and clues that guide her in the right direction.

Pursuing her, is a menacing creature called Teeth (Morgana Ignis), who is brought to life when Emma first cries. Her tears hold a kind of magic or satiety for its frenetic fascination, and the first taste initiates it’s vampiric obsession to possess her for its own. Teeth stops at nothing to claim her, even eradicating those who help her in its path.

Will Emma be able to solve this puzzle and discover her power within to make her way safely back to her home before she becomes Teeth’s forever?

In all honesty…

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Moon Garden is nothing short of astonishing.

I was absolutely blown away by the masterful artistry and craft throughout. Using light, color, texture, sound and imagery, Ryan Harris builds a world of fantastical scale with stop motion animation, 3D sets and models to bring simple objects to vivid life.

With exquisite arrangement and editing he is able to make the most mundane of trinkets stand for vaster metaphor. He also finds great beauty in simplistic every day items, like the blending of a substance that, up close, looks like ordinary colored water droplets and oil, into a scene sequence that integrates into something utterly fascinating.

Haven Harris is equally exceptional. Being so young with such an array of precociously developed emotional responses to Emma’s journey is incredible. I felt so protective of her throughout the film that I worried if she was actually exposed to all of the frightening oddities of her real life father’s imagination.

The film itself reminded me of so many different films and music videos from the 90’s that I really enjoyed. It’s hard to choose one to compare it to exactly, which, in my opinion, is another win for Harris. Originality is in short supply these days, and originality with creativity, even harder to find. This was clearly a passion project for Harris, as his dedication and love permeates every scene.

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Though a protagonist finding strength within, and having the ability to shine light on their darkness is a tale as old as time, with this journey being such a young child’s, I thought Harris’s depiction of it was more than appropriate. Anyone expecting more from a child’s journey knows nothing about human development and Emma’s realizations far exceed most people of her age.

Her explorations also harkens a delicate atmosphere of spirituality to the journey and stands as a metaphor for what humans do here on Earth over and over again in our lifetimes. We all experience many deaths and rebirths before the body dies.

Transformation is essential to growth, self esteem and mental health regulation. Seeing first hand that almost anything is possible to get through, changes our outlooks on life itself and sets us in a powerful position to outgrow our fears and change the world.

Though we may not live in a fantastical world of monsters, we are challenged every day with the darkness inside us. It tests our resilience and our ability to change and transform fully into the light within. That, is who we really are.

Be brave and have faith. The road to healing and true power begins inside, and then through, the dark.