The Dark Crystal

ALL AGES WELCOME! ►October’s spooky Cinema Sunday presentation is one of the best fantasy masterpieces to emerge from the imaginative mind of puppeteer and performer Jim Henson, creator of The Muppets and Fraggle Rock. Working with long-time collaborator Franz Oz and renowned fantasy illustrator Brian Froud, Henson employed groundbreaking animatronics technology to create a film markedly darker and more mystical than his other projects. The story is filled with myth and mystery: One thousand years ago, on the planet of Thra, the urSkeks fractured the powerful Crystal of Truth, resulting in the division of their race into two groups: the gentle Mystics and the tyrannical Skeksis. With the Skeksis in control of the cracked stone — now known as the Dark Crystal — it falls upon Jen, the last of the elf-like Gelfling people, to fulfill prophecy by healing the crystal and saving the planet. The film’s production led to the establishment of Jim Henson’s Creature Shop, the Muppet master’s famed studio. The Dark Crystal is “a dazzling technological and artistic achievement” (Variety), fondly remembered by those who saw it in the day, and offering new wonder to those discovering it for the first time. Colour, Blu-ray disc. 93 mins.