The Dark Crystal

It had been sitting either on my desk or the coffee table downstairs for about a month before I finally gave it more than a “I’ve got to get to that” thought. I had been receiving e-mail after e-mail about its due date, and being the lazy product of the Internet that I am I simply checked renew instead of making an effort to actually view the film and then walk down to the library to return it. By the end of the month, I could have sworn it was not only following me around the apartment but also growling softly in my ear.

Or maybe making a high pitched “Mmhmm”.

I really should have popped this movie in sooner.

The Dark Crystal is a product of Jim Henson, that amazing mind who came with Muppets Treasure Island, and firmly has a place in cult 80’s children movies like Labyrinth and the Never Ending Story trilogy.

The plots are never award worthy, but they have their moments of such absurdity that you cannot help but love them. For example, The Dark Crystal’s trial for emperor is not a fight to the death, but rather a test to see who can make the biggest dent in a rock. And in Labyrinth, who doesn’t laugh a the line “Your mother is an aardvark!”. Things in the 80’s were just so out there, hair included, that you can only raise an eyebrow and laugh.

But what really made this movie for me was the sets. I’ve never seen anything so elaborate. Okay, so Middle Earth is drop dead gorgeous and Hogwarts is jaw dropping, but a lot of the sets are natural or done digitally. Sometimes even with paints.

The forest in the Dark Crystal thrums with life that come straight out of a think tank of seven year olds, and it all moves. It’s a real, working set and the details just blows me away. Nothing like it is seen in movies today and it almost saddens me because it’s such a great work of art. And then of course I think of how just how beautiful the Transformers are and think not is all lost in this digital age.

What also got me during Henson’s movie was the puppets. The entire cast is composed of them, and yet there are moments when they move so fluidly in full body shots you can’t help but pause in following the narrative and think, how does that work?

And the detail! You can see in every wrinkle of skin, every sunken scab, every exoskeleton dent that it’s obvious much time, effort, and money went into constructing them. How can you not love a movie that pays so much attention to the details? Everything is taken care of and watched closely. As amusing as catching the tiny out of place details in other movies is, it’s nice to know that some film crews love their work so much that they make sure everything is perfect. True artists if you ask me.

Your 80’s fanatic,

Jenny