The Dark Crystal is a beautifully moving tale about a young boy, Jen, who is thought to be the last of his race. Jen was raised by the wisest of the Mystics, a gentle and peaceful race of beings who have inhabited the planet for 1000 years. With his dying breath, this Mystic informs Jen that he must seek out a crystal shard to heal the world. No pressure, really. To make matters even harder, the evil Skeksis are determined to stop Jen and retain their control over the planet. The Skesis have already killed off Jen's whole race because a prophecy dictates that a Gelfling will heal the crystal, so they're not going to think twice about throwing everything they can at any gelfling still alive, even if he is a youth! Jen sets off to fulfill his master's wishes, even though he doesn't even know how he's supposed to know what this shard looks like or exactly what to do with it when he finds it. Throughout his epic journey, Jen meets many strange and fantastic creatures to help him along the way.
I should probably have mentioned by now that this is a Jim Henson film. All of the creatures and characters are muppets of some form. Watching this now, with the special effects and graphics that we are used to by today's standards, The Dark Crystal is still spectacularly well done. The level of detail and the uniqueness of the characters is simply amazing. Some of the characters, such as Aughra, the Mystics, the Skeksis, and the Garthim are live people in costumes that can be animated to show emotions, facial expressions, etc. The rest of the characters, such as Fizzgig and the Podlings (which very much remind me of the Fraggles on Fraggle Rock) are true muppets, controlled on a rod like puppets. Almost everything in the movie is real, very little was added as special effects.
The special features on the second DVD include The World of "The Dark Crystal," Reflections of "The Dark Crystal," Extra Scenes, and Character Illustrations. "The World of" shows the making of the movie, which is really quite interesting to see how they created everything and where they came up with the ideas. "Reflections of" is more of a remembrance of Jim Henson and his visions on the film, which is also quite informative. There's only one scene listed as a deleted scene, and then several original language workprint scenes. The deleted scene is pretty long, and does add a little to our knowledge of the emperor's funeral. It and the workprint scenes are rough quality, but interesting to watch. The Character Illustrations are all the original drawings of the characters.
When I was a child, The Dark Crystal ran me through a gamut of emotions. Fear, sadness, joy and amazement all entered my mind at some point during the film. As an adult, I'm pleased that it still has the same impact, especially in the new high definition film transfer which makes the details even more beautiful than I remembered. I consider it to be a timeless classic, and kids and adults of all ages in any time period will be amazed and will be drawn into this tale of good versus evil. If you've never seen it, you should. If you haven't seen it in years, you should definitely get it and watch it again!
