The Dark Crystal

Context & Trivia

The Dark Crystal was built almost entirely around its puppets: illustrator Brian Froud served as conceptual designer for every creature in the film, and it was at Henson's studio that Froud met sculptor and doll-maker Wendy Midener, hired to turn his Gelfling drawings into three-dimensional maquettes; the two later married. Creative supervisor Sherry Amott assembled a roughly 60-person fabrication team in London to sculpt, mold, sew and maintain the puppet cast, and while the main characters were performed by Henson's regular Muppeteers (Jim Henson, Frank Oz, Kathryn Mullen, Dave Goelz, Steve Whitmire, Louise Gold and others), the Mystics and many background creatures were brought to life by specially recruited mimes, dancers, acrobats and clowns. Sets were built raised off the studio floor so performers had room to operate the puppets from below, and the creatures combined radio, mechanical, electrical and hydraulic controls, an unusually complex hybrid approach for its time.