MUBI

Today, people can watch fantasy films and say, “Uh I’ve seen it all before” because there have been enough of them with extravagant CGI effects, mythical creatures, and simplistic stories about good and evil that they can feel like rehashes overtime. The Dark Crystal was one member of the genre that stands unique today as a film with mythical creatures and a morality tale, but one that is heavily unlike anything we’ve seen today. The Lord of the Rings, Avatar, Harry Potter, and The Chronicles of Narnia can make us believe we’ve seen fantasy at its best, but then we haven’t remembered what made fantasy rise higher during the time when Star Wars became a huge phenomenon, only that The Dark Crystal was a smaller hit during that time and has only grown popular with time. It was a time when fantasy was still at a minimalist stage, but that was what made it more naturalistic and less computerized as most blockbusters are defined today.

I don’t think a film like The Dark Crystal can be made today given how much technology has overpowered the minimalism that that film relied on, with its dirty set designs, its animatronic creatures, and its breathtaking electronic score by Trevor Jones. Those details are hard to discover in other fantasy films, although its blood relative – Labyrinth – shares similarities with its naturalism and man-made designs. However, there are no other films where we can find any creature called a Gelfling, a Skeksis, an UrRu (Mystic), a Pod Person, a Landstrider, a Garthim, a Fizzgig, or an Aughra, which are all made with man-made craft in animatronics and puppetry to look very natural. That was Jim Henson’s unique approach as a visionary that relied on collaboration with fantasy illustrator Brian Froud and fellow Muppeteer Frank Oz, which helped bring the combined skills of art and puppetry together to weave a colorfully exotic fable of good and evil and tell it with a haunting atmosphere that fit the naturalism of the world.

The characters that were created the film are all special in their own way, whether they are good or evil or a bit-in-between, as they all came off believable in their earthly appearances and nuanced performances. Aughra is an ugly character that appears as though she was made from rock and mud and behaves with a misanthropic attitude of an old miser yet also carries a wisdom that is helpful in the fight against evil. Jen and Kira can come off as the most boring characters in cinema because of their pure goodness as the heroes of the story, yet their youth and purity is what they needed to come off as these two vulnerable innocents that are facing huge forces in a big world. The Skeksis are all that is ugly and ruthless in their bird-like reptilian looks that contrasts with the Gelflings’ innocence that they are the perfect adversaries for the small unlikely heroes on a journey to rid the world of their tyranny. Their hostilities are so dehumanizing yet they come in different colors that make each Skeksis unique, given how comical the Ornamentalist is about his vanity in his flamboyant finery and nervous energy, how intimidating the General is in his growls and shutters, or how sneakily creepy the Chamberlain is in his smirks and his whimpers. Their finery is so extravagant and colorful that it defines the vanity and deformity of their self-styled control over the world and their ceremonial worship for the Dark Crystal. They carry human characteristics that are lively for a villain that we can’t deny how beautiful the Skeksis are in their ugliness and their depravity. Their counterparts, the UrRu – or Mystics – are so gentle and humble in their appearances and mannerisms that they come off as sad and lonely old men with their long hair and crouching figures, a sharp contrast to the Skeksis, that makes them a vulnerable image of purity, yet their goodness is what motivates Jen to go on his quest to heal the Dark Crystal by piecing it together with the missing shard that was lost in the breaking of the Crystal and turned the world chaotic.

The irony of the quest is that Jen and Kira are not personally out to fight the Skeksis head-on or kill them, which doesn’t seem plausible, but to complete a task that will bring peace back to their world and make the forces of good and evil one again. It’s not about killing the main villain to achieve their purpose, but bringing about a restoration that will set the world back in order. The fight for that cause comes with skill and sacrifice that brings a dark and bleak atmosphere to this mythical odyssey, although the presence of the screaming ball of fur Fizzgig and the playful Pod People brings a lightheartedness that is appealing for younger children. The music of Trevor Jones is so ethereal and haunting with its electronic tone and keeps the atmosphere of the world both wondrous and eerie with its own distinctive ecology, cultures, and creatures and signs of danger everywhere. The castle of the Dark Crystal is beautifully designed in its black spiky structure that it captures the grotesque nature of the Skeksis and looks as a place out of nightmares.

Altogether, Henson has created a strange exotic world of the imaginative mind, but one that feels natural and surreal that it’s hard to compare it to bigger bombastic fantasies that are brought to the screen by George Lucas, Peter Jackson, or James Cameron. It’s hard to find any other live-action fantasy-adventure this original and strange in its creation of “another world, another time, in the age of wonder”, that it stands the test of time as a cult favorite and cannot be rehashed by any other film that does all it can with enormous effects to make fantasy more popular and commercial. Because The Dark Crystal wasn’t made to be commercially satisfying as Star Wars and Indiana Jones were at that time of the early 80s, it nevertheless accomplished what Henson could perceive from his beautiful imagination and make him more than just an entertainer for children with funny Muppets, leading to one more fantasy film that became another cult classic – Labyrinth – and was sadly the last we saw of his incredible approach to fantasy filmmaking before his death.