Dark Crystal, The: Limited Edition Collector’s Set (4K UHD Review)

Reviewed by: Stephen Bjork
Review Date: Dec 03, 2024
Format: 4K Ultra HD

Director

Jim Henson, Frank Oz

Release Date(s)

1982 (November 19, 2024)

Studio(s)

ITC Entertainment/Henson Associates (Shout! Studios)

Film/Program Grade: B+
Video Grade: A-
Audio Grade: A-
Extras Grade: A
Overall Grade: A

Review

After the successful run of The Muppet Show on television, it was perhaps inevitable that co-creators Jim Henson and Frank Oz would take their lovable gang of misfits and make the leap to the big screen. They did just that with The Muppet Movie in 1979, releasing it while the series was still on the air. The Muppet Movie was also a major success, so they quickly turned around with a sequel The Great Muppet Caper, which opened shortly after the final episode of the show aired in 1981. The Great Muppet Caper was a bit more experimental, trading in the freewheeling Hellzapoppin’ nature of the series and the first film for a relatively linear narrative. Clearly, Henson and Oz were looking to stretch their legs a bit after having done the same thing for many years, and while The Great Muppet Caper was a less successful than its predecessor, they decided to double down creatively with their next project. The result was a film that was quite unlike anything else that had ever been seen prior to that point, at least as far as mainstream filmmaking was concerned: The Dark Crystal.

With The Dark Crystal, Henson and Oz took a major leap of faith by introducing a fantasy world that wasn’t based on a previous intellectual property. More importantly, it was one that was populated solely by puppets, without a single human character in sight (even if they did end up hedging their bets slightly in that regard, but more on that in a moment). Jim Henson’s original story idea was fleshed out by writer Dennis Odell, with fantasy artist Brian Froud designing all of the characters and much of the world that surrounded them—and what an extraordinary world that it proved to be.

The Dark Crystal is a classic tale of good vs. evil, with a Jungian twist. Evil is represented by the Skeksis, a race whose gnarled exteriors are matched by the twisted nature of their souls. They rule over the world by exploiting the power of the Dark Crystal. Meanwhile, their good counterparts the Mystics have been living quiet lives following the ways of natural magic. Yet a Great Conjunction is approaching that could cement the rule of the Skeksis forever, so the leader of the Mystics calls on Jen, the last of the Gelflings, to find a lost shard from the Dark Crystal in order to heal it. There’s an ancient prophecy that during the Great Conjunction, what was sundered and undone shall be whole, the two made one—but by a Gelfing’s hand only. So, Jen sets off on a quest to track down the shard, aided by the oracle Aughra, and finds out along the way that he might not be the last Gelfling after all.

Jen’s adventures form a pretty basic quest story, but they’re bolstered in this case by the use of Jungian archetypes to drive the narrative structure. The Skeksis essentially represent the animus, or the masculine side of consciousness, while the Mystics are their opposing anima, or the feminine side. They’re really two halves of the same persona, but ever since the Crystal was shattered, they’ve been living as separate incomplete beings. It’s a familiar concept that’s been used repeatedly in science fiction and fantasy, perhaps most notoriously in the Richard Matheson-penned Star Trek episode The Enemy Within. Matheson was inspired more directly by Robert Louis Stevenson and The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, but he absorbed enough Jung to make the “evil” Captain Kirk masculine while the “good” Kirk was feminized—and as performed by William Shatner (who wasn’t exactly the king of subtlety), those differences were exaggerated to the point of making the “good” Kirk not merely feminine, but blatantly effete. Fortunately, The Dark Crystal doesn’t make the same mistake, with the Mystics possessing plenty of strength in their own gentle way—they’re not weak, just incomplete.

As interesting as that mythologizing may be, it still remains firmly in the background while experiencing The Dark Crystal. What’s foregrounded instead is the astonishing worldbuilding on display in every single inch of every single frame. The lore that drives the narrative may be equally dense, but it’s still secondary to what’s happening front and center at any given moment. Henson, Oz, Odell, Froud, production designer Harry Lange, and a legion of other talented artisans crafted a world that’s a joy to behold, filled with unforgettable creations like the Skeksis, Mystics, Garthim, Aughra, Fizzgig, Landstriders, and Podlings. Even the various incidental creatures seen at the margins make an impression. In fact, the only real disappointment with The Dark Crystal is that Henson and Oz felt the need to anchor the story with humanoid characters, and unsurprisingly, the Gelflings ended up being the weakest characters in the entire film. Yet as missteps go, that’s a minor one that doesn’t take away from the wonders that The Dark Crystal has to offer.

Still, The Dark Crystal had a challenging time finding an audience in 1982. While it was moderately successful, it was also expensive to produce, so the return on investment didn’t match what The Muppet Movie had done two years previously. That’s not surprising, because it’s a family film that’s not really a family film, filled with adult elements that aren’t really aimed at adults. Instead, The Dark Crystal is aimed at the narrower audience of adults who never grew up. Henson and Oz were like the classic Warner Bros. animation directors in that regard, making something to amuse themselves and hoping that audiences of all ages came along for the ride. While it was an unqualified artistic success, they still ended up running home to momma for their next film The Muppets Take Manhattan, and when Henson reunited with Froud a few years later to make Labyrinth, he really hedged his bets by having human actors play the lead characters. Yet nothing can change the fact that Henson and Oz took a leap of faith with The Dark Crystal that resulted in a film that’s truly unique in the annals of mainstream commercial filmmaking.

Cinematographer Oswald Morris shot The Dark Crystal on 35mm film using Panavision Panaflex Gold cameras with Panavision anamorphic lenses, framed at 2.39:1 for its theatrical release. (70mm prints were blow-ups that were re-framed at 2.20:1.) This version is based on a 4K scan of the original camera negative, digitally cleaned up and graded for High Dynamic Range in Dolby Vision and HDR10. Both Labyrinth and The Dark Crystal were initially released on UHD in HDR10 only, and while Labyrinth eventually received an Anniversary upgrade to Dolby Vision prior to these new Shout! Factory reissues, this does appear to be the first time that The Dark Crystal has been given the same makeover. In all other respects, it’s the same basic master. Fine details are nicely resolved, like the wispy hairs under the chin of the dying Skeksis emperor, and the wires supporting the Crystal are clearly visible—there hasn’t been any revisionary cleanup here. That also means that the dupe elements for the optical effects stand out in comparison to the raw negative footage, but that’s simply how the film was produced. Those shots look unavoidable soft, with coarse grain, but the grain is smoother and more natural-looking throughout the rest of the film.

Just like with Labyrinth, the HDR grade is perhaps a little too aggressive at times, with bright highlights like Kira’s drained face looking a little too hot. The reunited urSkeks are almost blindingly bright, but that actually seems appropriate. This does appear to be a different encoding than was used on the original Sony disc, because that one struggled occasionally with the highlights—for example, the pinks and purples on the Crystal were sometimes marred by swarming noise. It’s barely noticeable this time around, so between the Dolby Vision and the new encode, this version does offer slight improvements over the Sony disc.

Audio is offered in English Dolby Atmos and 2.0 stereo DTS-HD Master Audio (the older 5.1 remix has been omitted here). The Dark Crystal was released theatrically in matrix-encoded Dolby Stereo for 35mm and 6-track discrete mag for 70mm, and in that era, there’s a good chance that there were differences between the two mixes. Home video mixes have followed suit, with noticeable differences in the dialogue and sound effects over the years, possibly because some of them started from the different basic mixes or stems. Rather than rehashing unresolvable arguments over what’s right or what’s wrong, I’m simply going to focus on the quality of this Atmos remix taken on its own merits, and from that perspective, it’s outstanding. The aural improvements announce themselves from the opening shot, with thunder crashing overhead and real rumble in the bass. Everything is more immersive with sound effects moving precisely around the soundstage, from the clattering of the Garthim to Aughra’s rotating orrery. The various bits fauna in the swamp flit around the viewer in convincing fashion, and the animal revolt at the castle is almost overwhelming in Atmos. The Trevor Jones score is also reproduced perfectly. Everyone is welcome to their own deeply-held beliefs, but Atmos remixes like this one are well worth auditioning with as open a mind as is humanly possible.

Additional audio options include French and Spanish 5.1 Dolby Digital. Subtitle options include English, French, and Spanish. Note that the original Sony disc offered a bevy of different language and subtitle options that aren’t included here, so you may need to hang into it if that omission is an issue for you.

Shout! Factory’s Limited Edition Collector’s Set 4K Ultra HD release of The Dark Crystal is a two-disc set that includes a Blu-ray with a 1080p copy of the film. It also includes five art cards, a sticker, and a 28-page booklet featuring Brian Froud’s production artwork and an essay by Carlos Aguilar. Yet the big draw here is a glass replica of the Crystal shard, although unlike the crystal ball in their set for Labyrinth, it doesn’t include a stand in order to display it. As trinkets go, however, it’s still pretty cool. Everything is housed inside an oversized rigid case featuring Froud artwork, with a flap that opens up from the front in order to show off the Crystal shard. Still, Shout! being Shout! these days, it’s not quite that simple. This is the “basic” Limited Edition Collector’s Set, but they’re also offering a mondo swag set that includes a poster, a card game, a coloring book, another sticker, and enameled pins. (If you’ve got the money, Shout! will happily take if from you.) The disc-based content is identical in each case, so the following extras are included regardless:

DISC ONE: UHD

Audio Commentary with Brian Froud
Fan Event Q&A (UHD – 35:22)

DISC TWO: BD

Audio Commentary with Brian Froud
Picture-in Picture Storyboards
The Myth, Magic, and Henson Legacy (HD – 10:27)
The World of The Dark Crystal (Upscaled SD – 57:26)
Reflections of The Dark Crystal:
- Light on the Path of Creation (HD – 20:24)
- Shard of Illusion (HD – 16:16)
Original Skeksis Language (HD & Upscaled SD – 22:49)
Deleted Scenes (Upscaled SD – 3:48)
Photo Galleries (HD – 3:51, 45 in all)
Teaser Trailer (HD – :37)
Theatrical Trailer (Upscaled SD – 1:19)

The commentary with Brian Froud was originally recorded for the 2007 DVD release of The Dark Crystal. He’s an interesting choice, because while he may not have been the director or the credited screenwriter, he was intimately involved with the production from start to finish—although unlike his later collaboration with Jim Henson, he wasn’t involved with the conception of the story this time. Still, just like that film, he did design everything down to the smallest of details, the opening logos included. He goes into all of that in equally great detail in his commentary, providing plenty of insight into his thought processes about each and every design—including the surprising fact that he was disappointed by the film’s realization of his intended design for the urSkeks. It’s a good track that’s well worth a listen. There’s also an option for Picture-in-Picture Storyboards that play over the film, mixing storyboards with concept art, but frustratingly, it can’t be played together with Froud’s commentary.

Shout! has added one new extra for this release, filmed at an unspecified event. The Fan Event Q&A features Lisa Henson sitting down with a group of ardent The Dark Crystal—several groups, actually, and it keeps jumping back and forth between all of them. Henson responds to a variety of different questions, and she addresses the fact that The Dark Crystal actually performed moderately well at the box office while Labyrinth was more of a failure. She covers the challenges of making this kind of film using the technology of the day, with hiding the puppeteers being the biggest issue. She also explains some of the differences between puppeteering back then compared to doing it now for the Netflix series The Age of Resistance.

The rest of the extras are archival ones from the previous UHD, Blu-ray, and DVD releases of The Dark Crystal. The most recent one is The Myth, Magic, and Henson Legacy, which was added for the 2018 UHD release of the film. It’s an interview with Lisa Henson and Toby Froud, who provide a brief overview of the making of The Dark Crystal. Henson draws some interesting distinctions between her father and Frank Oz as co-directors.

The World of The Dark Crystal is the oldest extra in the bunch, but it’s arguably the crown jewel in the package. It was produced for television back in 1982, and it’s a comprehensive look at the making of the film. It includes vintage interviews with Jim Henson, Frank Oz, Brian Froud, Oswald Morris, producer Gary Kurtz, Gelfling supervisor Wendy Midener, Skeksis co-supervisor Lyle Conway, Garthim supervisor Fred Nihda, and many others. More importantly, it offers a wealth of behind-the-scenes footage. It’s an old fashioned, honest-to-God making of documentary, the kind that just doesn’t get made anymore. Don’t skip it just because it is a little old fashioned; you’ll learn more here than you will elsewhere.

That’s not all, though, because there’s also Reflections of The Dark Crystal, a two-part documentary that was added for the 2009 Blu-ray release. The first part Light on the Path of Creation focuses those reflections on the conception of the story and the overall design of the film, while the second part Shard of Illusion narrows things down to the creation and operation of the puppet characters. The Original Skeksis Language featurette offers writer David Odell introducing footage of the Skeksis characters speaking in their originally intended improvised language, prior to them being overdubbed into English. (It also includes some footage of Frank Oz voicing Aughra on-set, and let’s just say that it was for the best that Billie Whitelaw provided her voice in the final cut.) Finally, in addition to trailers and Photo Galleries, there’s also a brief collection of Deleted Scenes that must have been eliminated early in the editorial process, because they utilize the on-set languages prior to the re-dubbing. It’s really a single scene in several parts, showing the funerals for the Skeksis emperor and the leader of the Mystics.

That’s pretty much all of the previously available extras, minus some useless interactive features like trivia games that were on the original 2009 Blu-ray release, as well as the equally useless BD-Live functionality on that same disc. (The original DVD also had an isolated score track.) This new Shout! Factory set adds one new extra, an arguably improved encoding, and a serious piece of swag in the form of the Crystal shard. Is that enough to earn a double-dip if you already own the previous Anniversary Edition UHD? You’ll have to judge that one for yourself, but let’s just say that I’m happy.

- Stephen Bjork

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