If you can remember The Dark Crystal then you had an awesome childhood. One of Jim Henson’s greatest creations ever, this film was something unlike anything that had come before it in that it used a level of imagination that wasn’t above and beyond but was still incredibly impressive and detailed to such a degree that another one would be more than appreciated if such a thing were to ever have the possibility of happening. The tale of the planet Thra and the sundering of the Dark Crystal is one that children have loved for years upon years now, even if it’s been almost forgotten at times. The quest to reclaim a world is one that touches a lot of people on a very personal level.
10. The Skeksi’s were originally based on the seven deadly sins.
Obviously this wasn’t able to be held up since there were nine of them but you can get the idea of how this would have worked. Gluttony and Wrath are pretty easy to spot.
9. The concept art confused Henson to begin with.
His original idea was to title the movie The Dark Chrysalis as a means of explaining the Skeksi’s hold over Thra, but the concept art was so good that he changed it up.
8. It was banned in Islamic countries.
It was felt that too much of the film resembled their modern religious culture and could not be allowed. Any copies that were found in these countries were destroyed.
7. Henson wanted the film to be dark.
He didn’t want to frighten kids but he did want them to feel just a bit scared and understand what it was like to work through it. Look at half of the fairy tales that kids have been hearing for decades now, the Dark Crystal is tame in comparison.
6. Henson had to do a lot of extra work to make the film successful.
He had to trim about twenty minutes from the movie and dub a lot of the voices over again since the first showing was a disaster.
5. The Garthim actors had to be given a rest every so often since the shell-like costumes were immensely heavy.
Those big, beetle-like shells were hard to move in and as a result the actors had to be allowed to rest every 5 minutes.
4. The box office numbers only reached about $40 million.
The budget was around $15 million, and it didn’t help that the movie came out around the same time as E.T..
3. The name of the planet is never mentioned in the movie.
It’s played up as more of a fantasy movie than a scifi flick, but it’s definitely taking place on a different world.
2. The little fuzzy creatures rolling around on the ground in the palace were wind-up toys.
The toys were done up in fur to make them look like small fuzzy creatures that occasionally got eaten by the residents of the palace.
1. Aughra was based on a Stygian witch in Greek mythology.
If the fact that the eye she can remove and put back at will wasn’t enough to convince you then the fact that she knew everything about the prophecy should have.
Apparently Netflix is coming out with a prequel to this movie in 2018. Awesome-sauce.
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