The screenplay just calls it “liquid.”) He says Jen must find the crystal shard, and an image of the shard appears, rising out of the liquid. The Master waves his hand over a bowl of green liquid at his side. The canon tells us that one of the Mystics is UrAmaj the Cook, so I’ll assume the rolls are his handiwork. Look closely: There’s a huge bowl full of rolls in the background, so they’ve learned to bake bread in this world. The Master says the story “runs deeper than you know,” and the Skeksis will vow to destroy Jen. Then there’s some “As you know, Bob,” dialogue where Jen and the Master remind each other about the Skeksis, and how the Skeksis killed Jen’s parents. It’s so simple and natural-looking, we don’t even question it. There’s a subtle-but-nifty piece of puppeteering here where Jen kneels before his Master. The Master says “I must leave you,” and with his weary demeanor and heavy breathing, we in the audience can tell he’s about to die, but Jen doesn’t get it. This guy is closest thing Jen’s ever had to a parent, yet he addresses Jen as “Gelfling?” Maybe he means it as an honorific, like a father saying to his kid, “Son, get in the car.” Of course, we’re still in the first few minutes of the movie, so the filmmakers have to reinforce to first-time viewers that Jen is, in fact, a Gelfling. Jen asks the Master what’s wrong, but the Master is not one for small talk, launching right into a speech about this big prophecy and how the three suns will meet. The Master’s blanket prominently features a circle-in-a-triangle-in-a-circle symbol, which is foreshadowing the Great Conjunction to come. Jen has some of the circular symbols on his vest as well. ![]() There are gourds and what looks like a bunch of handmade necklaces hanging all over the place, and the walls are carved with more circular symbols. The canon tells us the Master’s name is urSu, but the movie just calls him “the Master,” so I’ll call him that here (try not to confuse him with Lee Van Cleef). The wind is really hitting them, so it feels real to the audience. Jen and the Mystics’ hair and clothes blow in the wind, along with curtains and wind chimes in the background. It’s very windy as Jen runs past, and this helps further establish the reality of this alien world. This image is later referenced in the manga Legends of the Dark Crystal, in which a Mystic builds a small tower of stones in this same style, to make a point about everything being in balance. ![]() The walls all around the valley floor appear to be stones precariously balanced on top of one another. Brian Froud’s book The World of the Dark Crystal states that these are the “Standing Stones,” which generate energy to protect the valley from outsiders. On the valley floor, we can see a Stonehenge-like circle of stones. Speaking of, Jen then runs up a ramp along the side of the valley wall, passing several of the Mystics. These circular patterns and symbols are everywhere in the valley of the Mystics. He runs past a stone with round symbols carved all over it, which the camera holds on for a few seconds. ![]() We get our first close-up of Jen as he rounds a corner, wind blowing in his face as he pulls his shirt and vest tightly to him. ![]() As such, the filmmakers did everything they could to immerse viewers in this world, and that included several shots of this stuntman as Jen. On the Blu-ray’s commentary, Brian Froud says this is not cheating, and that the goal was never to make an all-puppet movie, but an immersive experience. This is the first of many shots in the movie where Jen is portrayed not with a puppet, but with a stuntman. In the foreground of the next shot, we see a nest full of goofy-looking birds as Jen (now fully clothed, thankfully) runs by in the background. This shows a storm is coming, literally and metaphorically. I freakin’ love The Dark Crystal! Let’s watch it! Time for our first real dialogue exchange between characters, 6:26-9:43 on the Blu-ray.ĭark clouds are shown in the sky, and wind rustles tall grass.
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