I have always loved fantasy. When I was a kid, I had no interest in the sorts of books and films where children had adventures in the real world, usually involving schools or railways or summer camps. Instead I had an enormous affection for stories where people (sometimes children but not always) were transported to a distant magical land, where they faced peril, learned a few vague lessons about courage or not picking on your little sister, and saw loads of weird creatures and places.

My only problem with these stories was that they always came home again. Why would you do that? I would ask myself, with the cheerfully mercenary attitude of a seven year old. All the cool stuff is there. THE WIZARD OF OZ, NARNIA, THE NEVER ENDING STORY… they all went back to their normal lives afterwards (one of the reasons LABYRINTH remains so firmly lodged in my affections is that although Sarah beat the Goblin King and went home, all her new goblin mates went with her – that, to me, is a win-win situation).

THE DARK CRYSTAL was different. Here was a self-contained world that didn’t require a magical book or a dusty wardrobe to enter; there wasn’t even a whiff of our reality to it, in fact. It was beautiful and strange, with no humans, but populated instead with fey creatures called Gelflings, and alarmingly grotesque creatures called Skeksis. Watching it now as an adult I’m not so much struck by the story, which is the usual sort of “we must find the thingy to fix the whatsit to bring balance to the stuff” fantasy plot (which I do love, of course) but rather by the extraordinary skill and creativity on display. 

Designed by Brian Froud and put together by Jim Henson’s Creature Workshop, the puppets are utterly a part of that world, and every bit as magical and solid as they were when I was a very small child. Froud’s vision of a fantasy world is a dark one, flavoured with ancient folklore and myth, and manages to entirely avoid the usual pitfall of new fantasy worlds, namely the tendency for everything to look a little like a side note in one of Tolkien’s journals. And whatever you might think about the CGI vs. model work debate, the creatures produced here by Jim Henson’s team have a presence, vitality and personality sometimes missing from slicker, computer generated efforts; you only have to watch The Chamberlain sidling around the castle hissing “pleeeease!” to see that.

It’s a unique film, really, an experiment in filmmaking that might not ever be tried again (at least not with the extraordinary and greatly missed Jim Henson, anyway) so I think it is a thing to be treasured and loved, as I’m sure it is by many. And you don’t ever have to go home again.

Book your ticket here for the Duke of York’s Picturehouse screening of THE DARK CRYSTAL, on Sunday 12th February at 5pm. Marking 30 years since its release, The Space presents this event with interview guests Producer Gary Kurtz and Art Director Terry Ackland-Snow, providing an exclusive insight into the making of the film following the screening.