If you’re a huge The Dark Crystal fan, as most folks are who grew up going to the movies in the 80’s were, you’re going to love what Loot Crate DX’s January theme has for you. There’s quite a bit of lesser known lore to dig through with Jim Henson’s beloved fantasy-born puppetry flick. Let’s get into it!
1. In 1983, in France and Japan, The Dark Crystal was the highest grossing box-office movie. They love their unique flicks, so this isn’t a huge surprise, is it?
2. Those intense Garthim costumes were so heavy that a rack was built that could support their frames without removing them from their costumes. The actors would be hung up onto the racks to give them some relief from the heft of the costumes every few minutes.
3. Somewhere in the midst of production, rumors started to circulate suggesting that the movie was already proving a money-sink and huge disappointment to investors and the production companies. However, those rumors didn’t last long because early test screenings were then leaked to newspapers that proved the movie was a complete triumph. Those rumors were completely shot down once critics got their early showings in.
(The Henson Company)
4. Jim Henson’s idea was to bring a Brothers Grimm aspect of a dark fairy tale to life in a way that would be suspenseful for children without terrifying them. As he saw it, this was a healthy thing for kids to experience.
5. The gentle tiny little boogers that scurried along the bodies of the Creatures were actually wind-up toys that were heavily modified so as to be wound up and have their key removed. It’s rumored the scene took hours to pull together and strings were even said to guide them where they were meant to go.
6. There are nine Skeksis, however, the intention was to equate them to the typical ‘7 Deadly Sins’ with a little additional flavor added.
(The Henson Company)
7. Originally, Jen the Gelfling was to be blue in a respectful nod to Rama, the Hindu God.
8. It was important to Jim Henson to have creatures that hinted at various places in religion and mythology, such as wanting Aughra to resemble the Stygian witches within Greek mythology.
9. Now, back to that test screening bit, that was the same one that caused Jim Henson to chop twenty minutes from the film’s full on theatrical release. This is the same release that preview critics and movie reviewers were brought into see in order to prove to them that the movie had been finessed. It was also after Henson bought out the movie rights from the original ownership since they were panicking over that early-early test screening.
(The Henson Company)
10. Henson and his studios actually took the concept from The Dark Crystal of small creatures that lived underground and had mining communities and brought it over to their newer series they were developing. This concept would later be reworked into Fraggle Rock.
