The Dark Crystal

"Another world, another time... in the age of wonder."

1982 1h 33m EN

👍

7.2

SOLID

🍅

78%

FRESH

👌

METACRITIC

⭐

7.1

IMDB

★7.2TMDB · 1,324🍅78%Rotten Tomatoes●66Metacritic★7.1IMDB · 75,510

AdventureFamilyFantasy

Synopsis

Spoiler shield

On another planet in the distant past, a Gelfling embarks on a quest to find the missing shard of a magical crystal and restore order to his world, before the grotesque race of Skeksis find and use the crystal for evil.

“Another world, another time... in the age of wonder.”

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Cast

Jim Henson
Jen / High Priest, Ritual Master
Kathryn Mullen
Kira, a Gelfling
Frank Oz
Aughra, a Keeper of Secrets / Chamberlain
Dave Goelz
Fizzgig, a Friendly Monster / General, Garthim Master
Steve Whitmire
Scientist (voice)
Louise Gold
Gourmand
Brian Meehl
Ornamentalist / Urzah / Dying Master
Stephen Garlick
Jen (voice)

Credits

Behind the camera

Director: Frank Oz
Writers: David Odell, Jim Henson
Languages: English
Countries: United Kingdom, United States of America

Want more? Switch to Cinephile mode in the header for DP, composer, budget, box office, production companies, keywords, and release history.

Did you know?

Fun facts 🍿

1 / 8

ERA

Did you know

44 years old — old enough to be someone's favourite childhood film.

MoodPlayr · trivia#01

2 / 8

WORLD

Did you know

International production across 2 countries: United Kingdom, United States of America.

MoodPlayr · trivia#02

3 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Directed by Frank Oz, shot by Oswald Morris. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.

MoodPlayr · trivia#03

4 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Original score by Trevor Jones. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.

MoodPlayr · trivia#04

5 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Editor Ralph Kemplen shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.

MoodPlayr · trivia#05

6 / 8

CAST

Did you know

Jim Henson and Kathryn Mullen and Frank Oz carry the top of the cast.

MoodPlayr · trivia#06

7 / 8

AWARDS

Did you know

Marketing tagline: "Another world, another time... in the age of wonder.".

MoodPlayr · trivia#07

8 / 8

WILD

Did you know

IMDB entry: tt0083791 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.

MoodPlayr · trivia#08

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Frank Oz directs. Oswald Morris behind the camera. Trevor Jones scores. Ralph Kemplen cuts. Runs lean at under 100 minutes. Profitable at the box office. Produced in United Kingdom, United States of America. Dialogue in English.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

144 years old — old enough to be someone's favourite childhood film.
2International production across 2 countries: United Kingdom, United States of America.
3Directed by Frank Oz, shot by Oswald Morris. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
4Original score by Trevor Jones. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.
5Editor Ralph Kemplen shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
6Jim Henson and Kathryn Mullen and Frank Oz carry the top of the cast.
7Marketing tagline: "Another world, another time... in the age of wonder.".
8IMDB entry: tt0083791 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
9Classified under 15 themes, including "race against time", "mission", "liberation", "castle".

The technical file

Cinematography: Oswald Morris
Original score: Trevor Jones
Editing: Ralph Kemplen
Production design: Harry Lange
Costume design: Brian Froud
Runtime: 93 min · 1h 33m
Aspect ratio (typical): 1.37:1 (Academy)
Status: Released
Budget: $15,000,000
Box office: $44,626,631
Return: 298% of budget
Original language: EN
Certification (US): PG
IMDB: The Dark Crystal (1982)
Rotten Tomatoes: 78% 🍅 Fresh
Metacritic: 66/100
IMDB rating: 7.1/10 · 75,510 votes
MPAA: PG

Awards

Nominated for 1 BAFTA Award3 wins & 5 nominations total

Also by

Frank Oz

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Selected frames

Full-resolution frames — open one to save it as a wallpaper.

Wallpaper

Trailers & featurettes

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Community reviews

What people are saying

Datapotomus2016-03-03
★ 4.5/10
Some old things just don’t really hold up. I was hoping that this movie was going to be a lot better than it was. To myself, I thought it would be great as this was one of Jim Henson’s more notable films. However, the story didn’t really grip me all that much. That could be because today we have a ton of these movies. The one where the is the hero who must overcome an orphan story to become the hero that they are today. However today, that has been all, but played. There could be the argument that it wasn’t done at the time all that well, and that is why this movie is good. However, I’m not a fan of that argument. As older movies can still hold up even though they have the same overarching story as the movies in the genre that succeed them. This one, I didn’t feel like had any real differences except it was done with puppets. The fact that you have puppets in a movie should not be the selling point. The selling point should be that you can use those puppets to tell a better story. In summation. It wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t all that good. It was right in the middle of the road for a movie.
CinemaSerf2025-01-18
★ 7/10
When the old emperor dies, a new even nastier "Skeksis" one takes his place, and so begins this latest reign of terror for all the "Gelfling" on the distant world of "Thra". The only way to rectify things is for the dark crystal, damaged aeons ago, to be restored to it's former glory and that can only happen at the conjunction of their planet's three suns. That onerous task now falls to the timid "Jen" and his friend "Kira" and so they set off on a series of perilous adventures as they must locate the crystal and get it to the temple so that it can regenerate and defeat the vulture-like (look at my avatar) creatures. It's a cracking story of good versus evil, with the monstrous creations of Jim Henson delivering quite an effective, in a pantomime sort of fashion, degree of peril as the tension builds up. The humans I didn't care for so much - they're a bit weedy; but the monsters are crafted with detail and originality and the use of colourful visuals to augment the story whilst evoking a sense of mystery and danger works well too. It's got plenty of action, mysticism and even if I did hate the predictably goody-goody denouement, I did enjoy the film and though it has dated, that didn't spoil it too much.