(soft music)
- [The Sanctuary Tree] Deet, All Thra is at risk.
The darkening corrupts everything it touches.
- What is the The Darkening?
- [The Sanctuary Tree] Behold.
(upbeat music)
- It was so exciting for us as a company,
also as a family to get to come back
to the world of "The Dark Crystal."
It was such a beautifully realized whole universe
between all original creations, all original characters.
For us to be able to re-create that world
and expand upon it and make it sort of bigger,
more ambitious even than the original film,
this has really been one of the most amazing
projects we've ever done.
There's so much handcraft in "The Dark Crystal"
that we really wanted to show people
some of these things up close.
So when you come to the exhibition
you're seeing the actual puppets,
actual props and you can see how handmade it is
which makes it so very different from CG
and then of course when you see the show
you see that the puppets are brought to life
by individual puppeteers.
It's really a very different art form
than animation and than CG.
We want people to be able to come to the exhibit
and just actually see what it all looks like
up close because up close you almost can't
believe the detail.
This is funny don't feed him.
Anyway
(mysterious music)
We're so excited that the show uses puppetry.
This is what people love about "The Dark Crystal".
Of course, we wanted to do the "Age of Resistance"
with puppets as well.
Most of the puppetry is pretty much the same techniques
as in the original.
In some cases we just moved the materials along
to a level so that the puppets would just work
a little bit better.
Some of the foam that's done and used is more
expressive so the Gelfing have a little more
expression in their face.
But, this is a basic kind of animatronic setup
of one of our characters, the Pluffm.
He's radio-controlled.
You know, my father started using radio controls
in the 70's.
We're still using that same technology.
We were so lucky that Netflix commissioned
a feature-length documentary about the making
of this series and sometimes
you just wanna see what the puppeteers do.
It's real physical labor.
They are at the absolute top of their art form
and it's something that very few people
in the world know how to do but these are the
very best in the world.
At the same time, we're bringing in CG
just to enhance a little bit but most of what
we're using CG for is to enhance the world
so we have big sets where we made them much, much bigger
and we make the world much more expansive through CG.
(archaic Chinese music)
These are some really beautiful props.
This is Brea's journal.
Her little paints and paint brush.
And this is the Skeksis Book of Law
which is one of our hero props in the show.
There was a whole kind of art department side
to this that was really special and they kind of worked
off to the side.
We were always kind of in awe of what they were doing.
(inspiring music)
So this is the Chamberlain, he's one of the main characters,
who's one of everybody's favorites
because he has such a distinctive voice.
- [Chamberlain] You must be careful!
I may not always be here to save you.
- [Lisa] All of this food is so weird
and it looks even stranger on screen.
They eat like things that are actually,
still appear to be living,
like the tentacles would be moving.
The banquet scene is such a favorite in the film.
Everybody remembers that scene cause it was so gross
and we wanted to make sure our banquet scene
was really gross as well.
(archaic Chinese music)
Coming here is a great opportunity to see
how beautiful the costumes are up close
because the amount of handwork
on these costumes is extraordinary.
It's like the kind of work that goes into period costumes
and people get very excited if they see a show
that takes place in the 18th century.
But, the same amount of work is in these
small costumes and they're really incredible.
- Join me!
So we may finally unite as one
against our true foe, the Skeksis.
- [Emperor] We are eternal!
(dramatic music playing)
- [Hannah] We're at the BFI Southbank
and we're about to watch the premiere
of "The Dark Crystal: the Age of Resistance",
and it feels freaking awesome.
- [Brian] It's really exciting because
we started this project, what, 40 years ago?
- Almost 40 years ago
And here we are.
And it's bigger and better than it ever was.
(dramatic music)
- [Louis] It's so different from anything
you've seen before.
I mean, you've seen "The Dark Crystal,"
the original movie.
But there's nothing that looks like this.
You know, and it's really thanks to these people
can you focus?
These people are the real champions of this movie.
They are the puppeteers.
- As wonderful as it is, CGI and all this new technology,
it's just so nice to kind of have a fantasy
told by puppets.
- [The Myth Speaker] Who catches the light,
stares in the darkness.
Revealing
your destiny.
(dramatic music playing)