The dark crystal
Thra and back again…
The skeksis are still as scary as ever, tbh.
The film is 35 years old and nobody has done anything like it since,” says Lisa Henson, daughter of Muppet creator Jim, on one of the many extras accompanying this anniversary re-release of The Dark Crystal. It’s difficult to disagree with her, and you get a sense of just why in the disc’s three Making Of docs, which tell a story almost as riveting as that of the film’s pointy-eared hero.
Jaw-dropping creativity exists at every level of production, from the under-floor Muppeteers to the handcrafted eaves of the film’s central castle, all of which are lovingly explored in this release. “They would use ‘Froud water’ to give the creatures the feeling that they had really lived,” chuckles Toby Froud, son of artist Brian, on one of the docs, clue enough that The Dark Crystal is a world away from the fuzz and felt of Henson’s Muppets.
Because, yes, this is still dark stuff, following the travails of the residents of Thra – skeksis, gelflings, podlings
and a honking one-eyed ram-woman – as elf-like Jen goes on a Tolkienesque quest to restore balance to his world by reuniting a crystal shard with the titular treasure.
It’s a simple yarn that co-directors Jim Henson and Frank Oz embroider with rich mythology and a host of memorable characters (yappy fluffball Fizzgig, the loping landstriders), all of which ensure The Dark Crystal remains uniquely captivating more than three decades on. Most impressively, the landscape itself is a shifting, breathing creature that surely played a part in inspiring James Cameron’s creation of Pandora.
Many of the film’s behindthe-scenes marvels have been comprehensively excavated before, which may be why this disc features many of the same definitive extras as the Collector’s Edition DVD. But the best new addition is artist Brian Froud’s commentary. A measured and info-packed chat track, it offers fans the most complete insight yet into the making of the film, and is at times delightfully colourful (“Here is the skeksis castle, rather claw-like, grasping into the very sky while it sucks out of the landscape… life”).
There’s sadly no mention of Netflix’s in-production live-action prequel series, The Dark Crystal: Age Of Resistance, which is being overseen by Louis Leterrier. But the wealth of concept art, storyboards and photo galleries collected here hint at ways in which this enormous world could be developed further on-screen. For now, though, Henson’s original is still everything any fantasy fan could ever want – and more. Josh Winning