The Dark Crystal – Blu-ray Disc Review
October 11, 2009 – 1:48 PM - Posted by: Brendan SurplessTags: BD-Live, Brian Muehl, Dave Goelz, Frank Oz, Jim Henson, Kathryn Mullen, Louise Gold, Sony, Steve Whitmore
has an average rating of 7.0 on IMDb
1080p in AVC MPEG-4 on a 50gb disc
Dolby TrueHD 5.1
include exclusives & DVD ports
– 
– 1982
– 93 Minutes
– Sony
– 
This uses 27.1GB for the movie out of 35.8GB total.
Overall Verdict – Recommended for Fans Especially
Buy it for $18.49 @ Amazon.com
— Review written by: Brendan Surpless —
The Movie Itself is directed by Jim Henson and Frank Oz. Instead of mentioning what the film is about, I’m going to jump right into what makes “The Dark Crystal” not just an excellent film, but a timeless classic that I truly, honestly feel every parent and person a like should immediately view.
Released in the same year as another film that some of you may known (“E.T.“), parents were initially turned back by “The Dark Crystal” simply because of it’s darker nature. In fact, the film was only a modest success earning a mild $40 Million at the box office. It’s what has occurred after the release of the film that has transformed “The Dark Crystal” from a somewhat dark, scary film into a timeless classic. Having seen success from his Muppet fame, Hensen ventured out to create something that would appeal to a larger audience. Teaming with Frank Oz, the two came up with a visionary masterpiece that is more than a simple good vs. evil story.
The concept of good vs. evil has been played out in numerous films, but there was something about “The Dark Crystal” that just completely blew my mind. I believe the answer lies in the creatures and lands that Henson and Oz created. As we all clearly know, a child’s mind is full of imagination and has the ability to soak up tons of information. While there may be this excess of knowledge and ability to know more, there’s room for the brain to wonder and create figments that will downright terrify us. I remember being a child and having those dreams we all have, waking up in the morning somewhat sweaty as if I had just ran a few miles. I would sit there in bed and simply wonder how on earth I dreamt about something that would cause me such a fright. Watching “The Dark Crystal“, I began to remember those days and simply smiled, not because of the fact that I got terrified by similar images and thoughts as a child, but more because of the amazement of what a child can do.
In closing, “The Dark Crystal” is the definition of a true gem of a film. With an incredible sense of imagery thanks to the imagination of Hensen and an all around great story, this one comes highly recommended for all ages. Don’t make the same mistake as I did and wait this long to check it out.
Video Quality on this release is in full 1080p using the AVC MPEG-4 codec on a BD-50 (50 gigabyte, dual layered Blu-ray Disc) in the 2.35:1 aspect ratio. Since we all know that Henson has the quite the mind, I’m pleased to report that “The Dark Crystal” arrives on Blu-ray with quite the impressive transfer. The film’s color palette features rich detail that all but captures the elements of not only his imagination, but the pure sense of the word of ‘high-definition’. The real amazement here is the sheer depth the image has throughout. Now I’m not talking about tons of “3-D” pop that we love to mention in our reviews, but rather an image that is able to breath new life to the film. In fact some of the imagery makes you want to stop and just stare at the image because of how clean it looks. There is a tad bit of grain but it seems that the print has been given a full restoration here. Perhaps one of the best aspects of this transfer is how damn good it looks despite it’s age. It’s a true test that studios can make ‘older’ titles look as good as this. Sony should be very proud of themselves here as this receives a solid “4 Star Rating” for overall video quality. To think, this film is now roughly 27 years in age. It looks really good for it’s age, that much is for sure.
Audio Quality on this release is presented in Dolby TrueHD 5.1 Surround. While not being as amazing an experience as the aforementioned video transfer, the provided TrueHD track is still great for the material at hand. Dialogue is well reproduced with no instance of drop out or really any scene that demands a volume increase or subtitle. Dynamics are solid as well with fine atmosphere that does give us a 360 degree soundfield. Rears creep up occasionally but aren’t overly active. LFE is present but doesn’t rock the room, and neither should we expect it to ever either. All in all this earns a really solid “4 Star Rating” for overall audio quality.
Bonus Materials on this release are presented in a mix of High Definition and Standard Definition with Dolby Digital 2.0 Sound.
- “BD-Live” is included on this Sony release, and will be accessible at street date for users of profile 2.0 Blu-ray players.
- The Book of Thra – Dark Crystal Collector: This is kind of a pop-up track that allows viewers to pick certain aspects of the film they would like to know more about. Icons appear on the screen and the viewer can choose them.
- SkekTek’s Crystal Challenge: This pops up during the film allowing the viewers to answer questions related to the film.
- Picture-in-Picture: This shows the film’s conceptual art side-by-side next to the film’s final product. This is a great companion to the commentary found below.
- Commentary with Conceptual Designer Brian Froud: Here Froud informs us on what working with Hensen was like as well as the origins of the film from the puppets all the way down to the unique imagery.
- The World of The Dark Crystal (SD): Running nearly an hour in length, this looks at how the film’s characters, sets and imagery was designed.
- Reflections of The Dark Crystal (SD): Roughly 36 minutes in length, this one focuses on the thematic elements of the film as well as the design of the puppets.
- Original Skeksis Language – Test Scenes (SD): Running 22 minutes in length, this shows the original Skeksis language that was going to be used for the film.
- Deleted Scenes (SD): Here we get about 4 minutes of deleted scenes.
Blu-ray Disc packaging:
Screenshots:
NOTE: The full-sized 1920×1080 files are in a .PNG file format and uncompressed. Bare with the slow loading times, keep in mind these files are at least 1MB (1 megabyte) in size each.
