The Dark Crystal (1982)

 

Genre: Fantasy/ Family 

Time: 1h 35mins

Directors: Jim Henson, Frank Oz

Quick Summary: On another planet in the distant past, a Gelfling embarks on a quest to find the missing shard of a magical crystal, and to restore order to his world.

Wonderfully dreamlike, I adore this film. It takes place in a fantasy world, created by the wonderful, Frank Oz and Jim Henson. Everything in this film is so meticulously done, that it still lives on to this day and you can really appraise how much work and love has gone into this. 

Overall the design of this is amazing and how much detail is put into everything is just stunning. It's so immersive and you can very easily get lost in this. I even forgot this is entirely puppets! I find that so amazing that it was possible to be flawlessly that immersive with purely practical effects. I don't think I've ever seen puppetry this amazing, not even in other Jim Henson productions. There's so much detail put into every aspect of this movie. Each of the ten Skeksis are resplendently designed in such a way to be distinctly different to one another. They have different facial features, wear different clothes, and even act differently.

Being designed for kids, I was amazed at how dark this film was but I really appreciate it. Not a lot of kids films are like this and it is a very unique experience. The Skeksis are a truly villainous race, with a frightening appearance, and a disturbing penchant for sucking the life out of their victims before using the zombified husks as slaves, which can be incredibly scary for kids, but this manages to create a balance. It adds to the sense of good vs evil this carries and teaches them that these traits aren't all that nice. 

I really enjoyed the humour in this. Small little quips, verbal reactions and over-the-top movements. I'm not sure if they actually set out to make Jen funny, but most of his lines just made me laugh. It wasn't that he was being sarcastic or done with things, the delivery on most is what made them great.

Aughra is another character in the film that I couldn't help but find funny. A wise old woman of the land, she provides Jen with the item he needs to complete his quest and helps him better understand his task. She’s hardly in the film, but her design and sarcastic but caring attitude are memorable. She has perhaps the best line in the whole film. She asks Jen where the leader of the Mystics is, and he replies dead.  Her response is “Could be anywhere then.”

The story is incredibly simplistic and is far from original, the Gelflings for some reason don't seem to enjoy the same attention to detail as everyone else, despite being the heroes of the whole story, and the dialogue and narration are a little lacking in places. Beyond that, this movie was still amazing to watch today and its technical achievements still hold up. 

9/10

"End, begin, all the same. Big change. Sometimes good. Sometimes bad."

"Jen: The prophecy didn't say anything about this!

Kira: Prophets don't know everything!"