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“I remember going to a screening at Universal, with the executives for the first time, showing them The Dark Crystal. And the movie went on for an hour and a half, whatever it took, and the movie went off. There was dead silence. The executives walked out the room, didn’t say a thing to Jim or me, and he really felt lousy then. He just stood up and walked out. Not a word was spoken after 2-3 years in this movie.” -Frank Oz

" . . . a one of a kind imaginative marvel." - The Washington Post

"Jim Henson has devised a luxuriantly original fantasy world as dark as the magic crystal totem . . . " -Time Magazine

" An elaborate fantasy - a cross between Tolkien and the Brothers Grimm." - Leonard Maltin

"An ambitious, technically superb venture into fantasy." - The Universal Story

"A dazzling technological and artistic achievement!" - Variety

"" - The Motion Picture Guide

"Jim Henson creates a brilliantly detailed universe with a fairy tale adventure story." - The Motion Picture Guide

"The Dark Crystal Is Fantastic!" - Boston Globe

"A dazzling, description-defying triumph of the imagination" - LA Times

"Spectacular!" - The Wall Street Journal

Roger Ebert:

"There is nothing charming about most of the characters in this movie. They are hairy, smelly, cadaverous, loathsome, evil, cannibalistic, vindictive, slimy, mean-spirited, dripping, scaling, unkempt, and hateful, but charming they're not.

The movie does have a couple of heroes, who belong to the race of Gelflings, and who look related to those solemn children with gigantic, tearful eyes that you find on paintings in re-sale shops. . . . The high point in animation is probably reached during a banquet scene-a slurpfest at which the slovenly Skeksis smear food all over their faces before bring in the dessert, which is alive, and looks like what you fear might be lurking at the bottom of Love Canal. The Dark Crystal is a labor of love, and on that basis, I salute it."

© Roger Ebert. Movie Home Companion. 1987 edition, p. 128

amazon.com:

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.

Leonard Maltin's Movie & Video Guide:

Elaborate fantasy--a cross between Tolkien and the Brothers Grimm--from the Muppets crew, with imaginative (and often grotesque) cast of characters enacting classic quest: a missing piece of the powerful Dark Crystal must be found or evil will take over the world. Takes time to warm up to, but worth the effort. Panavision.
© Leonard Maltin, 1998-2001

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