Movies - The Dark Crystal

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	Movies - The Dark Crystal

The Dark Crystal is a 1982 fantasy film by Jim Henson and Frank Oz. Like most of Henson's other work, its characters are muppets (a merging of a marionette and a puppet), but The Muppet Show characters for which he is famous do not appear (though some of the same voice actors are used). Character and creature designs in the movie are by Brian Froud. The screenplay was written by David Odell, who had worked with Henson as a staff writer on The Muppet Show. Trevor Jones provided the film's atmospheric music. The movie makes an attempt to study the nature of good and evil in terms of conscience, vital drive, and the threefold nature of harmony. The film was produced by ITC Entertainment - the British production company responsible for producing The Muppet Show.

Tokyopop in partnership with The Jim Henson Company are planning to publish a manga-style comic based on the movie. It is planned as a prequel to the events of the film.

At the time the film was released a book titled The World of The Dark Crystal
was created by Brian Froud. The book gives much of the story background presented in this article.

Sequel

A sequel, entitled The Power of the Dark Crystal
, is currently in production for 2007. Genndy Tartakovsky is attached to direct.

Technical Notes

All characters in the movie are muppets, and none are based on humans or any other specific Earth creature.

Originally, members of one of the factions, the Skeksis, were meant to speak in their own constructed language. The Skeksis dialogue was subtitled in English. This was dropped after screen test audiences found the subtitling too distracting, but the original effect can be observed for selected scenes on the recent DVD release.

Plot

Characters

Jen - A male Gelfling
urSu, Jen's Master - A Mystic
Aughra
- An astrologer of unknown species
Kira - A female Gelfling
Fizzgig - Kira's pet
SkekSo
, the Emperor - A Skeksis
SkekSil
, the Chamberlain - A Skeksis
SkekUng
, the Garthim Master and later the new Emperor - A Skeksis
SkekTek
, the Skeksis Scientist - A Skeksis
SkekNa
, the Skeksis Slavemaster - A Skeksis
Ydra, Kira's adoptive mother, a podling
The urRu/Mystics
The Skeksis
Garthim
- large, crab-like soldiers/thugs of the Skeksis
Landstriders - forest animals and friends of Kira

Synopsis

The film takes place on Thra, a planet with three suns.

One thousand years before the beginning of the movie, the urSkeks split into two races during a great conjunction of the three suns - the hunchbacked, gentle beings known as Mystics (or urRu in the original drafts and novelization), and the vulture-like, cruel bipedal beings known as Skeksis. The Crystal was cracked by the Skeksis, creating the Dark Crystal. The Skeksis drove the Mystics from the castle where the shattered crystal resided and then instituted a reign of terror over their world. Their wrath was particularly directed toward the elf-like Gelflings due to a prophecy that promised the restoration of the crystal and the end of the Skeksis' power. The prophecy, rediscovered in an ancient Gelfling city, read:

:When single shines the triple sun, :What was sundered and undone :Shall be whole, the two made one, :By Gelfling hand, or else by none.

Jen believes he is the last of the Gelflings. After his parents were killed by the crustacean-like Garthim created by the Skeksis, he is raised in a lush valley in which the Mystics reside. The Mystic who has raised him is dying, and he calls Jen to his side and reveals that he is meant to "heal" the crystal by replacing the shard found at Aughra's observatory. The emperor of the Skeksis dies at the same time that the Mystic does, because they are both part of the same being. In a duel over the succession called Haakskeekah, the Chamberlain SkekSil is driven from the palace in rags.

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