October 30, 2017
This lavishly illustrated book chronicles the making of Jim Henson and Frank Oz’s 1982 puppet-starring fantasy film The Dark Crystal. Gaines (Back to the Future: The Making of the Back to the Future Trilogy), tells the story behind the ambitious project from Henson’s first sparks of inspiration, during production on the first season of The Muppet Show, through scripting, character design and fabrication, filming, postproduction, and release. As much as the book is a tribute to Henson’s creative genius, it also speaks to the prodigious talents of artist Brian Froud, who worked closely with the Muppets creator on every aspect of the design of the film. The Dark Crystal features no human characters but is instead populated by the gentle Gelfling race, the villainous Skeksis, and the wise urRu mystics, all portrayed by highly complex and lifelike puppets. Gaines has included many hundreds of production sketches and behind-the-scenes photos. Also included are miniaturized facsimiles of script treatments, memoranda, pages of Henson’s character notes, and a lovely reproduction of a small illustrated book used to woo investors early in preproduction. Gaines’s stuffed-to-overflowing approach of presenting one film’s production history is not unlike the rich journey of The Dark Crystal itself, which is to say it’s a delight.