Canary Duty - The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance (Episode 1)

Ah, I knew I kept that BFI Membership for something!  Last night myself and a friend got to attend at the BFI Southbank a special preview event for one of Netflix's most anticipated productions of the year; the prequel series to 80s fantasy classic The Dark Crystal.  I have had a fondness for that film since I first saw glimpses of it on an old Palace Video promo reel, and I have quite a few good friends for whom it means a lot to them, so I have had big "pleasedon'tsuckpleasedon'tsuckpleasedon'tsuck" feelings about this one?  So were my concerns valid?

I'm pleased to say no, because even though we were only shown the first episode last night, I can say that a worthy follow-up has been made!  Now I'm going to avoid active "what precisely happens in the episode" spoilers, but I will be alluding to themes, some set up of the plot, and other vague details in here, so if you'd prefer to go in utterly fresh, stop reading after this paragraph.  What I can say without spoiler is that Age of Resistance is a superb return to the world of Thra, both on a technical level with the same sort of puppeteering magic from the first, and on a narrative level with having more time and characters to play with being used to fullest effect.  It has been clearly been a labour of love for all involved, many of whom were in the audience that night.  So if you do love the original, you will not be disappointed when the whole series, and a feature length making-of documentary, drop onto Netflix on Friday the 30th of August.  Right, that's as far as I can go totally spoiler free, let's go a bit closer to the spoiler city limits.  More details after this picture of Fizzgig.

So this series is set well before the time of the film, when the Skeksis were still commanding a full empire over the Gelflings and other inhabitants.  This immediately gives Age of Resistance its own identity, as though visually it's all very familiar from the first, a larger number of characters means a totally different story dynamic.  We now have several full Gelfling societies in different parts of the world to get to know and explore, and the first episode does a fine job of letting us know who they all are, and what's unique about their territories and culture.  This is where the runtime of a series is justified, showing us this time where several Gelflings are becoming aware of the Skeksis true nature, what effect their actions are having upon Thra, and their resultant journeys.  A comparison that a lot of people are going to make is to Game of Thrones (not in that way, it's still very much a family property!), which would be fair, but it still feels very much within the same creative vein as the original.  Given that the show's main producer is Jim Henson's daughter Lisa, and that Brian Froud and family are all back with the concept art, that's unsurprising.

Now one thing that will be interesting to see the reaction to online is the political edge this story has.  Let's face it, even in the first film the Skeksis were always portrayed as the decadent, hedonistic upper classes, so the storyline in Age of Resistance definitely leans into that, showing this trend during a time when they had more people to live off.  This is very unsubtle about the fact that it's riffing on events in the real world, including one very obvious shout out to a certain modern political figure (you will get what it is the moment it happens!).  Between this and the fact that the Gelflings are shown to be a matriarchy (and there are a lot of female Gelflings in the character roster), brace yourselves for a lot of idiots going "Dark Crystal gon SJW!", ignoring the fact that the original pretty much was that too!  Expect new memes to come from moments from this episode alone!

I often go for story and themes in my reviews over technical aspects, but this is one where we have to talk about the puppeteering and design work, as that's kind of the raison d'etre.  Again, this follows on from the original ideally; so many puppeteered characters are brought to life in here, you do forget that you are looking at puppets or elaborate animatronic costumes, you see the characters!  Now there are some CGI moments in here, but those are for parts that really would have been utterly impractical by puppeteering.  Whether you are OK with them are a matter of personal taste, but what I will say is that the visuals used for them fit the art style of the world perfectly, so I do forgive them a lot.  As well as the puppeteers bringing the characters into motion (which was apparently a very small team doing all of them), the voice cast also all do a fine job too, perfectly syncing up with their characters.  I have to give a special nod to Simon Pegg as the Chamberlain, a fairly major character from the original, his vocal performance in here fits the character like a glove, to the point that I completely forgot it was him.

So that's all I can say from the first episode without going into full spoiler territory is that the series is off to a fantastic start; it's beautiful, fun, with solid messages in the story, and it carries on Jim Henson's vision perfectly.  The cast & crew, many of whom were in the audience and attended a Q&A with Chris Hewitt from the Empire Podcast, all had a great love for the original, which is evident from every frame.  It's no retread, it does feel like a solid expansion of the world.  Now of course there is the issue we have with many prequels in that we already know where this story is going to end up, namely the events of the film, but I wouldn't put it past this series to reveal a few extra little surprises along the way.  So yeah, if you love the original, or good fantasy in general, clear the decks next weekend for when Age of Resistance drops onto Netflix.

Also, if you are in the London area up to the sixth of September, the BFI is currently hosting a special exhibition linking in with the series.  As part of yesterday's preview, we got to have a first look at it, which I've shared a few pictures of through this article.  It is a remarkable collection, showing the many forms of artistry that went into the series, the sheer level of detail.  It also really touched me as it reminded me of when the building used to be the Museum of the Moving Image; that was a wonderful place back in the day.  Tickets are available for free from Eventbrite here, so I do recommend going along to BFI Southbank to have a look while you can, especially if you'd like to whet your appetite before the film.  Ever want to have your photo taken at a Skeksis banquet?  Go along!