• Home
  • Movies
  • Music
  • TV
  • Video Games
  • Wrestling
  • Topics
  • Latest Comments on Cult of Whatever
Search
Cult of Whatever logo
  • Movies
    Featured
    • The Living Daylights: Timothy Dalton as James Bond

      The Living Daylights is still awesome, thirty-five years later

      By Matthew Martin
      | March 28, 2022
      Movie Blogs
    Recent
    • The Muppet Christmas Carol: Michael Caine as Scrooge

      The Muppet’s Christmas Carol remains the gold standard for the book

      By Matthew Martin
      | December 20, 2022
    • Nightmare Before Christmas 1993 1

      2022’s Christmas Movie Watchlist!

      By Matthew Martin
      | December 18, 2022
    • Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio Poster

      REVIEW: GDT’s Pinocchio is my favorite film of the year!

      By Matthew Martin
      | December 14, 2022
    • Troll: Ine Marie Wilmann as Nora

      REVIEWS: TROLL and TROLL HUNTER -A giant creature double feature!

      By Matthew Martin
      | December 5, 2022
    • Harry with The Hendersons

      Harry and the Hendersons is still awesome, thirty-five years later

      By Matthew Martin
      | December 1, 2022
    • Fantastic Four Poster

      The five best “rogues galleries” in superherodom! (part 3)

      By Matthew Martin
      | November 28, 2022
  • Music
    Random
    • Fozzy Happenstance Cover

      Fozzy - Happenstance Review

      By Steve Sky
      | August 6, 2003
      Music
    Recent
    • The Beatles: Get Back

      What GET BACK reveals about the Beatles

      By Matthew Martin
      | December 15, 2021
    • Simon And Garfunkel at Feyenoord Stadium in Rotterdam1982

      The Boxer is a song about being conned

      By Matthew Martin
      | July 4, 2021
    • Lady Gaga: Chromatica Album Cover

      Lady Gaga’s discography is totally out of order

      By Matthew Martin
      | June 3, 2021
    • Michael Jackson Thriller Album Cover

      Thirty years ago music fans said “Nevermind” to Michael Jackson

      By Matthew Martin
      | March 21, 2021
    • Queen II Album Cover

      On Queen’s The Miracle, and the importance of track ordering

      By Matthew Martin
      | February 16, 2021
    • Linda Paul Mccartney 1976

      50 years ago, McCartney dropped “Lennon” and went solo…

      By Matthew Martin
      | June 5, 2020
  • TV
    Featured
    • Big Sky S03e05: Kylie Bunbury, J. Anthony Pena and Katheryn Winnick as Cassie Dewell, Mo Poppernak and Jenny Hoyt

      Big Sky S03E05 Review: Flesh and Blood - Glamping!

      By Salome G
      | October 22, 2022
      TV Blogs
    Recent
    • Big Sky S03e10: Gang

      Big Sky S03E10 Review: A Thin Layer of Rock – Break time…

      By Salome G
      | December 11, 2022
    • Rick And Morty: S01e03

      Is Beth from Rick and Morty a bigger sociopath than Rick?

      By Jason Collins
      | December 7, 2022
    • Big Sky S03e09: Dedee Pfeiffer and Cree as Denise and Emily

      Big Sky S03E09: Where There’s Smoke There’s Fire – Stalling

      By Salome G
      | December 1, 2022
    • The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special: Dave Bautista and Pom Klementieff as Drax and Mantis

      REVIEW: The GOTG Holiday Special is a sweet prelude to next year’s finale

      By Matthew Martin
      | November 27, 2022
    • The Midnight Club S01: The Gang

      The Midnight Club S1 Review – A series of unfortunate events

      By Salome G
      | November 24, 2022
    • Big Sky S03e08: Reba McEntire as Sunny Barnes

      Big Sky S03E08 Review: Duck Hunting – I love a weirdo.

      By Salome G
      | November 19, 2022
  • Video Games
    Featured
    • Arkham Knight

      Batman: Arkham Knight - A fitting end to a trilogy

      By Tom Farr
      | July 18, 2015
      Video Game Reviews
    Recent
    • Splatoon 3 Screenshot

      A trio of Nintendo Switch reviews!

      By Matthew Martin
      | September 28, 2022
    • Nintendo Switch Logo

      Looking ahead to the Switch 2: Predictions and Wants

      By Matthew Martin
      | August 15, 2022
    • Legend Of Zelda

      Can a Legend of Zelda movie work?

      By Matthew Martin
      | April 6, 2022
    • Super Mario 64

      Which system had the better launch: A battle of four Nintendo consoles

      By Matthew Martin
      | December 1, 2021
    • Luigi's Mansion

      Happy twentieth to Nintendo’s underrated gem, the Gamecube

      By Matthew Martin
      | November 18, 2021
    • Metroid Dread

      Metroid Dread – Post Game analysis and sequel needs

      By Matthew Martin
      | October 29, 2021
  • Wrestling
    Featured
    • AEW All Out 2022: Keith Lee. Anthony Bowens, Max Caster and Billy Gunn

      AEW All Out 2022 - Review and (wild) Speculation!

      By Matthew Martin
      | September 5, 2022
      AEW
    Recent
    • WWE WrestleMania 38: Cody Rhodes vs. Seth Rollins

      Was 2022 the wildest year in wrestling history?

      By Matthew Martin
      | January 4, 2023
    • AEW Full Gear 2022: Young Bucks and Kenny Omega Elite Entrance

      AEW Full Gear 2022 – A needed reset at the end of a tough year

      By Matthew Martin
      | November 22, 2022
    • WWE Survivor Series 1997: Bret Hart

      The Montreal Screwjob – Twenty Five Years Later

      By Matthew Martin
      | November 8, 2022
    • AEW Grand Slam 2022: Jungle Boy and Rey Fenix

      AEW GRANDSLAM 2022 showcased the present and future of the promotion

      By Matthew Martin
      | September 25, 2022
    • AEW All Out 2022: CM Punk

      AEW All Out Fall Out: All the CM Punk drama that’s fit to print!

      By Matthew Martin
      | September 5, 2022
    • AEW Dark: Ricky Starks (22/09/20)

      The future of the AEW World Championship

      By Matthew Martin
      | August 14, 2022
  • Topics
    • site logo
    Latest
    • Was 2022 the wildest year in wrestling history?
    • The Muppet's Christmas Carol remains the gold standard for the book
    • 2022's Christmas Movie Watchlist!
    • REVIEW: GDT's Pinocchio is my favorite film of the year!
    • Big Sky S03E10 Review: A Thin Layer of Rock - Break time...
    • Is Beth from Rick and Morty a bigger sociopath than Rick?

    Dark Crystal is still awesome, 35 years later…

    By Matthew Martin
    | May 25, 2017
    Movie Blogs

    This year, Cult of Whatever is looking back on some of the great movies of 1982. It’s been thirty-five years since these films first captivated audiences. Some of them were blockbuster hits, while others needed a few years on home video to find their groove. Whatever their box office intake, these movies are genuine classics and deserve recognition.

    We started in January with Conan the Barbarian (see our stream of consciousness look-back here) and then followed it up in February with TRON (look back on its legacy here). In March we reminisced about The Secret of NIMH, a classic fantasy from the legendary animator Don Bluth (click here to read all about it). Last month we talked about the forgotten gem The Sword and the Sorcerer (we reflect on its overlooked history here).

    This month another fantasy film gets the spotlight.

    Dark Crystal Poster

    Jim Henson, the brains behind this operation and one of the authors of my (and countless others’) childhood, has a great quote about the need for children to experience powerful images at an early age:

    I think it’s good when children see something scary in a movie or read it in a book. Children should never feel completely at ease when they’re experiencing a medium like that. Strong emotions leave an imprint that creates a connection that will last into adulthood.

    That’s a motto I have always lived by, especially now as a father of three young boys. I didn’t realize my own personal philosophy was shared by Henson, but now that I see his quote I wonder if I didn’t subconsciously steal it from him after seeing an interview or something growing up.

    Henson’s original fantasy film The Dark Crystal will probably not be considered “scary” by anyone’s metric, but it’s also not a “kid’s movie” the way “kid’s movies” are today. There’s no obnoxious comic relief character, spitting out inane fart jokes or groan-inducing one-liners. There’s no pandering or simplifying concepts like death, loss, suspicion and other “grown up” themes. This isn’t a “scary” movie, but it’s not going to intentionally soften anything just in case you might be too young to tolerate it. It’s a fantasy for anyone (or any age) who likes that genre.

    Dark Crystal 3

    The masterminds of the Muppets co-wrote and co-directed this film to be a straight fantasy epic, not specifically targeted at kids or adults. The 1980’s were a great decade for fantasy adventure movies (many of which have been highlighted in this series). Star Wars played a big role in bringing the genre back, and even though Lucas’ stories were set against a sci-fi backdrop, the idea of fantastical stories with wizards, sword fights, hocus pocus and boyish fun can be told in a lot of ways. Movies like Conan and Sword and the Sorcerer went for the classic “medieval-style” look, but The Dark Crystal went its own way.

    Henson started the project, not with a treatment or an idea, but with a world. He wanted to visualize the landscape, the races of the planet and the history of everything leading up to his story, knowing that history would never be shown or told on film. It was important to work backwards (most movies start with a story and then the designs follow the ideas), Henson said, because it helped the storyteller avoid slipping into the realm of the cliched.

    The film is set on an alien world, but there’s no planet-hopping space ships or other sci-fi components. There’s a strong magical/fantasy element to the story (which focuses on the titular crystal similar to something you might find in an old Final Fantasy game), but there’s no semblance to “ancient earth” like you find in Conan and such like. To that end, the movie features exactly zero “human” characters. In fact, The Dark Crystal is the first live-action movie ever made to feature no actors at all.

    Care was put into the environment as well to give it, subtly, a alien feel: Some shots feature animals that were designed to pass for plants at first glance, and plants that might suddenly crawl around like an animal. These strange additions to the environment were often tucked away in the background of shots with no focus or attention given to it. But it was important for it to be there, because it gives an almost subconscious feel that the world is not our own.

    The major creatures on display can’t be easily described, because they don’t fall in line with the usual way in which fantasy creatures are usually designed: There’s no “lion with the body of a horse” or “cheetah that walks on two legs.” These are truly other-worldly animals and characters, all brought to life through the incredible skill of Henson’s creature shop. Sometimes puppeteers (muppeteers?) were walking on stilts. Sometimes they were almost entirely doubled over and shimmying across the floor. Some suits were fitted with tiny monitors so the performers could see their performance from inside the darkened costume. Sometimes they wore suits so heavy and intricate they periodically had to be hung up on a rack (while still inside the suits) just to relieve pressure on their spines. These are some of the most complex creature designs ever seen (even by present-day standards), and they needed to be in order to help the audience slip into the world and not be distracted by the artificial nature of it all.

    Dark Crystal 5

    Dark Crystal 4

    Henson and his daughter mapped out the basic plot while stuck at an airport. The idea is based on Seth Material (google it, it’s weird) and the idea of a perfect entity being split into two parts, one good and one evil. The good side in the movie is represented by the spiritual Mystics and Gelfings. The bad side is presented in the form of the Skesis. The Mystics are monk like beings, while their evil counterparts are worldly, passionate, materialistic brutes. What makes The Dark Crystal interesting is that the ultimate goal of the story is not to kill the bad guy, but instead to merge both sides—good and bad—back together. At the end of the movie (spoiler alert) the heroes bring the shard of the dark crystal back to its source, with one of them dying to do so. The crystal reacts to being restored by causing the Mystics and the Skesis to merge into a unified race known as UrSkeks. These new, heavenly creatures bring the fallen hero back from the head, and allow the Gelfings to walk the newly-rejuvenated land as its protective race.

    Dark Crystal 1

    It’s an ambitious story, wholly original in content and in the way Henson and crew brought it to life. Henson co-produced it along with ITC (a British Television company), with Universal agreeing to distribute the film. Gary Kurtz, fresh off of producing Star Wars and The Empire Strikes Back left Lucasfilm behind (pushed out by George, but that’s another story) and chose this to be his next movie. In all, over five years was spent developing the ambitious project, with Henson hoping it would spawn into a series of films. The film was put together with only a fifteen million dollar budget (The Empire Strikes Back had almost twice that two years prior) in the hopes that it would have a low bar to clear in order to turn a profit.

    It was released on the weekend before Christmas, but unlike today that was one of the busier times for big releases. 48 Hours, Gandhi, Tootsie, Airplane II, and the sixth Pink Panther movie were all released that month and Dark Crystal had enough headwind anyway with its subject matter being hard to condense to a thirty second TV commercial or even a two minute theatrical trailer. Parents assumed the movie would be “too dark” for their kids, teenagers thought it would be “too childish” due to the names attached to project: Henson and Oz. Critics were mostly indifferent to it as well, with some dismissing it as a Lord of the Rings knockoff, though almost everyone rightfully praised the effect work done to bring the film to life.

    In the end the movie earned forty million dollars, which maybe gave it a slight profit, but (in the eyes of executives) not enough to justify the half-decade spent developing it. Henson’s plans for a sequel were scrapped, though he did try again with another fantasy epic: the delightfully bizarre David Bowie-led “Labyrinth.” Dark Crystal came and went, however, and never really developed the kind of cult following that other forgotten classics like Conan The Barbarian did. Its fans remain loyal defenders, but its fanbase has not really grown over the past three decades. The movie is one of those that many people have heard of (in a “Oh yeah, I think I know that movie” sort of way), but few have ever sat down to watch.

    But watch it you should. It’s a true work of art, a genuine passion project by one of cinema’s most wonderful imaginators, and film every fantasy-lover should not only watch, but turn others onto as well. Unlike a lot of fantasy movies from years gone by, the love and care put into The Dark Crystal‘s special effects have made it timeless. It’s still engrossing as it was in 1982, still fun, still remarkable to behold, and still awesome…thirty five years later.

    Share this article:

    Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Share on Pinterest Share on Reddit

    Tags

    1982 MoviesFantasy MoviesJim HensonThe Dark Crystal

    COMMENTS

    Please read our Commenting Policy before you join in with the discussion.

    Note: If you have email notifications enabled, please check your email spam folders to ensure emails are not missed.

    Subscribe
    Connect withD
    I allow to create an account
    When you login first time using a Social Login button, we collect your account public profile information shared by Social Login provider, based on your privacy settings. We also get your email address to automatically create an account for you in our website. Once your account is created, you'll be logged-in to this account.
    DisagreeAgree
    Notify of
    guest

    Connect withD
    I allow to create an account
    When you login first time using a Social Login button, we collect your account public profile information shared by Social Login provider, based on your privacy settings. We also get your email address to automatically create an account for you in our website. Once your account is created, you'll be logged-in to this account.
    DisagreeAgree
    guest

    0 Comments
    Inline Feedbacks
    View all comments

    You might also like

    • CONAN THE BARBARIAN is still awesome, 35 years later…

      By Matthew Martin
      | January 9, 2017
    • TRON is still awesome, 35 years later…

      By Matthew Martin
      | February 16, 2017
    • The Secret of NIMH is still awesome, 35 years later…

      By Matthew Martin
      | March 12, 2017
    • The Sword and the Sorcerer is still awesome, 35 years later…

      By Matthew Martin
      | April 27, 2017
    • Star Trek II-IV is one of the 80’s best trilogies and Star Trek’s best cinematic realization.

      By Matthew Martin
      | August 18, 2016
    • “A New Hope” and the mythology of Star Wars

      By Matthew Martin
      | December 12, 2015
    • Kubo and the Two Strings Review: Masterfully crafted

      By Matthew Martin
      | August 24, 2016

    FIND THE TOPICS YOU WANT...

    Movie Topics

    Recommended for you

    • REVIEW: GDT’s Pinocchio is my favorite film of the year!

      By Matthew Martin
      | December 14, 2022
    • REVIEWS: TROLL and TROLL HUNTER -A giant creature double feature!

      By Matthew Martin
      | December 5, 2022
    • Harry and the Hendersons is still awesome, thirty-five years later

      By Matthew Martin
      | December 1, 2022
    • The five best “rogues galleries” in superherodom! (part 3)

      By Matthew Martin
      | November 28, 2022
    • Spirited Away remains Studio Ghibli’s “greatest” film

      By Matthew Martin
      | October 16, 2022
    • Read the Book Instead: The most disappointing book-to-film adaptations

      By Oliver Johnston
      | September 20, 2021
    • About Us
    • Contact Us
    • Privacy Policy
    • Affiliate Disclosure
    • Cookie Policy and Settings
    • Terms of Use
    • Photo Credits
    • RSS
    All Cult of Whatever articles, logos, illustrations and graphics are copyright CultOfWhatever.com. All other trademarks, logos and copyrights are the property of their respective owners. © 2021 CultOfWhatever. All Rights Reserved.
    • facebook
    • twitter
    wpDiscuz