The Dark Crystal (1982): ***

A thousand years ago the Dark Crystal fractured, creating two races: the benevolent Mystics and the evil Skeksis. The Skeksis guard the Dark Crystal jealously in the castle, drawing energy from its beams, whilst the Mystics live peacefully in the dry, rocky land far from the castle. A young Gelfling named Jen (voiced by Stephen Garlick), the last of his kind after the Skeksis destroyed his race, has been raised by his Mystic master. As the Mystic master lies dying, Jen is told he is part of a prophecy to find the crystal shard to save the world, if he fails the Skeksis will rule the world forever. Jen heads across the strange landscapes with its weird flora and fauna. Meanwhile the Skeksis send out their warriors, the Garthim, to kill him and to stop the prophecy. 

The Dark Crystal is a theatrical-length showcase for The Jim Henson Company, featuring some of the most impressive and imaginative puppetry of the era. Brian Froud’s creature designs are extraordinarily bizarre. The Skeksis are reptilian with bird-like heads, dressed in ostentatious Elizabethan and Georgian-style clothes, underneath their bodies are scrawny yet bloated. The Mystics are multi-limbed sages, like a cross between a lizard and a turtle, their wrinkles etching swirling patterns on their faces. Even the landscape is dangerous in Froud’s vision, as a bulbous creature lies with its mouth open, disguised as an inviting mossy hollow, for prey to be swallowed. Grand epic fantasy landscapes, part matte paintings and part natural landscape, are also beautifully incorporated in The Dark Crystal: the ominous sandy flats surrounding the dark castle as electricity travels through the ground; the orange cliff with stacked stony structures jutting out and reed-lined rivers threading its way across the swamp. Oswald Morris’s cinematography heightens the epic fantasy, using long and wide shots to dwarf our characters in the vast alien environments.

In its eagerness to show off all the stunning puppetry, The Dark Crystal suffers from some pacing problems. Scenes, especially the ones involving the Skeksis, are dragged out too long and disrupt the narrative flow of the film. The larger ideas of a dying world and a symmetrical natural order in this world make for intriguing viewing. Conversely, the plot is fairly simplistic and lacking in varied dangers or trials for our protagonists to face, the main danger are the black crustacean-beetle like creatures the Garthim. The world is far more interesting than the journey our heroes make. Matters are not helped by our main hero, the Gelfling Jen, who is similar to a small elf in appearance. Jim Henson and Frank Oz had the admirably ambitious goal of making a film without any on-screen humans. However the Gelfling is odd looking and not in an appealing way, Jen falls into the uncanny valley to this viewer. In addition Jen is a fairly bland hero, he only seems to be this quest because he was told to go on it, there’s a lack of a driving force in his motivations. His companion Kira (Lisa Maxwell) is much more interesting and you wish she was the main hero instead. 

The Dark Crystal features some of the finest puppetry of the 1980s, imaginatively designed by Brian Froud and operated by the talented Jim Henson and his company. However, the film is missing an engaging plot and main hero to make it a must-watch family film.