By James Robert Shaw (The Wind up Geek)
1982’s Dark Crystal is a Jim Henson company release that tells the tale of a Gelfling whose quest is to find the missing shard of a large crystal and restore order to the land. But what many people fondly recall is not what Henson and crew may have intended. Released on Youtube is a darker version. It came online December 2nd, and two years of work was spent by Scoodidabop to piece together / restore what was most likely the original vision of Jim Henson, Brian Froud and Frank Oz.
There is no narration, The Gelfling, Jen, has no inner dialogue and the Skesis hardly utter a word in English.
A large piece of the credit goes to an online user named Aikousha who saw an early test version and years later would track down an existing work-print on VHS.
Scoodidabop claimed he contacted the Henson Company about releasing this version of Dark Crystal to Youtube but he never received a reply.
I recommend watching it before Henson’s lawyers make their reply known to Youtube.
