Online Series: The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance (Netflix)

[Osprey]

Edit: It's available now.

On August 30th, Netflix is releasing a series based on The Dark Crystal, the 1982 fantasy adventure film from Jim Henson and Frank Oz.



I was a fan of the movie as a kid and watched it repeatedly, but I honestly wasn't very interested when I first heard of this series. Having watched the above video, though, I'm now quite interested. I'm really impressed by how faithful they're being to the film. They could've easily just done the whole series in CGI or even re-invented it in some other way, but, instead, they're working with puppets, costumes and real sets just like Henson and Oz did in 1982. It looks uncannily like the movie, except with better effects. They're even using some of the people who worked on the movie. It looks like it's going to be unique and especially a trip for those of us who watched the movie as kids and never thought that it would ever be re-visited.

On top of the other production values, it has an impressive cast of voice actors:

Main

Taron Egerton as Rian: A Gelfling Crystal Castle guard of the Stonewood Clan
Anya Taylor-Joy as Brea: A Gelfling princess of the Vapra Clan
Nathalie Emmanuel as Deet: A Gelfling animal carer of the Grottan Clan
Donna Kimball as Aughra: The embodiment of the planet Thra and an astronomer

Recurring

Gelflings
Eddie Izzard as Cadia: A member of the Sifa Clan and Onica's father
Helena Bonham Carter as The All-Maudra Mayrin: The Queen of the Vapra Clan, leader of all Gelfling Clans and the mother of Seladon, Tavra and Brea
Caitriona Balfe as Tavra: A warrior of the Vapra Clan and one of Brea's sisters
Harris Dickinson as Gurjin: A member of the Drenchen Clan and Rian's bestfriend
Shazad Latif as Kylan: A song teller of the Spriton Clan
Toby Jones as The Librarian: A member of the Vapra Clan who works in the library of the Vapra Citadel
Gugu Mbatha-Raw as Seladon: A member of the Vapra Clan and one of Brea's sisters
Lena Headey as Maudra Fara: Leader of the Stonewood Clan
Alicia Vikander as Mira: A member of the Vapra Clan, a crystal castle guard and Rian's girlfriend
Hannah John-Kamen as Naia: A member of the Drenchen Clan and Gurjin's twin sister
Natalie Dormer as Onica: A member of the Sifa Clan
Mark Strong as Ordon: A member of the Stonewood Clan and Rian's father
Theo James as Rek’yr: A member of the Dousan Clan
Louise Gold as Maudra Argot: Leader of the Grottan Clan
Kemi-Bo Jacobs as Maudra Seethi: Leader of the Dousan Clan

Podlings/Pod People
Victor Yerrid as Hup: A friend of Deet

urRu/Mystics
Ólafur Darri Ólafsson as urVa/The Archer: The urRu counterpart of skekMal

Skeksis
Simon Pegg as skekSil/The Chamberlain: The second in line to the Emperor's throne
Awkwafina as skekLach/The Collector: A cunning Skeksis who loves to collect living creatures (Originally known as the Census Taker.)
Jason Isaacs as skekSo/The Emperor: Leader of the Skeksis and the cruel ruler of the Planet Thra
Benedict Wong as skekUng/The General: The easily angered leader of the Silkspitter army (Given the 2nd title of Garthim Master between the events of Age of Resistance and the original Dark Crystal movie.)
Harvey Fierstein as skekAyuk/The Gourmand: The organizer of the Skeksis banquets
Andy Samberg as The Heretic: A Skeksis who is against the beliefs of the other Skeksis
Ralph Ineson as skekMal/The Hunter: The wildest and most brutal of the Skeksis
Alice Dinnean as skekEkt/The Ornamentalist: The designer of the Skeksis garments
Keegan-Michael Key as skekZok/The Ritual Master: The high priest of the Ceremony of the Sun
Mark Hamill as skekTek/The Scientist: An old friend of Aughra who now uses the Dark Crystal for experiments
Neil Sterenberg as skekOk/The Scroll Keeper: The Crystal Castle's historian

Fizzgig
Dave Goelz as Baffi: An eyepatch wearing Fizzgig

Animals and Plant life of Thra
Theo Ogundipe as Vliste-Staba: The Sanctuary Tree of Grot

Unknown
Sigourney Weaver as The Myth Speaker

Click to read more...

 

[Deen]

Getting pretty good reviews. Haven't gotten around to seeing it yet though.

 

[Andrei79]

Watched the first episode and was thoroughly impressed by it all.

Hope the rest of the season's of the same quality.


Edit: kept binge watching it and I'm enamored by the show. Everythings well done. The production value and writing is outstanding. You get immersed by the world and the characters, some of whom you truly hate. There's depth to the story, with social undertones. Its also quite different from most of the bland stuff we see on TV and that's a win in itself.

 

[TonyDeAngelo]

Getting pretty good reviews. Haven't gotten around to seeing it yet though.

It's really good!

 

[Osprey]

At RT, it has a 90% critic score and 93% audience score. At IMDb, it has an 8.7/10, which is a whole point and a half higher than the film has.

I'm halfway through and really enjoying it. It's visually magnificent and the storytelling is strong. They nailed the look and feeling of the 1982 film, so much that I occasionally have to remind myself that I'm not watching it. It's not necessary to have seen the film, though, as the series is a prequel.

For those unfamiliar, it's a fantasy epic like, say, Lord of the Rings, but with puppets. It has a lot of cute that makes it seem like family fare for stretches, but also a lot of frightening imagery, themes and situations. Even though the film was the same way and gave me a few nightmares as a kid, I expected the disturbing elements to be toned down to make the series more 2019 kid friendly. Nope. So far, multiple characters have been killed, one has been tortured and another one has been maimed. This definitely isn't for little kids.

I'm really loving the series so far and am eager to finish it. If Stranger Things is a love letter to 80s supernatural films, this series is a love letter to 80s fantasy films (and to Jim Henson). It's familiar, yet also like nothing else on TV right now.

 

[Emperoreddy]

Up to episode 3. So far a lot better then I expected.

It easily blows the original movie out of the water in all ways. The original is a rather shallow movie. It’s beautiful to look at sure, but the story is basic and the characters aren’t very interesting.

So far the series definitely fixes that.

 

[Osprey]

Netflix recently dropped The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance, which is simultaneously a wonderful show and an absolutely terrifying reminder of childhood trauma.

https://www.buzzfeed.com/jennaguillaume/dark-crystal-movie-trauma

It's a relief to learn that I wasn't the only kid scarred for life by the 1982 film!

 

[Emperoreddy]

Finished the season. Recommend it. Especially if you are hungry for some fantasy.

 

[Mr Jiggyfly]

https://www.buzzfeed.com/jennaguillaume/dark-crystal-movie-trauma

It's a relief to learn that I wasn't the only kid scarred for life by the 1982 film!

Ya that movie creeped me the f*** out as a kid.

I used to take my kids to the Children's Museum in Pittsburgh and they have Ursol the Chanter there... the original puppet used in the film.

First time I saw him at the museum it was like a flashback of childhood trauma. He still looks creepy as hell in person to me even as an adult who doesn’t fear very much.

Jim Henson’s Mysterious Gift to Pittsburgh: urSol the Chanter

 

[Osprey]

An interesting tidbit about Episode 7:

Spoiler

The Heretic and urVa the Wanderer, the two who put on the play for the Gelflings, were voiced by Andy Samberg and Bill Hader. That's kind of interesting because they both came from SNL and have worked a lot together, which was likely a big reason for their casting of these particular characters. This isn't really a spoiler, but I'm glad that I didn't realize it when I watched the episode or else I might've been distracted by it.

Ya that movie creeped me the **** out as a kid.

I used to take my kids to the Children's Museum in Pittsburgh and they have Ursol the Chanter there... the original puppet used in the film.

First time I saw him at the museum it was like a flashback of childhood trauma. He still looks creepy as hell in person to me even as an adult who doesn’t fear very much.

Jim Henson’s Mysterious Gift to Pittsburgh: urSol the Chanter

That's one of the unique things about the film: even many of the good characters were creepy. If only the Skeksis were, it wouldn't have been so bad, but the Mystics (like urSol), Aughra (who legit looks like an evil witch) and even the Gelfling, Landstriders and some of the other creatures were disturbing in their own ways.

 

[Mr Jiggyfly]

An interesting tidbit about Episode 7:

Spoiler

The Heretic and urVa the Wanderer, the two who put on the play for the Gelflings, were voiced by Andy Samberg and Bill Hader. That's kind of interesting because they both came from SNL and have worked a lot together, which was likely a big reason for their casting of these particular characters. This isn't really a spoiler, but I'm glad that I didn't realize it when I watched the episode or else I might've been distracted by it.

That's one of the unique things about the film: even many of the good characters were creepy. If only the Skeksis were, it wouldn't have been so bad, but the Mystics (like urSol), Aughra (who legit looks like an evil witch) and even the Gelfling, Landstriders and some of the other creatures were disturbing in their own ways.

In many ways, Dark Crystal was much like Secret of Nimh, if you ever saw that as a kid. Both films were produced around the same time, but not exactly sure how they were children’s films.

Just really creepy, strange imagery that scared the shit out of me as a kid, and when I look back on these films as an adult, they still seem so macabre.

At least we aren’t alone how we feel about these films:

https://www.avclub.com/the-secret-of-nimh-leaves-basically-every-kid-who-sees-1797955000

“Nightmare fuel”

That’s entirely accurate.

 

[NyQuil]

In many ways, Dark Crystal was much like Secret of Nimh, if you ever saw that as a kid. Both films were produced around the same time, but not exactly sure how they were children’s films.

Just really creepy, strange imagery that scared the **** out of me as a kid, and when I look back on these films as an adult, they still seem so macabre.

At least we aren’t alone how we feel about these films:

“Nightmare fuel”

That’s entirely accurate.

The other one I saw as a kid was The Black Hole.



Can you imagine if they released this today?

I even had the "read along with the tape" set for this film with the little book and the audio cassette.

Needless to say, they cut out the hellscape in that version.

 

[Osprey]

In many ways, Dark Crystal was much like Secret of Nimh, if you ever saw that as a kid. Both films were produced around the same time, but not exactly sure how they were children’s films.

Just really creepy, strange imagery that scared the **** out of me as a kid, and when I look back on these films as an adult, they still seem so macabre.

That's just how a lot of kids entertainment was in the late 70s and 80s. My worst nightmares as a kid came from The Watcher in the Woods, a Disney movie from 1980 that was a legit horror film. 1977's animated The Hobbit had creepy imagery. 1978's Watership Down had cute bunnies bleeding, dying and crying out in agony. 1985's The Black Cauldron is Disney's darkest animated film. Those were just the G-rated movies. There were also all of the PG-rated movies, like Poltergeist and Ghostbusters, that were fairly dark and scary, yet often marketed at kids. Growing up in the early 80s was traumatic.

 

[Mr Jiggyfly]

That's just how a lot of kids entertainment was in the late 70s and 80s. My worst nightmares as a kid came from The Watcher in the Woods, a Disney movie from 1980 that was a legit horror film. 1977's animated The Hobbit had creepy imagery. 1978's Watership Down had cute bunnies bleeding, dying and crying out in agony. 1985's The Black Cauldron is Disney's darkest animated film. Those were just the G-rated movies. There were also all of the PG-rated movies, like Poltergeist and Ghostbusters, that were fairly dark and scary, yet often marketed at kids. Growing up in the early 80s was traumatic.

I saw the animated Hobbit well after it came out on VHS in my teens. I found it weird, but not creepy... I hated the singing so I shut it off half way through. Probably got creepy after I shut it off, thankfully.

Some of the films you mention I never heard of, but they were before my time (70s).

One interesting thing I learned about Secret of Nimh, was that the it was created by Don Bluth, who also did Dragons Lair, if you remember that game. You can definitely see the similarities in the animation, but I actually loved that game as a kid.

Bluth helped make more kid friendly movies later on like Land Before Time, An American Tail and All Dogs go to Heaven.

 

[Deen]

I'm only 5 episodes in, but hot damn I love this. It's crazy when you put the voices with the actual characters. Mark Hamill being "the Scientist", Simon Pegg being "the Chamberlain", Mark Strong being "Ordon". Pretty star studded cast. Hope it gets a few seasons.

 

[NyQuil]

I assume it's a prequel which means all the gelflings (except for two) have to die eventually, right?

That's what I hate about prequels.

 

[Osprey]

I finished it last night. It really is excellent from start to finish. I started out watching two episodes per night, but cut it back to only one per night because I wanted to make it last longer.

Afterwards, I watched the film (for the first time in at least 15 years) and didn't expect it to be such a treat. It always seemed strange and puzzling, but the series added so much context and made me more comfortable with the world so that the film made more sense and was also comfortable. It felt like watching a second season condensed into 1h 30m (or two episode lengths). I highly recommend watching the film after the series. Definitely do not watch it before, since it will spoil some things.

I assume it's a prequel which means all the gelflings (except for two) have to die eventually, right?

That's what I hate about prequels.

That's true, but it takes place many, many generations earlier. It helps to think of the gelfling fighting for their immediate freedom and what they and their offspring and their offspring will benefit from in their lifetimes, not what may happen centuries after they're gone.

Spoiler

The Skeksis are another matter, though, since they live nearly forever and many of the same ones are in both the film and the series. If you're really familiar with the film, you'll know which Skeksis survive the series and which probably die. For that reason, I'm glad that I hadn't seen the film in so long and waited until after finishing the series to watch it.

 

[NyQuil]

I remember the film pretty well because I had the book and accompanying audio cassette set back when I was a kid and played it to death.

I’m about three episodes in myself.

I guess I’ll keep at it.