Netflix’s Dark Crystal Prequel Looks Great
Jim Henson was never satisfied with the public perception of puppetry as a kids’ medium, and he spent his life trying to push it in as far a direction from Sesame Street as private funding would allow. (Yeah, I saw the same Defunctland video too). 1982’s The Dark Crystal is a prime example of Jim’s ambition — at the time, nobody really knew what to make of it.
Over time, the film became a cult classic, and since The Jim Henson Company needs to lean on the non-Muppet projects Disney didn’t acquire to survive, The Dark Crystal is coming back — in the form of a 10-episode miniseries to premiere on Netflix this summer.
Not a single Gelfling or Skeksis has been blasphemously computer-rendered….this is all old-school puppetry, brought to motion by human hands! Of course it would be a lie to say there’s no CGI work in this miniseries at all — a lot of the environments look CG, where they would have been matte paintings back in the early 80s.
The Dark Crystal: Age Of Resistance stars the voices of Taron Egerton (Rocketman), Anya Taylor-Joy (The Witch), and Nathalie Emmanuel (Game of Thrones) as its central characters, with supporting roles being filled out by Mark Hamill, Helena Bonham Carter and Keegan-Michael Key.
The only downside to this trailer is how long you have to wait to see any more of it. It’ll take until August 30 for Netflix to put this show up, but we’ll be waiting anxiously.