The Dark Crystal
The Dark Crystal
On another planet in the distant past, a Gelfling embarks on a quest to find the missing shard of a magical crystal and restore order to his world, before the grotesque race of Skeksis find and use the crystal for evil.
RichyE reviewedOctober 12, 2025
This one’s not just a film, it’s a rite of passage.
The Dark Crystal was Jim Henson and Frank Oz at their most daring, crafting a world without a single human actor, where puppets carried the weight of myth, emotion and eerie beauty.
If you saw it in the cinema, you remember the awe.
On TV, it felt like a secret broadcast from another realm.
And owning it on DVD? That was a commitment to wonder.
Set on the alien world of Thra, the story follows Jen, a Gelfling tasked with restoring a broken crystal before the sinister Skeksis plunge everything into darkness.
The visuals are pure handcrafted magic—Brian Froud’s designs, the Creature Shop’s puppetry and Trevor Jones’s sweeping score all combine into something timeless.
It’s dark, yes, but never cruel. It’s fantasy with teeth, but also heart.
Watching it now, it still holds up.
The artistry, the ambition, the atmosphere, it’s all still there.
And knowing it inspired Age of Resistance decades later only deepens its legacy.
They don’t make them like this anymore and maybe they never did.