The Dark Crystal - was it the 80's 'Avatar' Movie

[MikaElle]

The Dark Crystal is an often overlooked 80's movie, partly because it got overshadowed by the block buster E.T. which in itself was a powerful movie at the time, and partly because many parents felt it was too dark.

The movie makes an attempt to study the nature of good and evil in terms of conscience, destiny, and the triune nature of harmony. It also explores the concept of duality, and separation of spirituality and mysticism from 'material enterprise'. Although far subtler than memes in Avatar - it still about a loss of balance and harmony in their world and the need for a hero to restore it.

If you missed it, its well worth the journey down nostalgic lane.

Directed by Jim Henson and Frank Oz (the Muppets) in its day it was ground breaking for its use of animatronics and fantasy landscapes created by Brian Froud!

From Wiki:

The film takes place on "another world, another time... in the age of wonder". The setting is Thra, a biodiverse planet featuring creatures, environments, and magic inspired by common folklore. Thra has three suns; the Great Sun, the Rose Sun, and the Dying Sun. Many creatures and races inhabit the planet, but the dominant race is the urSkeks, who came from another world and are the guardians of the Crystal of Truth. The Crystal harnesses the forces of nature, especially the light of the three suns, for the benefit of all inhabitants of Thra.
One thousand years before the beginning of the movie, during the Great Conjunction of the three suns, the urSkeks cracked the Crystal of Truth, and split into two races; the hunchbacked, gentle beings known as the Mystics and the vulture-like tyrants known as Skeksis. In that moment the Crystal became the Dark Crystal. The Skeksis then drove the Mystics from the castle where the cracked crystal resided and 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 Dark Crystal - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


The Dark Crystal - A film by Jim Henson

[RizZy]

I absolutely love The Dark Crystal, I watched it so many times as a kid I think it became part of my childhood, I brought it myself on dvd a while back & it's still as outstanding today as it was years ago, easily one of my top10 films, probably top5.

[MikaElle]

I absolutely love The Dark Crystal, I watched it so many times as a kid I think it became part of my childhood, I brought it myself on dvd a while back & it's still as outstanding today as it was years ago, easily one of my top10 films, probably top5.

My kids too loved to watch it over and over. I have the special edition copy, but when I went to watch it today .. couldn't find it, have to go see which one borrowed it. So I had to go see Avatar for 6th time instead!

[HufweMakto]

Loved that movie when I first saw it and I love it even now. I need to get the DVD, I haven't seen it in years.

[MisterKinish]

I recently introduced The Dark Crystal to my 9-yr. old niece. She absolutely LOVED Kira's furball pet Fizzgig, and the Podlings.

[Concerned RDA Shareholder]

Supposedly there is a sequel to the Dark Crystal in pre-production. But at the moment it appears to have stalled out.

[ViperWingLeader]

When Single Shines the Triple Sun,
What Was Sundered and Undone,
Shall Be Made Whole,
The Two Made One.
By Gelfling Hand,
Or Else By None.

and technically the race at the end of the film was sundered by the conjunction, and a Skeksis actually in his rage hit and shattered the Crystal.
Another World,
Another Time.
In the Age of Wonder.
Another World,
Another Time.
This Land was green and Good,
until the Crystal Cracked!

Once More they would replenish themselves.
Cheat Death Again.
The Power of their Source?
The Dark Crystal.

[RizZy]

I totally forgot about this, I have the World of the Dark Crystal book, it's absolutely wonderful & I'd highly recommend it to anyone that loves the film, it's chocked full of beautiful artwork & it's easily one of my most favorite things in my life.

[Txim_Asawl]

It definitely was my personal Avatar of the 1980s, and since privately owned VCRs were almost non-existent in that time, I went to the movies to see it as often as possible... that drained up all of my pocket money back then.



I once even had the occasion to meet some of the characters of that movie in person - no, not the puppeteers, but the puppets, since there was an exhibition about Jim Henson and his works in the Deutsches Filmmuseum (German national movie museum) in Frankfurt in 1988, when I was on GAF duty back then... I was able to look a skeksis in the eye.

They also had a few creatures from Labyrinth exhibited there, including Hoggle.

Great moment, indeed.

Wiggling bare toes,

~*Txim Asawl*~

[Na'viking]

it was an okay movie....