In my mind I feel as though this film needs no introduction but it is my understanding that there are a few people out there in the world that are a bit younger than I am, so I will go ahead and write this anyway.
it says it's "coming this Christmas" and it can be if you want it to!
We all know who Jim Henson is and how he was a genius right? Well he teamed up with Frank Oz and Gary Kurtz (producer of Star Wars) to make this masterpiece that is actually a bit creepy too. I wonder how many other kids out there got nightmares from this thing? I know I did because some of the characters are downright terrifying to a kid. I met a guy about a year ago that still really doesn't like it if you make the sound that Skeksil made in the film. He was nearly 40 when he revealed this to me by accident.
it was a high to low pitch "hmmmmmmmm" sound
Anyway, back to the movie. It was very engaging and there are no humans in the movie at all, everything is puppetry and the scenery is just stunning. The basic premise is that Jen, a Gelfling who can play the panflute, has to find and return a crystal shard to the Dark Crystal in order to restore balance to the world. He must do this before the 3 suns align, or the malevolent Skeksis will rule the world. You can determine very quickly that you definitely don't want the Skeksis ruling the world.
it occurred to me while writing the above that I wasn't sure whether Jen was a boy or a girl.. I've come to the conclusion that Jen is actually a very young Steven Tyler from Aerosmith
The story is obviously a fantasy story that as a kid you stay interested with despite the fact that you probably don't have the full idea of what is going on. We didn't need to, we were kids. However, as an adult you can appreciate the movie for different reasons. It was 1982, CGI for the most part didn't exist and the dozens of puppets that were in the film all had to be made by designers, normally by hand.
Then it would require multiple people working in tight quarters who all had a coordinated plan, in order to pull of the shots.
makes me claustrophobic just to look at it
I was unaware at the time (although it seems so obvious now, that virtually all scenes in this movie (and the Muppet Show and Sesame Street for the matter) had to be shot on raised platforms for the "puppets" to perform on. There are scenes where the particular puppet is on a raised platform but it's far more real when they appear to be standing on the ground. There is a scene in The Dark Crystal where there is actually a battle of sorts called the "Trial by Stone." I can't even imagine how many people it must have taken to film this, or how much time it must have taken.
I saw this film for the first time 35 years ago and still have fond memories of it today. As a matter of fact myself a few friends got together recently and watched it again and it was still entertaining. Probably because CGI from the 80's looks (for the most part) kind of dumb by today's standards but puppetry, well, how do you do that better?
It's my understanding that there is some chatter about remaking this film and I have mixed feelings about this. Jim Henson is no longer with us and I think it might be a little insulting to his legacy if they 1: Made the film much better or 2: make a terrible film that destroyed the memory (think "Clash of the Titans.")
In my opinion they should leave this one alone but well, money.... so they probably wont.
Do you agree with me about this movie? Do you disagree? As always a I welcome your comments.
