The Film
A dying race in a dying land, with a dying ruler -- this opens the tale of The Dark Crystal. The race of the Skeksis lives for and by the power of the Dark Crystal, a gem with mystical properties that was damaged long ago, causing strife among the world's inhabitants. The Skeksis' one fear is that a gentle being known as a Gelfling will cause their final downfall, so they make it a point to eradicate that species.
And so begins the saga of the last two of the Gelfling race: Jen, who was raised by the Mystics; and Kira, a female raised by the Podlings (at least Henson had original names for his creatures). This duo heads off on a quest to restore the lost shard of the crystal and bring peace to the world. At times the story seems to parallel others. While the movie Clan of the Cavebear didn't come out until four years later, the story of Gelfling Kira seemed similar to Ayla in the movie based on the book written by Jean M. Auel, which was published earlier. Other parts of the story seemed vaguely familiar, and possibly were borrowed from other storylines.
The Dark Crystal may have broken ground in its day, advancing the use of Muppets and animatronics, but today these techniques seem hokey at best, and distracting at worst. While many of the creatures are actually humans wearing costumes, the expressions aren't apparent, and dialog is spoken without the mouths even moving. The lack of facial realism often interrupts the story unfolding around it. And yet while some dialog is less than lifelike, the costumes and Muppet faces are often a little too lifelike, causing the film to cross into that "uncanny valley," bringing some discomfort and uneasiness to the film's human viewers.
The Picture
While the picture is generally an improvement over the previous DVD releases, enough that the visuals do head into the creepy realm (and at times it was hard to compare to this to Team America in that regard) it fails to have that HD quality. So despite the fact that this one has been released just two years after the 25th anniversary DVD, the film's 2.35:1 1080p transfer doesn't portray as sharp or detailed a picture as one would expect from a recently restored film.
In scenes where the environment is arid and desert-like, the picture can be almost grainy, while lush environments where colorful greens and flowers grow just don't pop as one would expect. The black levels are excellent in some sequences and murky in others. This could be a failing of the original source material, but visual eye candy it isn't.
The Sound
Original music by Trevor Jones, who later went on to compose the score for Jim Henson's Labyrinth, creates the tone for the movie, and it is stirring without being overly reminiscent of other adventure films. Additionally, as there was no human actors, sound effects and therefore sound in general plays an important part of the movie. The Dolby TrueHD 5.1 lossless audio soundtrack is clear and distortion-free but fails to deliver any sort of enthralling audio excitement. Basically, it is what you'd expect from an early 1980s film that has been released on Blu-ray. The audio is good, crisp and clear but nothing groundbreaking, or more importantly ground shaking.
The Extras
The Blu-ray adds many exclusive extras, in addition to what was released on the original DVD, however it's debatable what some of the extras add to the package. The special features include "The Book of Thira: Dark Crystal Collector," Picture-in-Picture storyboard track that plays alongside the movie to demonstrate the concept work that went on to create The Dark Crystal, and an introduction by screenwriter David Odell that goes into the original language spoken by the Skeksis.
While fun, some of the extras are gimmicky. SkekTek's Crystal Challenge, a trivia game, is one of those features that adds momentary amusement with questionable value. While the movie plays, questions about the movie and its universe come up on the screen that viewers can use their remote to answer. Incorrect answers fill a vial of life-force, while correct answers deplete the vial. It fits in with the movie, and how the Skeksis take the life-force from some of the planets creatures as an elixir and to create slaves. However the trivia quiz and its presentation while the movie is running don't add much. Perhaps it would have been better as a standalone quiz, or with clips of the movie. Instead it requires a full watching of the movie to complete - that is if all life-force hasn't been drained from the viewer by the end of the first scene.
Final Thoughts
It's clear that while The Dark Crystal may not live up to today's standards of animatronics, it is an important film for the Muppets creators' world and the film industry. The original documentary, plus an updated feature, shows the work that went into the costumes and creating the world. Fans of Jim Henson's work as well as fantasy storytelling won't be disappointed with the presentation.
Product Details
Where to Buy:
| Overall | |
|---|---|
| Video | |
| Audio | |
| Movie | |
| Extras |
