The Dark Crystal (1982)

The Dark Crystal (Jim Henson & Frank Oz, 1982). 

Coming to Netflix on 30th August 2019 is The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance the prequel to Muppets creator Jim Henson’s original fantasy epic The Dark Crystal. My inner 8 year old can barely contain his wee wee at the thought of this so, in anticipation, I revisited the original. 

Believing he is the last of his elf-like Gelfling race, Jen sets out to fulfill a prophecy which foretells that a Gelfling will one day defeat the malevolent Skeksis who rule his homeland of Thra. Jen must locate and replace a missing shard from the mystical crystal from which the Skeksis draw their powers. Learning of the quest, the Skeksis will stop at nothing to deter Jen, having already murdered his kind for their own evil gains.

Co-directed by fellow Muppeteer Frank Oz, The Dark Crystal was seen as a major departure for Jim Henson. Along with conceptual artist Brian Froud, they created a beautiful, intricately detailed alien world populated solely by their elaborate puppet creations. The puppets, or Muppets, are exquisite creations, grotesquely beautiful and believably brought to life by the talented Muppet performers.

The overall tone of the movie is decidedly darker than that of The Muppet Show. However, I think its reputation as nightmare fuel is unwarranted. There is a lot of light to offset the dark and ultimately this is a positive tale with a uplifting message. There is also much humor; granted, it's not the knockabout humour of the Muppets, but the movie does have a lightness of touch that helps make the more sombre moments much more palatable for the young. I first saw The Dark Crystal at age 8 and survived. I would have no qualms about showing it to children of a similar age. 

Perhaps the only slight criticism I have of The Dark Crystal is its less than original story; a basic fantasy quest plot with similarities to the daddy of all fantasy films The Wizard of Oz (Victor Fleming, 1939). However, this is a criticism that could also be levelled at Star Wars (George Lucas, 1977), and any other number of fantasy films and wasn't new when author L Frank Baum's first Oz book was originally published in 1900. In any case, the world Henson has created is so immersive and the story so well told that over familiarity is not an issue.    

While by no means a flop, The Dark Crystal was something of a disappointment at the box office. Perhaps it got a little lost in the plethora of fantasy movies released in the early 1980s; Clash of the Titans (Desmond Davis, 1981), Dragonslayer (Matthew Robbins, 1981) and the animated The Last Unicorn (Arthur Rankin & Jules Bass, 1982) had all hit cinema screens previously. It also found itself vying for family audiences with the behemoth ET The Extra Terrestrial (Steven Spielberg, 1982), number 1 at the box office 6 months after release. Eventually finding its audience on the growing home video market, the movie is now rightly regarded as a classic.

Mr Henson's tragic early death, in 1990 aged 53, robbed the world of a true visionary. His work has been embraced by generations of children and adults alike and the characters he created are as popular and relevant now as they were during his lifetime. In a career of so many highs it is difficult to single out any particular work, but even by his own venerable standards, The Dark Crystal is a masterpiece. 

For those who have never seen this magical movie I wholeheartedly recommend it. The eagerly anticipated prequel will, apparently, not require you to be familiar with the original, but I would suggest you give it a watch anyway, simply because it is a fantastic piece of fantasy filmmaking.