Until The Crystal Cracked

I have seen many movies that drained my intelligence while I watched. Very few do the exact opposite, and The Dark Crystal is one of them. I actually feel smarter just watching it. This movie has enough good ideas for twenty (20) movies. I think Jim Henson's company had a meeting of the minds over some Halfling weed and the outcome was this movie. A live action movie with no human actors. I have a hunch if Yoda had failed in Empire Strikes Back this movie would never have been made. Or, put another way, thanks to Yoda I bet Jim Henson was inspired to do make a movie with an all Muppet cast. And a diverse cast of creature it is. Every character/muppet is fleshed out enough to seem real. The backgrounds are filled with natural imagery that blends well with the muppet actors to create a believable world. A world so far removed from our own that the plot had to be a simple tale of good and evil, wrapped around prophecy and extinction. Even though the plot is really nothing new (it's kind of a kids movie) it's refreshing to see it applied to such a lush fantasy environment, which reminds me a little of the "fairy tale" realm of Legend. I've seen live action movies with real people that failed to convey the richness of story-telling that is given to us in the Dark Crystal.

Comparing this movie now versus when I was a child is more difficult than I thought. This movie brings out the child in me. And the child in me says the Skeksis are the most real looking creation in the movie. If Raptors became the dominant, sentient life-form on Earth they would look like the Skeksis. These things move, act and talk like actual creatures. And, when I was a child, they came off kind of scary. Evil should be scary so you can tell them apart from the good guy Mystics. In the Audio Commentary the conceptual designer, Brian Froud, even admits to combining Birds and Dinosaurs to make the Skeksis, which beats Jurassic Park to the connection. They even have teeth and beaks, and each of the ten (10) Skeksis looks different. SPOILER WARNING. Two (2) of the oddest/creepiest moments in the movie comes with the death of the emperor, as this dessicated near-corpse of a bird-thing rattles out it's death cry to gasp a final breath (in exact opposition to the gentle fading of the Mystic leader, Yoda-style), and the Chamberlain's banishment, when all the others gleefully tear his clothes off while he screams, leaving him a nearly naked Skesis clutching the wall, moaning like he (it is a he isn't it) was raped. Eerie. And it's disgusting to watch them eat. If you find yourself loathing them and finding them uncomfortable to watch, then Jim Henson did his job perfectly. You're supposed to hate them.

The Mystics, also called the UrRu, are the balance of evil; being gentle, giant multi-armed cow-trolls that hum a lot and contemplate the universe (I think). They move slowly and appear as ancient as the Skeksis are hideous. Their valley home and environment is natural with lots of life and the water that supports it, much like a park. I even began to realize that spirals are a motif on their monuments and artifacts and even in the wrinkles of their skin. It gives them a history, and reminds me of the Valley Of Wind from Nausicaa. Some of the most stunning visuals in the movie are the long distant shots of Mystics on the move towards the Crystal Castle, very slow and graceful. They practically had to start walking at the beginning of the movie to make it there by the end.

An interesting, almost zen, approach to the UrRu and the Skeksis characters is that their souls are linked. They were once a single creature, an UrSkek, and now separate. Much like Kirk when split by the transporter accident in "The Enemy Within" one is good and one is bad. However, unlike Kirk, when one is injured or killed so is the other. As a child a hated the idea that your life is at the mercy of the bad guys. This produces an interesting dilemma about fighting the Skeksis, if you kill one you lose a Mystic, too. Not at all an American philosophy. As a Skeksis dies it crumbles to ash while a Mystic merely fades away, pushing the yin/yang of the split race.

But this is a story of the Gelfling of prophecy know as Jen, the last Male Gelfling. He's directed to fix the Dark Crystal by finding the Shard and replacing it. The Shard is in the care of Aughra, who ought to be Yoda's girlfriend. The one thing that stood out the most to me as a child was Aughra's observatory, which looks like a brain growing out of a mountain. The orrery (yes, it's a real word, look it up) was the most fascinating prop to me. It represents their star system, their world. I thought our solar system was busy, their system is a mess. One planet (I think its a planet) is bisected and both halves rotate separately, must be a gas giant. I was, and still am, angry the walking lobster-crabs (called Garthim) destroy her home. And that is another thing I applaud in the story is that danger isn't watered down. There is death and consequence in this story. Even mother-nature rears its ugly/beautiful head as creatures succumb to the food chain. In fact the planet's swamps look like a brighter version of Dagobah. As Jen explores the world he encounters the last Female Gelfling. The two (2) mind meld and join forces to fix the Crystal. Then the Pod People appear and they certainly look like in inspiration for Ewoks, except the Pod People are cool. These guys are more expressive in the few times they're on screen than most actors. The Garthim attack the Pod People, putting them in baskets to take back to their masters as slaves. I don't know about you but the basket/net they stuck the Pod People in looked a lot like the human basket holder of the Tripods in T Cruz's War Of The Worlds. Just a thought.

I'm going to explain a little of their planet, called Thra. Orbiting a trinary star system, Thra is home to several different sentient life-forms (since Earth has one, maybe two, this is astounding) that all seem attuned to the planet, except the Skeksis, which consume life (literally) to stay alive. Jim Henson's shop should be given bonus points for creating critters all up and down the food chain. The Skeksis castle has these little rodent sized black puff-balls rolling around all the way up to stilt-walking Camel-sized Land-Striders as riding animals. There are things that are plants or animals, you can't even tell, they're like a "planimal" or something. Check out the "Land Anemones" on Aughra's mountain. Even Jen comments, "this place is weird." When an actual character in the movie thinks it's weird, that's saying something. And by contrast is the Skeksis Castle, a giant claw grabbing at the sky, is surrounded by cracked, desolate earth. Of note are the dark clouds above the castle. They flash with lightning but it never touches the ground. The castle seems to absorb energy through the ground, sustaining the inhabitants, as the deep chasms surrounding the area draw in energy waves.

I could go on all night writing accolades for everything done right in this movie, but I don't want to uncover every stone. Much like TRON (yeah, TRON) The Dark Crystal was uniquely created and no other movie since has matched the style and feeling of wonder watching it. It's a strange movie to behold but a simple tale that's easy to follow, with creative direction at any corner. The ending is fairly predictable but still fits in with the nature of the movie. If the movie had ended any other way it just wouldn't feel right. And we're less than two (2) years from the sequel. Unless, you hate muppets, see this movie again immediately and refresh yourself and uncover your own stones. BTW, Crystal Method's debut album, Vegas, featured samples from this movie on their opening track, Trip Like I Do. See you next broadcast.