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I freakin’ love The Dark Crystal! Let’s watch it. Time to meet one of the main characters, 34:32-38:00 on the Blu-ray.

When we last left Jen, Fizzgig jumped out and scared him, forcing backward into some mud. Then a mysterious hooded stranger approached. As she approaches, we see enough of her face that she doesn’t need to remove her hood. She’s a blonde female Gelfling. This is Kira. Then there’s a closeup, and she pulls back the hood for reveal anyway. She addresses Fizzgig in a strange language, and then addresses Jen in that same language, trying several times to reach him. At first, I thought she was trying a bunch of different languages on him, but DarkCrystal.com informs us that she’s speaking the Podling language to him. The site has translations for all of her other language sayings, but they’re not anything you can’t already glean from watching the movie.

Jen says in (let’s face it) English that she’s a Gelfling like him, and that he thought he was the only one. Kira responds in (might as well face it) English saying that she too through she was only one. But wait, are these the last two left? Both the Skeksis and Aughra believe that all the Gelflings are dead, but if these two are still alive, what if there are others that survived? We don’t know, of course, and are only left to speculate. For now, let’s go with that the movie tell us and assume there are just these two left.

Kira offers to help Jen out of the mud. Their hands touch and… ooohh boy, now we’re into it. What happens next is a series of images flashing across screen as Jen and Kira see each other’s memories. They’re also hearing each other’s thoughts as this happens, for some additional exposition. This, as we’ll soon learn, is called “dream-fasting.” It’s basically information overload.

Here’s what happens:

Young Kira surrounded by fire, referencing a war. A Garthim can be seen running around in the background.

Kira’s mother hiding her inside a hollow tree. Then Mom gets taken away by a Garthim. This is the only other time in the movie we see another Gelfling, but it goes by so fast that we can’t really get a sense of who Mom is. You don’t suppose they just re-used the Kira puppet for this scene, do you?

Jen remembers being found by one of the Mystics (the “big one” he says). He describes the Mystics as being able to “make the monsters disappear.”

Young Kira wandering into the Podling village, and a Podling greeting her with a huge smile.

Jen recalls the Mystic master giving him a bath. It’s during this shot that Kira informs him what dream-fasting is.

The podlings feeding young Kira. She says her “new mum” among the Podlings named her Kira.

Jen among the Mystics, saying that he thought the Mystics’ valley stretched on forever.

Kira hiding from Garthim, as she exposits that Garthim raiding parties capture the Podlings.

Jen and the Mystic Master, saying the Master was at once family, mentor, and friend.

Kira picking flowers, with her saying she’s able to speak to flowers and all living things.

Jen being educated by the Mystics, saying he learned numbers, words, and “the shapes of kindness.”

There are few other quick images of Jen and Kira’s respective educations as the dream-fast fades, ending with both them revealing a desire to find someone else. Their hands part and the dream-fast ends. OK, what is going on with this dream-fasting business? Is it a too convenient of way to get across a lot of information at once, dare I say a cheat? You could make that case, especially since dream-fasting won’t be mentioned again. Now that it is a part of the movie, though, what can we make of it? In the tie-in graphic novels, we see dream-fasting used a courtship ritual, and it’s done with one Gelfling asking permission of the other first. Because Jen and Kira don’t have much experience with being around their own kind, they can probably be forgiven for not knowing this stuff. But Kira does know dream-fasting, so either the Podlings or her mother taught her about it, but the Mystics, trapped in their peaceful routines, never mentioned it to Jen. In a “bigger picture” sense, think about what dream-fasting means for a society on the whole. When they can open their memories to one another at any time, that means Gelflings have no secrets among each other, they must not lie to each other, and they must be comfortable enough with embarrassing memories not to hide them.

Jen starts sinking father into the mud, and Kira tells him to hold still. Kira calls a song-like command to the water surrounding Jen, and a giant beetle-like creature rises up from under Jen. Kira tells him this is a Nebrie. Learning this is something of a rarity, in that a lot of the background animals throughout the world don’t get their names specified. Kira reintroduces herself, and repeats that they were dream-fasted. Remember that the voiceovers were a late addition to the movie to make it less confusing for audiences, which is why characters sometimes repeat themselves.

Fizzgig reenters the scene, reminding he that he’s the plucky animal sidekick. Kira picks him up and properly introduces him to Jen. Jen reaches to pet Fizzgig, but Fizzgig growls at him. Kira chides him, and Fizzgig looks sad. So, what’s the deal with Fizzgig. First, know that the name is only two syllables, Fizz-gig. Too many people over the years have pronounced it with three syllables, like Fizz-i-gig, but that’s just wrong. We saw earlier that Fizzgig has a second row of teeth in the back of his mouth, helpful for both attacking and chewing, I suppose. Finally, know that Fizzgig is not just his name, but also the name of his species, so it’s like naming your dog “Dog.”

Kira says Jen seems strange to Fizzgig, and Jen shows he has some sense of humor as he says Fizzgig is the one who seems strange. Kira says he’s just nervous and that the Skeksis are always watching. Here we see the first of many instances of her knowing a lot more about the world than he does, as she’s already aware of who the Skeksis are and why they’re a threat. She invites Jen to come with her. As they walk off, there’s a comedy bit where Fizzgig growls at the Nebrie, only to have it roar back at him, scaring Fizzgig off. Then, in a moment of extreme cuteness, two lil’ baby Nebries emerge from the water for some sweet Nebrie parent/child bonding. Remember this moment of cuteness, because it’s about to be destroyed in the next scene.

Next: It’s suppertime!

****

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I freakin’ love The Dark Crystal! Let’s watch it. Today we’re at 32:27-34:31 on the Blu-ray.

Jen is sitting in the woods/swamp, contemplating the crystal shard. He says, in voiceover, that although he has the shard, he doesn’t know what to do with it. (I suppose Augrha’s earlier answer of “heal the Dark Crystal” wasn’t enough of an explanation for him.) He wonders if he’s supposed to take it somewhere, and what’s so special about it. This is another scene that is often criticized for the characters saying the same things twice, but remember that the voiceover was added after early test audiences were confused by the film, so the voiceover is her so we don’t lose the plot amid all the otherworldliness.

Then, the shard shows Jen an image, not unlike how the Crystal showed the Skeksis an image earlier. This time, Jen sees a Skeksis smashing the Crystal with a staff, striking the Dark Crystal. The movie doesn’t linger on this, or give us any long-winded explanation. It’s up to us to surmise that this definitively connects the shard with the Dark Crystal. That it’s a piece of the Dark Crystal broken off by a Skeksis. For advanced reading, we of course have the tie-in books and website. Just after the second great conjunction, when the Crystal turned dark and in the minutes right after the Skeksis and the Mystics were divided into separate beings, the Skeksis were wild and animalistic, killing two Mystics on the spot – accidentally killing two of their own at the same time. In this mad frenzy, one of the Skeksis struck the Crystal, breaking off the shard. It fell into the caves beneath the castle, along with several other, lesser shards broken from the castle’s surface, where they were later recovered by Aughra for her keeping. Why did the Skeksis break the Crystal? It was in defiance of Aughra, who was pleading with them to make things right. As for which Skeksis broke the Crystal, it isn’t clear. Some fans believe it was the Skeksis scientist, but it looks like it could be any one of them. All this is depicted in detail in the Creation Myths graphic novel.

Another question to be asked is, why does the shard show Jen this? Is it merely answering his question, or is it and the Dark Crystal slyly setting events in motion to the point where the Dark Crystal will eventually be healed? We can only speculate.

Back to the scene, Jen hears something and looks around. Interesting sound design here, as the “something’s nearby” sound clearly stands out from the other ambient sounds in the forest. Jen says, “I don’t like this” in voiceover, and walks forward. He’s startled by a group of plants that withdraw into the ground all at once. (For this shot, all the screenplay says is, “closeup on flowers.”) We get a few glimpses of a hooded figure darting about in the trees while Jen looks around, cautiously.

Look closely: A tree in the background is pulsating, as if breathing in and out with working lungs.

Jen sees a footprint in the wet soil. We don’t see it in relation to him, so at this point it could be a gigantic footprint for all we know. Jen hears something else and hurries forward. Despite his earlier comment about not liking this, he doesn’t seem fearful but instead excited as to what he might find. He comes to a log covered with moss, too dark to see inside.

Here’s where we get the big jump scare. Does it work? That depends. As soon as we see the log, and the camera ever so slowly pushing in on it, we know there’s going to be a jump scare, but a lot of us jump anyway. In Roger Corman’s memoir, he writes at great length about the long, dark hallway in movies. He says audiences know something is bad at the end of the hallway, but they’re still burning with curiosity as to what it is. Therefore, a jump scare is not just surprise, but surprise and relief. That’s the case here, as Fizzgig jumps out and scares the audience. Jen, too.

Jen falls back into some mud while Fizzgig – a little dog-like creature – continues to growl at him. Jen dismisses Fizzgig as a potential danger, instead grousing, “Oh, no, right in the mud.” (More about Fizzgig in the next post, I promise.) Then, the hooded figure steps out of hiding. We see just enough of the stranger’s face to tell that this is something familiar…

Next: Bow-chicka-wow-wow.

****

Want more? Check out my book, CINE HIGH, now available for the Kindle and the free Kindle app.

I freakin’ love The Dark Crystal! Let’s watch it! Today we’re looking at two short scenes that are far more important than they first appear, 30:42-32:26 on the Blu-ray.

First, we check in with the Mystics. They’re preparing for their big journey. We see one of them turn around, and there’s a neat little bit of puppetry were his toes move like fingers. One Mystic says in voiceover, “At last the Crystal calls,” and, “it is time to return to the castle.” So, is this just an expression, because they know it’s almost time for the great conjunction, or did the Crystal call them in a similar way that it called to the Skeksis earlier? Or is it somewhere in between, like the Mystics can merely feel a “pull” toward the Crystal? We don’t have the specifics, so we’re only left to speculate. We get a great shot of the Mystics’ valley, with them on the move, panning over to a close-up of one walking toward the camera. One can only imagine the logistics of creating this shot, with a lot of puppets all operating in tandem on different parts of this one huge set.

The screenplay tells us that the Mystic speaking is the Ritual-Guardian, going so far as to specify his name, urZah. He’s the same one who spoke during the Master’s funeral, making him the most talkative of the Mystics. The World of the Dark Crystal book agrees, stating that urZah “spoke more freely than the other urRu.”

There’s a fade, and the next shot is of the Mystics slowly marching down a huge mountainside. This raises a huge question: How much time is passing? The passage of time is suspect throughout the entire movie, but it stands out the most in these shots of the Mystics on their travels. They move really slowly, and, as we’ll see throughout the film, they appear to cover a lot of distance. Jen, meanwhile, doesn’t seem to travel as far or for as long. Is it possible that the Mysics are using magic, to cover a long distance in a short amount of time. The movie doesn’t tell us this, but it’s a possibility, considering how little we know about how magic works on this world. (Yes, I’m also aware that it’s a film editing thing, and that editors employ tricks like this all the time to create the illusion of the passage of time from scene to scene. Shut up and let me have my fun.)

These next bits are hard to describe, but I’ll do my best. We cut to a forest/swamp setting. A few flowers on a log spin their petals like helicopter blades and take off flying (the screenplay calls these “flying mushrooms”). A small creature pokes his head out of a pond, and the thin tree next to him actually walks out of the water and onto land. A mushroom, one that looks like an actual mushroom this time, bends down and ducks under the water. A creature the screenplay identifies as a “weasel,” but which appears to have a turtle-like shell runs across the screen, chasing a small bug, trying to catch it in its mouth. Only, it gets swallowed by a big grassy mound, like a big Venus fly trap. An insect, called a “stick creature” in the screenplay, climbs up the side of some vegetation. The top of a cactus-like plant has what looks like a little tuft of hair, which moves in and out suggesting that the plant is taking breaths. In the background, a bunch of similar plants simultaneously sprout hairlike growths.

What’s going on here? These are pretty much just Muppet Show-type gags, the little one-joke interstitial skits that used to tie scenes together on that series. Another thing is that in fantasy, it’s not enough to establish fantasy elements at the beginning of the story and leave it at that. You’ve got to keep re-establishing fantasy elements throughout, to keep things interesting and exciting for readers/viewers. This is why so many fantasy stories are travelogues, so that characters can discover new fantasy weirdness in each new place they visit. But this is more than just mood-setting. On the Blu-ray’s commentary, Brian Froud makes a case for this scene being a mission statement of sorts for the whole movie. He repeats over and over two statements on the nature of this world – that everything is alive, and that all things are connected. This and the tie-in books emphasize that, on this world, there are no distinctions between animal, vegetable, and mineral. There are descriptions of stuff like trees that walk, animals that remain motionless like boulders for years on end, and even rivers that contain the world’s memories at their deepest depths. Knowing that everything, absolutely everything, in this world is a living creature adds to our enjoyment of the movie, and the richness of this fantasy world.

The camera pans around some plants, where we find Jen contemplating the crystal shard, and that’s where we’ll pick things up next time.

Next: Laugh it up, fuzzball.

****

Want more? Check out my book, CINE HIGH, now available for the Kindle and the free Kindle app.

I freakin’ love The Dark Crystal! Let’s watch it! Today we’re wrapping things up at Aughra’s place, 28:02-30:41 on the Blu-ray.

There’s a fade and accompanying music cue to show the passage of time, but the action doesn’t leave Aughra’s orrery. It’s just later now. How much later is left ambiguous. Aughra hangs out in the back of the room, peering around the giant machine. It almost looks as if she’s staring right at the camera. No, she’s watching Jen from a distance. Jen, with his back to her, looks at three of the crystal shards he picked out from the ones Aughra gave him. In voiceover, he says he knows it’s one of these three, but he’s not sure which one. Aughra tells him to hurry, and he frets over how to choose. He has a flashback to the Mystics doing their deep-voiced chant, and he pulls out his flute. He plays a note that sort-of matches the chant, and the middle of the three shards glows with a purple light in response. Jen stops playing, but the shard continues the note, in something of a high-pitched chime. That’s how we know this is the shard Jen’s been searching for.

Lots of questions about this shard. We know Jen needs it to heal the Dark Crystal, and it’s pretty much a given that this is a piece of the Dark Crystal, but how did it get to Aughra’s place? And how did she not know which one it is? The first thing we must remember is that although the Dark Crystal – with a capital “C” – is the main Crystal that this world, and the story, revolves around, this world is full of all kinds of crystals. The tie-in books tell us that after the second conjunction, when the Crystal cracked, all kinds of crystal shards fell from the Skeksis’ castle. Aughra gathered up as many of them as she could, hoping that one was the missing piece of the Dark Crystal. The specifics of this are detailed in the second Creation Myths graphic novel, but that version of the story varies just slightly from the World of the Dark Crystal book and the official website. The next question is why would the shard respond to Jen’s flute. Some have called it mere plot convenience, yet real-life crystals are known to have interesting properties in relation to sound and harmonics. Furthermore, Creation Myths tells us that life on Thra began not with a word or a light, but with song, and the Crystal was birthed from this song. So responding to music is a big part of the Crystal’s identity.

Back at the orrery, Aughra screeches out a long “Yessss!” and marches over to Jen. She exposits that no one told Jen what to do with the shard. But she knows. She’s about to tell him, but they’re interrupted by noise and commotion outside. Before we get to the action, let’s talk a little bit more about Aughra. Why is she so contradictory? She insists that all Gelflings are dead, but then quickly takes to the idea that Jen is a Gelfling. She goads him into asking her questions, but when he does, she says there’s no time to answer. Once you’ve read the tie-in books, you see a huge contradiction in her, where in the books she’s the wise, kind earth-mother type, and in the movie she’s this batty old lady. If I may speculate, I believe the answer is in what happens after the books but before the movie – the Gelfling genocide. Prior to the movie, the Skeksis and the Garthim had hunted and killed almost all the Gelflings. At this point in the movie, first-time viewers believe Jen is the only one left. Aughra knows about the upcoming third conjunction and the prophecy, which states that the Dark Crystal must be healed by Gelfling hand. I suspect that Aughra went kooky believing that all the Gelflings are dead and disaster at the third conjunction is imminent. Even with Jen’s arrival, Aughra supports him on his journey, but still sees it a long shot. There’s also Aughra’s son. Yes, she has a son, Raunip. His story is told in Creation Myths, but there’s still no official reason as to why he’s not around in the movie. If Raunip came to an end in some horrible tragedy, then it’s possible that’s why she acts kind of out-of-it now. Finally, we’re told over and over how Aughra is connected to this world as sees everything. But if the world is “cracked” just as the Crystal is, that likely has an effect on her state of mind as well, especially after a thousand years of this.

OK, enough philosophizing. Time for scary monster stuff! The Garthim attack the orrery, smashing through the windows (they have glass on this world) and knocking over tables. There’s a funny bit where Jen looks down at the shard instead of up at the Garthim as they attack. Perhaps he suspects the Garthim are after the shard and not him. A Garthim knocks over another table, and this starts a fire (there was already a lit flame on it from one of Aughra’s chemistry set-ups) Aughra says “Out! Get out!” to them, but they keep tearing up the place. A Garthim makes a move for Jen. For all the critics who say Jen does nothing, here we get to see him spring into action. He ducks out of the way of the Garthim’s claws, and then climbs up onto Aughra’s giant machine. It’s parkour before parkour was cool. The Garthim show how strong they are by grabbing onto the machine’s globes and stopping from spinning. The audio really stands out here, with sound effects of more machinery breaking down under the floor. Too bad for the Garthim that Jen is now on the upper level of the orrery. He hops off the machine and then leaps through a window. He does this by turning around and jumping back-first through it. Is that a stuntman thing? There’s a shot of Aughra watching him do this, and then a wide shot of the Garthim trashing the machine. She picks up what looks like a crude microscope and throws it at a Garthim. I guess this is more out of frustration than an actual attack. She cries out, “My home! My home!” Oddly, this line is not on the Blu-ray’s subtitles, even though you can hear it clearly. This also establishes that she lives there.

We cut to outside, with Jen sliding down a hill. He tumbles and falls until landing in some tall grass. He looks up at the orrery to see it burning in flames. It also looks really far away. It’s another passage of time question, in that how long was he sliding down the hill? Jen says just “Aughra,” to let us know he’s thinking of her, and then he runs off into the woods. The camera pans over, and there’s the Skeksis Chamberlain, watching him. We know it’s the Chamberlain because he does that whimper again. Why didn’t the Chamberlain just abduct Jen right there? We’re not told, except that we know the Skeksis have a penchant for scheming and plotting, so perhaps he wanted to study Jen more before making his move. How did the Chamberlain get there? Remember where he was the last time we saw him – secretly following the Garthim. They led him here.

We get one last shot of the orrery, with an extra big burst of flame coming from it, to punctuate the scene. Hey, we’re now officially one-third of the way through the movie!

Next week: It’s the Muppet Show!

****

Want more? Check out my book, CINE HIGH, now available for the Kindle and the free Kindle app.

I freakin’ love The Dark Crystal! Let’s watch it! We’ve reached one of the movie’s big set pieces, 24:36-28:01 on the Blu-ray.

Now that they’ve met, Aughra leads Jen into a cave. He follows, losing track of her in the darkness. Then, a door opens and… Wait, first let’s address the fact that a door opens. How many working doors do we see in this world? Later, we’ll meet the Skeksis’ Scientist, who has a big mechanical door to the lower parts of the Crystal Chamber, similar to Aughra’s big mechanical door. Animals and prisoners are seen kept in cages, which by necessity must have doors (they’d be pretty useless otherwise). Throughout the rest of the canon, though, we get doorways, arches, and the like, but no real doors that open and close like we’re all used to. In a few cases, Gelflings and the Mystics are seen using a curtain or, er, a tent flap for privacy or protection against the elements, but that’s still not like a door. Mostly, though, it’s all open doorways. One reason for this is for filmmaking’s sake. An open doorway in the background helps add a little depth to a scene. (Remember that little open space in the back of Jerry’s apartment in Seinfeld with the bicycle hanging on the wall? Stuff like that.) Within the world of The Dark Crystal, though, an absence of closed doors speaks to Brian Froud’s constant refrain of the story, that everything is connected. This general sense of openness, even among the no-good Skeksis, shows that every room has an open door.

Anyway, what does Jen see when he goes through Augrha’s door. Oh, only one of the greatest sets ever created for a motion picture. This is some serious Wizard of Oz/Ten Commandments/Titanic production value. This is often called Aughra’s “observatory,” with others insisting it be referred to as the “orrery.” The screenplay specifies “orrery,” while Froud’s book The World of the Dark Crystal uses both. Some others over the years just called it her “dome.” What we’re looking at is a gigantic model of rotating suns and planets, constantly in motion, whirling around each other in geometric harmony. No CGI here – this thing was built, working, full-size, on a soundstage, and it’s a visual wonder.

Once the audience’s breath is well and truly taken away, Augrha emerges from the left of the screen to ask Jen, “What’s it for?” So… she ran ahead, opened the door, closed it, and then hid off to the side, just to jump out at Jen like this? Augrha then drops the jokey shtick and gets all poetic, saying, “Everything in the heavens is here, moving as the heavens do,” and “Sun, moons, stars… yes, the angle of eternity.” (Are suns and stars two different things in this universe, or is that merely the characters’ limited understanding?) Aughra says the machine is for making a prediction A thousand years ago, she says, there was a great conjunction, and she was there.

Oohh, boy, it’s time to talk about the conjunctions. I’ve put this off long enough. The tie-in books have a ton of material on this topic, with both volumes of Creation Myths devoted to explaining the conjunctions, so I’ll keep this short. First, life was Thra was created through the power of the Great Crystal and Aughra was born. A thousand years later, the three suns met in the sky over the Crystal for the first great conjunction, like an eclipse but with just suns. This is when the creatures called urSkeks came to the world. They brought enlightenment and whatnot, and Gelfling culture thrived. Then, another thousand years went by, and we had a second great conjunction, in which the Crystal cracked, the urSkeks were divided into the Skeksis and the Mystics, and the world fell into a chaos (of a sort). Aughra doesn’t explain all this to Jen, instead giving an even shorter version of the second conjunction.

Aughra then says that another conjunction is coming up and anything could happen, speculating that the whole world might burn up, and that it would be the “end of Aughra.” Aughra prompts Jen to ask her more about the great conjunction, and she says it will either be the end of the world, or the beginning. The Dark Crystal plays around nicely with the fantasy trope of the prophecy. This prophecy doesn’t say the world will be saved, only that it might be saved. This keeps the outcome uncertain throughout the story. As Aughra speaks to Jen, she looks at him through a piece of metal (gold?) carved into the circle-in-triangle-in-circle-in-triangle symbol, similar to the one Jen’s master had on his robes. Most of the symbols are in the background, but this one they put front and center for this scene, as it references the conjunctions, which is what they’re discussing.

Jen brings the conversation back the shard, which his master told him to get from Aughra. Aughra chides him for asking too many questions, even though just a second ago, she was prompting him to ask questions. As she speaks, Aughra ducks and moves around the machinery deftly, really selling the illusion that she’s lived for years up there with that thing, and knows its every movement. She comes upon a box, looks at it with surprise, as if she hasn’t seen it in years even though it’s right there on the table, and says, “You want a shard? Here.” She overturns the box, and not one but a whole bunch of crystal shards fall all over the floor, right by Jen’s feet. We get a close-up of Jen’s four-toed foot and his Gelfling sandal (you know, if you’re into that). Also, notice that the tables inside Aughra’s place contain what appears to be chemistry equipment – lots of it. What was Aughra studying or experimenting on? We can only speculate. Jen asks Aughra which shard is the one he’s looking for. Aughra does a slapstick comedy bit where she sits down with a loud grunt, and says she doesn’t know. She insists than Jen figure it out, and that they’re running out of time.

With that mention of time, we get a fade to later, so that’s where we’ll leave things for now.

Next: Ruminations on crystals, harmonics, and monster attacks.

****

Want more? Check out my book, CINE HIGH, now available for the Kindle and the free Kindle app.