Flashback Corner--The Dark Crystal

“To save our world Gelfling, you must find the shard.”

          In any fantasy story, the most important part is world-buliding.  J.R.R. Tolkien wrote that before you start to tell your story, you need a map.  That’s why on the inside cover of a lot of fantasy books, you see a map of the world your about to enter.  Jim Henson and Frank Oz understood this concept when they decided to create the world that would become their greatest film.  “The Dark Crystal”

I was seven years old when I saw this incredible film in the theater.  I was amazed by what was projected on the screen.  What started when I was a toddler learning to spell and count from puppets on Sesame Street, to two years previous where I truly believed a little green puppet was a Jedi master.  Suddenly I was introduced to a fantastic world that was inhabited by these creatures, some weird, some scary, and some heroic.  It helped that it followed many common elements seen in Star Wars, the reluctant hero, a quest, wizards.  It even starts like Star Wars… “Another world, Another time”.

Watching it now, thirty years later, and with a critical eye, I see some faults, like the partial narration, probably used to help kids to understand what’s going on.  The clunky, static way things move, because of the restrictions of the puppets.  However, what has remained thankfully is the appreciation of what was created.  The puppets don’t bob up and down when they walk like the muppets did.   It bravely told a classic story with dark elements not thinking of parents groups or a ratings board.  Let’s also not forget that no film up until that point had used puppets as its entire cast.  And no film has done it since, at least not as successful, magical, and wonderful as “The Dark Crystal” did.  The creative force that was Jim Henson and Frank Oz has never been repeated, the passion and heart that went into the creation of this film is completely evident.  I can’t wait to show my kids who have been raised on computer generated characters.  I can’t wait to say “Look at this…  This, is real.”     

--Robert L. Castillo