Just saw the preview for “The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance.”
I’m super excited for the prequel series!
When I was growing up, there were three fantasy movies that my family kept coming back to, again and again. The first was “The Princess Bride,” and the second was “The Labyrinth.” Trust me, I’ll get round to writing about these two soon.
However the third movie was “The Dark Crystal.” This 1982 film was made in the golden age of Jim Henson’s creature workshop, when he had the creative freedom to craft children’s stories that were beautiful, strange – and occasionally really, REALLY dark. Jim considered stories where characters truly got hurt and even died to be a necessary part of growing up.
I just loved “The Dark Crystal,” and it wasn’t until years later that I found that Skesis, the Gelflings and the peaceful Uru were all designed by Brian Froud, who also designed the goblins of “The Labyrinth.” Froud never designed characters in bulk – every creature, great and small, had its own biography, its own society and a dozen small story decisions that went into their unique look.
Thanks to Froud’s individual designs and Henson’s amazing puppetry, “The Dark Crystal” was a weird, lovable classic. Everyone has their favorite moments, so I’m going to give you mine:
5. Stepping into Augra’s lair and seeing her orrery (word of the day! Clockwork model of how planets and stars revolve). Just the scale and complexity of the model really drove home just how large and amazing the world of the Crystal was.
4. The awakening of the Garthim Soldiers. Does anyone else remember jumping with fright when the dark crab monsters suddenly sprang to life around the chamber after the Skesis called them? And then how Jen was later trapped in the dark then all you could hear was the Garthim clicking around him? Just awesome.
3. The duality between the Uru and the Skesis. What an amazing scene where the Emperor Skesis dies writhing in pain and fear, surrounded by useless finery, compared to the head Uru dying calmly in his cave, accepting his fate and dispensing a final piece of wisdom to Jen.
2. The scene where the Skesis steal the Podling’s life force. Oh dear God that was horrifying for a little kid – and that was the point. I think this scene put the Skesis in a different league to the other pantomime movie antagonists from children’s films of the time (and today). The Skeksis aren’t “lovable rogues” or “misunderstood troubled characters who just need understanding and guidance.” They are the Goddamn evil villains, and don’t you dare forget it.
1. The conversation between SkekSil (the Chamberlain) and the Gelflings Jen and Kira. You can feel the tension building as the Skesis whines, paws and tries to manipulate the Gelfings into coming with him to the castle. As antagonists go, the Chamberlain was both sympathetic and creepy as hell, and when they ran “Stranger Danger” lessons at school when I was a kid, this is the scene that would be running in my head.
Can you hear the Chamberlain’s whine while you read this? mmm-MMM-mmm…
Extra – Fizzgig. I loved that furry little ball of teeth. Really hoping he makes an appearance in the upcoming prequel series.
I’m going to be covering the upcoming Dark Crystal episodes, but in the meantime if you have any favorite moments from the movie, let me know!
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