It’s safe to say that nothing on the screen has ever looked quite like The Dark Crystal. Jim Henson took his Muppet artistry to another level with this ambitious feature, in which not a single human face appears. Instead, elaborate costumes, intricate marionettes and meticulously designed soundstages paint this fantasy realm, in which a young Gelfling named Jen discovers it is his destiny to restore a broken shard to the jewel of the title and thereby reclaim the land from the clutches of the evil Skeksis. Children who are used to ratty ventriloquists’ puppets will be amazed at what the filmmakers achieve here. Indeed, the less human the characters – the one-eyed astronomer Aughra, the towering Landstriders and, above all, those grisly, vulture-like Skeksis – the more enrapturing the movie becomes. True to its name, The Dark Crystal is gloomier than most children’s pictures, but that’s one of the reasons its images resonate. It’s the Muppets by way of the Brothers Grimm.
