"Another world, Another time... In the age of wonder."
When Jim Henson passed away in 1990, he left behind diverse legions of fans and a company whose ultimate success, it now seems, hinged on his input. Jim Henson Productions and The Creature Shop are still thriving financially, but as the past few Muppet films (or that silly-looking computer-generated monkey from Lost In Space) demonstrate, the thrill and genius are gone. I'm positive that THE DARK CRYSTAL made today by Henson's successors would not provoke from an audience of kids five to fifty the enchanted response the 1982 original does.
An all-powerful crystal has cracked, causing the leaders of the green world to split apart into two beings: the big, gentle Mystics and the vulturous Skeksis. The Mystics send Jen, a naive Gelfling boy, on a mission to find the crystal's missing shard, which must be reinserted into the idol before the Skeksis become eternal rulers, before the "great conjunction" of three suns. Along the way, Jen encounters and teams up with Kira, the only other survived Gelfling, as well as an ogre witch named Aughra, who can remove her eyes to look at things (and bears a striking resemblance to Della Reese), and Fizzgig, a spastic tumbleweed of an animal.
Much of THE DARK CRYSTAL's beauty lies in its art direction and creature design. While the puppeteering is incontestably phenomenal--observe the scenes in which Jen plays his flute, or a chase that revolves around complex landstriders--I must stress that any thoughts of strings and hands and remote controls all but vanish in the opening moments of the picture, a delicately-narrated (by John Baddeley), absorbing "once upon a time..." prologue. The voice work in the film, performed by Muppet regulars (including Dave "Gonzo" Goelz) and non-regulars, is tone-perfect; nor should Trevor Jones' majestic score be discounted.
I suppose, due to the intricacies involved in executing a project this ambitious, that it couldn't be helped, but I do wish the film ran longer. Jen and Kira have wonderful...well, chemistry, and more scenes of them quietly conversing would have been appreciated.
THE DARK CRYSTAL has a very small cult following. The less magical Labyrinth is probably better-known, which is disconcerting; a friend of mine related a story to me that Henson was pressured into planting people among Labyrinth's creatures due to the financial failure of THE DARK CRYSTAL. Perhaps a direct result of casting humans, that film never quite found its footing: it's a rambling and sometimes vulgar affair with too many songs--a few of them, however, are nicely sung by David Bowie. THE DARK CRYSTAL deserved (and still deserves) a bigger audience. It's the best kind of children's entertainment: elegant, fantastical, and courageously un-hip. Brian Henson, fortunate son, keep looking back on this, your father's masterpiece.
One thousand years ago, a mighty convulsion shook the universe. The great Crystal, glowing with the power of the world s Three Suns, cracked and darke...More at Buy.com Marketplaces
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