Sony, out now, 4K Ultra HD, Blu-ray and DVD

‘Trial by stone!’

With a Netflix prequel show on the horizon, Age of Resistance, now would seem like the perfect opportunity to catch up with one of the most beloved fantasy movies of all time. Released back in 1982, this was a film like no other. Unlike previous Henson creations The Muppets, The Dark Crystal was a concerted attempt to do something just a bit more serious with puppetry, drawing on sources like The Lord of the Rings to tell a mythical – and magical – quest tale where all the main characters are being worked by five or six puppeteers. Based on the concept designs of Brian Froud, the creatures who inhabit this world are by turns bizarre and oddly recognisable, with Henson and Oz throwing everything in here from witches who study astronomy to swamps inhabited by giant toads.

The basic storyline revolves around an old prophecy, concerned with healing a powerful crystal. A thousand years ago when there was a conjunction of the planets, the crystal was cracked, creating a new dark era. A shard broke off, turning it into a Dark Crystal and creating two new races: the evil Skekses and the gentle Ur-ru (essentially two sides of the same coin). Other races exist on this faraway planet, like the tiny podlings and the all-but extinct and Hobbit-like Gelflings, like our hero Jen (voiced by Stephen Garlick – but puppeteered by Henson himself). His quest begins with the death of his master, one of the Ur-ru, who in his dying breath tells Jen to seek out the shard because a second conjunction is imminent. If the crystal cannot be healed by then, the Skekses will rule the planet forever.

So Jen sets off to find Aughra the witch (voiced by Billie Whitelaw and operated by Frank ‘Yoda’ Oz), who possesses the shard. But the Skekses, who have just had to appoint a new ruler, are on to his game and send out their minions to capture Jen: basically huge and quite creepy-looking beetles. Instead they come back with Aughra, leaving Jen to try and find his way into the Skekses’ castle with the shard. Along the way he goes through strange lands and encounters many odd beings, like the giraffe-legged Landstriders (who look like they’ve walked straight out of a Dali painting). But he also meets a flying female Gelfling called Kira (voiced by Lisa Maxwell) who aids him in his mission. Will Jen and Kira be able to heal the crystal in time?

The look of The Dark Crystal is certainly unique – something that’s mentioned time and again on the bonus documentaries (kids today apparently ask ‘what was that?’ when they watch it because there is no CGI involved; they just can’t understand how it was all done live). Froud himself is a bit of a unique artist, so when you combine his ideas with a completely puppet world, what you get is something that makes it easy to suspend your disbelief. As Henson told Froud, he wanted the movie to be totally organic, and he definitely achieved that. But thanks to all the hard work of the puppeteers the movie also achieves something else: it makes you care about the characters. When Jen cries at the climax, we feel his pain, and when Kira is facing the Dark Crystal’s power – in an effort to drain her life essence and revitalise the Skekses emperor – we’re rooting for her to escape. As Henson said to screenwriter David Odell, you can make puppets do anything, and he was right. They can also play with your heartstrings.

As well as the film, you also get a truckload of extras. For starters there’s Froud’s audio commentary where you learn snippets like the Skekses concept costumes were made from melted down plastic toy soldiers sprayed with paint. Then there are the aforementioned documentaries… The World of the Dark Crystal is the ‘making of’ feature from the time of release, with behind the scenes footage from Elstree studios and the opportunity to see Froud sketching the characters. Reflections of the Dark Crystal, Light on the Path of Creation and Shard of Illusion take us through the ideas and filming stages, but also there’s a brand new featurette The Myth, Magic and Henson Legacy. Lastly we have deleted and extra scenes, a Picture-in Picture storyboard track, original Skeksis language scenes, photo galleries and trailers.

Fans of fantasy won’t need me to recommend this one: it’s already proved its worth as a classic of the genre.

Verdict: Hold on to it, for it is a part of you… 10/10   

Paul Kane