Executive producer(s): Louis Leterrier, Jeffrey Addiss, Javier Grillo-Marxuach, Lisa Henson, Will Matthews, Halle Stanford
Producer: Ritamarie Peruggi
Running time 46–61 minutes
Production company: The Jim Henson Company
Series Directed by Louis Leterrier
Series Writing Credits
Jeffrey Addiss … (developed by) (10 episodes, 2019)
Will Matthews … (developed by) (10 episodes, 2019)
Voice Cast: Taron Egerton, Anya Taylor-Joy, Nathalie Emmanuel, Simon Pegg, Mark Hamill, Jason Isaacs, Donna Kimball, Victor Yerrid, Caitriona Balfe, Gugu Mbatha-Raw,
Andy Samberg, Helena Bonham Carter
Narrated by Sigourney Weaver
Of course I remembered the original movie. It was only 35 years ago, and I remember vividly that it was some middle-Earth quest thing with puppets. David Bowie might have been involved, although now that I think about it, certain levels of medical augmentation may have been involved in the viewing. It was a movie with puppets, anyway, and I’m pretty sure I liked it.
So Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance was vaguely familiar. And by the end of the first episode, I knew why I liked the original movie, and knew I was going to like this, because they kept all the good stuff from the movie. (The sadly late David Bowie wasn’t in the original, either).
First, a bit of a recap for those who never saw the original. It’s a fantasy world, a cross between middle ages Europe and a place that features all sorts of mystical beasts and magic. Like most such worlds, Thra is a living entity of a world, one that expresses itself through a magical tree, and a dark crystal.
The dominant native life form are the Gelflings, who look elven with Spock ears and big anime eyes and the females have dragonfly wings. They’re mostly friendly and pleasant and resolute. They all look and sound like they might have been sired by Martin Freeman.
There are the Mystics, a gentle and ethereal race who just sort of sit around and contemplate. They are, however, quite adept at dropping meaningful hints at points where plot advancement is needed.
Then there’s the Skeksis. They sort of showed up out of nowhere when the Dark Crystal was damaged, and based on a bad decision by an entity called Aughra (who looks like the bag lady at the shopping center who would scream at you for something you did to her in Mesopotamia back around 3400 BCE) they had control of the Dark Crystal, which gave them power to claim immortality, and just generally take over the joint, even though there’s only about a dozen or so of them.
Skeksis look like a cross between vultures and leprosy, and sound like Daleks imitating Fu Manchu. Absurdly over the top, they are much given to maniacal laughter, thoughtless cruelty, and ridiculously high opinions of their own beauty and intelligence. They love to snap tooth-infested beaks a lot, and ooze all sorts of unpleasant liquids.
Then their Scientist (Mark Hamill because of course Mark Hamill) learns how to use the crystal to drain ‘essence’ (and life) from Gelflings, which greatly enhance the health and vigor of the Skeksis. They drain one, unaware they are being watched by the Gelfling son of their palace guard, and, happy with the results, start draining others, unaware that they have just sparked a growing resistance movement. Oops.
The series is a prequel to the original movie, and also an exercise in some very impressive world-building. The movie provided a teaser to this richly detailed world.
I’ve seen people comparing it to Game of Thrones or LOTR, and that’s idiotic. The plotline is considerably simpler, for starters. While it has mind-blowing special effects, they are all little miracles of puppetry and masterful set design. Very little CGI was involved. Apparently they did a test episode wherein the Gelflings were CGI and the Skeksis puppets, and it just didn’t work. The two media, so disparate, didn’t sit well together. So CGI was limited to various flying creatures and meteorology, and some added subtleties to the facial tics of the main puppets.
As a puppet show, however, it is an absolute miracle. It takes all the good things from the original movie, and adds to them without screwing it up. No topical references to Beyoncé, no hip-hop soundtrack, no sudden superpowers not in the original movie.
It’s going to be considered a fantasy epic, not because of the battle scenes, or nipples and dragons, but because it is, in effect, the greatest Punch-and-Judy show ever made. Rich, imaginative, lush, and all done with puppets. On that level, it is utterly sublime, and should be a favorite for many decades to come.
Now on Netflix.