Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1
Audience Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Binding: DVD
Brand: Sony
EAN: 9780767821650
Format: Anamorphic
ISBN: 0767821653
Label: Sony Pictures
Manufacturer: Sony Pictures
Number Of Items: 1
Picture Format: Anamorphic Widescreen
Publisher: Sony Pictures
Region Code: 1
Release Date: 1999-10-05
Running Time: 94
Studio: Sony Pictures
Theatrical Release Date: 1982-12-17

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Spotlight customer reviews:

Customer Rating:

Summary: Great classic
Comment: After watching this movie many times I wanted to have it on DVD. I was debating if I should get this version or the Limited Edition, but I read through another review that the limited edition didn't offer many extras, and for the price isn't worth it. This DVD is great, and at a cheap price, a must have for fans of this classic movie. Also there is a sequel coming out in a few years so it's a great time to refresh yourself on the world of the Dark Crystal.

Customer Rating:

Summary: LOTR fan? Watch this movie
Comment: This movie is one of my all time favorites. Henson's masterpiece. It's inventive, its interesting, engaging and the world is quite wonderful. There are lessons learned and many parallels between the world Henson created and our own. It's a wonderful fantasty film that really breathes a life all its own. It's also a film that can be enjoyed by all, adults and children.

Customer Rating:

Summary: oppressive and unrewarding
Comment: It's hard for me to see how this movie is worth anybody's time these days.

"The Dark Crystal" may have been big news back when it came out (in 1982), but it's hard to see what it has to offer anybody in the age of CGI and complete digitization. It hasn't held up well.

Set in another world, the story concerns the quest of an innocent elf-like creature who must return a crystal shard to its proper resting place in order to save the land. There are no humans in this movie, only Muppet-like creatures. (In case you don't know, this film is considered the masterwork of the two masterminds behind the Muppets, Jim Henson and Frank Oz.)

Unfortunately for today's viewers, the technology available for breathing life into movie creatures has so comprehensively improved since this film was shot that the "Dark Crystal" cannot avoid showing its age at every turn. Fatally, for a fantasy, it's simply impossible to lose yourself in the world the film attempts to create, since in nearly every shot you cannot get it out of your head that you are essentially looking at a bunch of puppets, or, occasionally, some guy in a mechanized costume.

As for the story, I found it predictable and marvel at those who claim it is "imaginative." I award very low marks on originality: nearly every story element had been done to death long before this movie saw the light of day.

So who would like this movie? Children, I guess, -- or perhaps somebody who seems to have an unnatural admiration for all things Muppet.

But even then I have reservations. The film is so dark, photographically as well as thematically, that it will probably bum you out for the day. Even during those few moments when the sun in shining, the film still comes across as oppressively dark. True, the directors attempt to relieve the gloom in the final ten seconds or so, but by then it's too little, too late. So basically it's like muppets but without the fun.

Heck, this movie might be unsuitable even for kids. So unrelievedly grim and violent is it (stabbings, burnings, fallings to one's death) that it will probably give any kid under nine at least a couple of nightmares.

There are plenty of kids' movies out there these days that also have something to say to adults, but not this one. I cannot imagine anything appealing to adults in this movie, especially if you make the mistake of viewing the "making of" documentary, also on this DVD, which will completely breaks any spell the film had a chance at.

As for the story, I paid strict attention but was needled by crippling questions. The filmmakers seemed to do a terrible job explaining what's going on, where the crystal came from, how it works, how it got broken, or why anybody even needed it to begin with.

Customer Rating:

Summary: Another world, another time, in the age of wonder...
Comment: So begins Jim Henson's masterpiece The Dark Crystal, an amazing fantasy film that primarily uses puppets as its main characters.
The film concerns Jen, a Gelfling, who must save his planet by restoring the legendary Dark Crystal, which must be done before the three suns of his planet meet in the Great Conjunction. If he fails chaos and destruction shall reign eternal. He begins his mission after his mentor, the wisest of the Mystics, dies. To a young Gelfling like Jen, the world seems an enormous and strange place. He encounters numerous dangers but finally reaches the home of the ancient being known as Aughra. Aughra gives Jen the crystal shard that he seeks, but the forces of evil invade her home and Jen has to flee before she can tell him anymore about his task. Meanwhile the cruel Skeksis are hunting Jen, for it is prophesized that a Gelfling will bring about their doom. But Jen finds an ally in Kira, the only other living Gelfling to survive the Skeksis' slaughter of their race years before. Jen and Kira, along with her furry and ferocious pet Fizzgig, set out for the castle of the Skeksis. But can they survive the dangers of the journey and restore balance to their world?
Henson's film (I should also mention that it was co-directed by puppeteer Frank Oz) is a stunning achievement in pre-digital special effects and features a profound philosophical/spiritual undercurrent that has fascinated viewers for over 25 years. The film is exciting, stimulating and perhaps at times too intense for younger children. But overall it's one of the greatest fantasy films ever made!

I also recommend the book The World of the Dark Crystal: The Collector's Edition, by Brian Froud.

Customer Rating:

Summary: Cult classic
Comment: One of my favorite movies of all times. This movie is an inspiring example of what can be achieved when the mind is set free of conventional wisdom. An excellent movie for any age group, from toddlers to adults.

More Reviews

Editorial Reviews:

Jim Henson's fantasy epic The Dark Crystal doesn't take place a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, but like Star Wars it takes the audience to a place that exists only in the imagination and, for an hour and a half, on the screen. Recalling the worlds of J.R.R. Tolkien, Henson tells the story of a race of grotesque birdlike lizards called the Skeksis, gnomish dragons who rule their fantastic planet with an iron claw. A prophecy tells of a Gelfling (a small elfin being) who will topple their empire, so in their reign of terror they have exterminated the race, or so they think. The orphan Jen, raised in solitude by a race of peace-loving wizards called the Mystics, embarks on a quest to find the missing shard of the Dark Crystal (which gives the Skeksis their power) and restore the balance of the universe. Henson and codirector Frank Oz have pushed puppetry into a new direction: traditional puppets, marionettes, giant bodysuits, and mechanical constructions are mixed seamlessly in a fantasy world of towering castles, simple huts, dank caves, a giant clockwork observatory, and a magnificent landscape that seem to have leaped off the pages of a storybook. Muppet fans will recognize many of the voice actors--a few characters sound awfully close to familiar comic creations--but otherwise it's a completely alien world made familiar by a mythic quest that resonates through stories over the ages. --Sean Axmaker