The Dark Crystal appears in an aspect ratio of approximately 2.35:1 on this 4K UHD Disc. This turned into a satisfying presentation.
Sharpness seemed solid. Due to various effects, a few shots occasionally felt a smidgen soft, but the majority of the film boasted excellent delineation and accuracy.
Jagged edges and moiré effects also created no concerns, and I detected no signs of edge haloes. Grain seemed appropriate and I saw no print flaws.
Crystal offered a fairly subdued palette that tended toward an “earthy” look. Within that spectrum, the tones looked accurate and lifelike, and when the hues brightened, they really came to life.
For example, the scenes in the Skeksis palace demonstrated many gorgeous colors like their purple robes. Despite the generally brown/green-leaning choices, the colors still enjoyed many chances to shine, and HDR gave the hues added pop.
Black levels consistently came across as deep and rich, while shadow detail looked appropriately dense but never overly thick. Contrast and whites got a boost from HDR. Even with the inherent issues that stemmed from the source, this became a terrific presentation.
Downconverted to Dolby TrueHD 7.1, the Dolby Atmos soundtrack of The Dark Crystal somewhat favored the forward soundfield, and that domain offered a pretty wide spectrum of sound. The soundscape seemed nicely broad and it opened up matters fairly well.
To some degree, the other speakers mainly reinforced forward elements. However, they kicked into higher gear during the more action-oriented sequences and added nice involvement to the proceedings.
While not excellent, the quality of the audio seemed more than satisfactory given its age. Speech came across without edginess and appeared reasonably natural and concise.
Effects lacked great dimensionality, but they could show reasonable range at times, and they didn’t seem particularly rough or distorted. The music fell into the same realm, as the score was a little restricted but clear and more than listenable.
At no point did the audio threaten to dazzle me. However, for material from a 42-year-old flick, I thought it worked well.
How did the 4K UHD compare to the simultaneously released 2018 “Anniversary” edition? The 4K’s Atmos audio expanded and felt more active than the BD’s 5.1.
A native 4K product, the UHD brought superior delineation, colors and blacks. While the Blu-ray looked very good, the 4K clearly topped it.
No extras appear on the 4K disc itself, but we get materials on the included Blu-ray copy where we launch with an audio commentary from conceptual designer Brian Froud. He offers a running, screen-specific discussion.
As expected, much of the time he covers character and visual design issues, but he branches out into other areas as well. We learn about the film’s development, collaboration with Jim Henson and others, influences, construction of the puppets and puppeteering, and a few connected subjects.
Given the intense focus on the technical side of things, I feared that the commentary would become dry and dull. To my relief, Froud proves warm and engaging throughout his chat.
Froud gives us great insights into various aspects of the production as he lets us know a lot about the designs and their execution. There’s a lot to like in this informative and enjoyable chat.
A Storyboard Track offers optional accompaniment to the film. A fairly large box in the lower right corner of the screen provides a text introduction and then shows a mix of artwork.
Despite the track’s title, it doesn’t focus solely – or even mainly – on storyboards. As the intro indicates, a lot of those sketches went lost over the decades, so the presentation only provides a smattering of these.
However, it fills space with lots of concept art as well. The size of that box makes it tough to enjoy the movie and check out the drawings at the same time, but we still get a lot of good material here.
Next we find a 57-minute, 26-second documentary called The World of The Dark Crystal. Created at about the same time as the film itself, it consists of a nice balance of interviews with all the key creators and some wonderful footage shot on the set.
In this program, we get statements from Froud, producer/director/actor Jim Henson, Gelfling supervisor Wendy Widener Froud, producer Gary Kurtz, director/actor Frank Oz, Skeksis co-supervisor Lyle Conway, and Garthim supervisor Fred Nihda.
The production footage really becomes fun since it gives us a firsthand look at just how Henson and company worked their magic. The documentary talks a little about the origins and inspirations for the project, but the nuts and bolts are the focus, which seems appropriate.
Many times I don't care for documentaries that are from the same time period as the films themselves because they usually lack historical perspective. However, this one works very well.
A two-part documentary called Reflections of The Dark Crystal lasts 36 minutes, 41 seconds. We hear from Froud, the Jim Henson Company’s Brian Henson, screenwriter David Odell, puppeteer/performer David Goelz, performer Kathryn Mullen, and puppet designer/builder Jane Gootnick.
“Reflections” examines the project’s origins and story, creating the film’s world, character design and concepts, building the puppets and challenges connected to their performances, and some reactions to the end product.
“Reflections” offers a pretty decent glimpse of various film subjects. I must admit it doesn’t fascinate me, partly because we already get so much good info from Froud’s commentary and the prior documentary, so this one become a little redundant at times.
It also includes too many shots from the movie itself. On its own, I think “Reflections” satisfies, but at this point in the package, it’s not the most compelling piece. I still believe it’s worth a look, though.
New to the 2018 release, The Myth, Magic and Henson Legacy goes for 10 minutes, 27 seconds. It brings info from Jim Henson Company CEO Lisa Henson and puppeteer/Brian’s son Toby Froud,
“Legacy” looks at the movie’s roots and development, story/characters, design, puppets and performances, the co-direction of Jim Henson and Frank Oz, some issues along the way and the movie’s release. This turns into a tight little piece.
Under Deleted Scenes, we get “Funeral Scenes”. These go for three minutes, 48 seconds and come from a section early in the film when both the leaders of the Skeksis and the Mystics die.
They're actually fairly powerful scenes, so I'm not sure why they were omitted. The filmmakers probably thought they didn't move along the story, but that's just my guess.
Since they come from a workprint, the quality of the clips isn't great. Nonetheless, they’re still interesting pieces of footage.
Original Skeksis Language Test Scenes presents seven sequences that appear in the finished film. Including an intro from screenwriter David Odell, they last 22 minutes, 49 seconds.
According to Odell, the filmmakers originally intended for all non-Gelfling characters to speak made-up languages. This didn’t go well in test screenings so they went back and put new English lines into the characters’ mouths.
“Test” lets us see the sequences as planned. Note that although this domain’s title emphasizes Skeksis “original language” material, we also hear a little non-English from Aughra and the Podlings.
The movie describes English as being “Gelfling”, so when Aughra realizes she’s speaking to a Gelfling, she switches to that language. Of particular interest, Oz voices Aughra in these scenes – and sounds an awful lot like Yoda.
Under Storyboards, we find a whopping 10 examples of that art form. Given the existence of the storyboard track – which contains many more sketches – this little domain feels pointless.
In addition to both teaser and theatrical trailers, we conclude with three Photo Galleries: “Character Illustrations” (10), “Character Drawings & Profiles: The Ur-ru” (16) and “Character Drawings & Profiles: The Skeksis” (16).
The last two include some text descriptions of the roles along with the art. These seem moderately interesting but they lose some points due to size.
As also happens with the handful of storyboards, the drawings take up a fairly small box in the center of the screen. Why not make it bigger?
At no point does The Dark Crystal threaten to become a great movie. I appreciate all the work that went into its creation, but the lush setting doesn’t come with a compelling story and that dooms the film to mediocrity. The 4K UHD boasts solid picture and audio along with an appealing collection of bonus materials. I doubt I’ll ever warm to the sluggish Crystal but at least this 4K presents it well.
To rate this film, visit the Superbit review of THE DARK CRYSTAL
