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  Directed by
  Starring
  Specs
  • Widescreen 2.35:1
  • 16:9 Enhanced
  Languages
  • English: Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround
  Subtitles
    English, Hebrew, Czech, Greek, Polish, Hungarian, Arabic, Portuguese, Croatian, Bulgarian
  Extras
  • Deleted scenes
  • Teaser trailer
  • Theatrical trailer
  • Cast/crew biographies
  • 1 Featurette - The World Of The Dark Crystal
  • Production notes - The Mithra Treatment
    Character Drawings And Profiles
  • Photo gallery - Character Illustrations
  • Storyboards
The Dark Crystal: Collectors Edition
/Sony Pictures Home Entertainment . R4 . COLOR . 89 mins . G . PAL

  Feature
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In Another world, Another time..In the Age of Wonder two gelflings, Jen and Kira, set off on a quest to save their world from an eternity of darkness and the evil Skeksis by healing the Dark Crystal.

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A wise Mystic.

In 1982 Jim Henson unleashed a mini masterpiece with his fantasy epic, The Dark Crystal. Five years in the making, Henson teamed with long time creative collaborator Frank Oz and illustrator Brian Froud to create a complex fantasy world on the scale of The Lord Of The Rings. Henson had already achieved great success with the Muppet show and the two Muppet movies, but he really wanted to create a fantasy movie that would entertain audiences for decades to come. While The Dark Crystal is a flawed film and was met with a lukewarm response when it was released, it has gone on to become a cult classic and one of the most amazing examples of the genius of Jim Henson.

The story is simple, an unlikely hero, a gelfling name Jen (the supposed last of his kind) is sent on a quest by his master to fulfil the prophecy that a gelfling will return the missing shard to the dark crystal and defeat the evil Skeksis before the convergence of the three suns. Admittedly, the plot of this film is not strong, but the fact that the story is simple allows all the other elements of this film to shine, including the amazing creature creations and the elaborately designed environments.

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The gelfling Jen.

The puppets created for this film are mind-blowing, from the human like gelflings, the large and slow elephant like mystics and the grotesque vulture looking Skeksis, all these creatures were developed over five years by separate departments within Henson’s Creature workshop. While the current slew of family films are all about the latest animation, there is something sacred and special about The Dark Crystal and Henson’s follow up film, Labyrinth. Some may hold the Muppets up as Henson’s greatest achievement, or maybe even Fraggle Rock, but Henson considered The Dark Crystal the most difficult and rewarding project of his career and it's apparent that while this film has undoubtedly not aged very well, it's a film that has no equal.

My Mum took me to see The Dark Crystal in 1982 and I was completely mesmerized by everything about the film. I actually became a little dark crystal obsessed and hounded my parents to purchase every Dark Crystal item imaginable. As geeky as it may sound, my Dark Crystal lunchbox is on my desk as I write this review with some of my "to be reviewed" DVDnet discs inside. Judge if you must, but this film was a magical ride in the '80s and should definately be shown to every 'Nemo loving, Incredibles obsessed' kid of the '00s.

  Video
  Audio
  Extras
Contract

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The evil Skeksis.
The Dark Crystal is presented in its original aspect ratio of 2.35:1 and is 16x9 enhanced. First the bad news, there are major and constant problems with the video of The Dark Crystal but they are never going to be solved by any DVD release of the film. Even the recent Region 1 Superbit edition of the film could not solve the constant presence of film artefacts and when I say constant, I mean constant. I don’t think there is any part of the entire film when a film artefact is not visible. As I said, no release of this film is likely to overcome this problem and while it's disappointing, overall it does not affect the enjoyment of the film.

All other aspects of the video transfer are great. This is a relatively sharp and grain free transfer and shadow detail is quite good, there are occasional dark patches, but they don’t last long. The color and details are wonderful and clean and there are no instances of color bleeding. Having owned two previous editions of The Dark Crystal on DVD, I can safely say this is without doubt the best the film has ever looked on DVD.

The Dolby Digital 5.1 surround package is equally impressive with dialogue clear and audible, although the synchronisation of the dialogue with the puppets is sometimes slightly off. The Trevor Jones score is wonderfully clear, which is very important for this film because there are long periods without dialogue. Surround kicks in for sound effects which creates an engulfing atmosphere with the subwoofer kicking in for many sound effects and the bass parts of the score. Overall, this is a wonderful audio package with no major issues.

The Collector’s Edition of The Dark Crystal comes in what is being referred to as “deluxe” packaging and while the fold out cover and designs certainly are attractive, “deluxe” is pushing it.

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Girl gelflings can fly!

The first extra is a collection of text notes entitled The Mithra Treatment. These notes are essentially Jim Henson’s various scribbles about the world he was creating and a lot of what is included is out of context with the final film. However, these notes emphasise the time and detail that was put into creating the species and ecology of The Dark Crystal world. Very fascinating read, but will probably only be of interest to fans.

A nice Gallery of Character Illustrations is the next extra and these are truly wonderful to scroll through. As mentioned, Brian Froud was the conceptual designer for The Dark Crystal and this is a small collection of around ten of his illustrations which were used by Henson’s Creature Workship to build the various puppets.

A small collection of original Storyboards from the film that are actually quite informative to look through.

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Jen and Kira, so cute!

The most substancial extra is the featurette The World of The Dark Crystal which runs for approximately an hour. This is an original featurette shot in 1982, so the quality is quite poor, but Jim Henson, Brian Froud and Frank Oz all speak at length about The Dark Crystal production and various members of the creature workshop are also interviewed. This is a very informative featurette with a lot of behind the scenes footage and great interviews.

A decent collection of Deleted Scenes are included with both early versions of scenes and deleted scenes included. Although all the clips are very poor quality, they are definately still worth a look.

Character Profiles and Illustrations of the Ur-ru ( the original name for the Mystics) and the Skeksis. Again, these are notes and various Brian Froud illustrations that can be scrolled through.

The U.S. Theatrical Trailer and a Teaser Trailer offer a little insight into how this film was marketed in the ‘80s. Unfortunately, both trailers are presented with very poor sound and video quality.

Lastly, there are Talent Profiles of the three men behind the film, Jim Henson, Brian Froud and Frank Oz.

This is absolutely the best DVD release of The Dark Crystal to date and while there will be two future DVD releases of the film ( the Superbit edition and a standard edition) I would recommend that you purchase this edition because it has all the extras and the best video and audio transfers possible for the film.


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  •   And I quote...
    "A magical and entrancing film that has finally been released with great video and audio transfers."
    - Rebecca Taylor
      Review Equipment
    • DVD Player:
          Sony DAV-S300
    • TV:
          Sony KDE 42XBR950 Plasma
    • Audio Cables:
          Standard Optical
    • Video Cables:
          Standard Component RCA
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