A Turkey Vulture with a Turtle Shell.
Jim Henson’s The Dark Crystal (1982) melds the steadfast costume and stage creativity of Henson’s company with a story that is fairly and drearily predictable – for the seasoned story junkie. Jen is the last Gelfling, a species of humanoid form and big ears. As an orphan, he’s been raised by the slow moving and large nature wizards, living in a village. The wizards, driven from their castle ages ago by the monstrous Skeksis, number only ten, and have raised Jen since he was found after the massacre of his people.
Jen’s personal friend and mentor, the greatest of the wizards, instructs Jen to find Aughra, who has a shard of the Dark Crystal, and to use that shard to repair the Dark Crystal residing in the castle before the Grand Conjunction of the three suns of the sky occurs. Jen’s mentor, bent with age, then dies and rapidly disintegrates, leaving Jen with obscure directions. In parallel, the Emperor of the Skeksis also dies, leading to a succession fight and the exile of the loser. Jen leaves on his quest, and as he does so, the new Emperor catches a glimpse of him through the magic of the Dark Crystal. As the Gelflings are prophesied to destroy the Skeksis, a certain disconcertment runs rampant through the Skeksis community, numbering nine after the demise of the Emperor. The personal guard of the Skeksis is assigned to dispatch Jen.
Jen reaches Aughra’s keep; she is a cryptic creature with a delightful attitude and not enough to do in this movie. As the Skeksis personal guard breaches her defenses, Jen escapes with Shard in hand and Aughra is taken prisoner.
As Jen proceeds toward the castle to complete his repair job, he encounters yet another surviving Gelfling, Kira. Getting to know each other through a mind meld, they agree to work as a team, and they stop at a local village of Podlings, akin to those who saved Kira from the massacre. Midway through their nightly feast, the Skeksis minions attack, but when all seems lost for the Gelflings, the exiled Skeksis appears to call off the guard and permit the escape of the Gelflings.
The Gelflings proceed on their way and reach the castle, even as the nature wizards leave their home for the castle. Various adventures ensue as the Gelflings find their way into the castle, endure a trap from the exiled Skeksis, and find their way to the Dark Crystal. The nature wizards arrive just in time to take advantage of the restoration of the crystal, returning to their former selves as they absorb the Skeksis and take the blame for breaking the Dark Crystal. All is restored to what it should be.
The delight of the movie is the costumes and puppetry. The Skeksis are a work of art in terms of visual presentation, each a personalized version of a man melded to a foul-tempered vulture. There are too many to recognize each as an individual, but their collective insane rapaciousness certainly marks them as the antagonists. Jen and Kira exhibit more range of personality, if not as intense as the Skeksis, as somewhat painfully naive creatures with unexpected (and far too convenient) powers. The guards are adequately horrifying; the forest creatures are fun. The Podlings are full blown Muppets.
From the moment the nature wizards’ leader and the Skeksis Emperor die in concert, the story is somewhat predictable – at least, for the experienced audience member. For the younger set, though, there’ll be a certain delight in this story, the novel creatures and the basic lesson of Never give up having the usual charm and attraction.
But it’s difficult to say the story is compelling. We watched more for the creature novelty than for the resolution of the story, which we had guessed early on. But more importantly is the lack of interesting thematic material, which is made particularly insipid by the restoration of all to what it should be by the restored creatures at the end. A story like this is better terminated by acknowledging and bearing up under the sacrifices made, with either the faith that all will be better because of it – or even the proof of same. The restoration saps the story of this important lesson.
If you have kids, show them the movie. But you may be disappointed if you’re watching it for its themes. Enjoy the Skeksis, instead.
