The new Gelflings and Skeksis puppets were built with modern internal architecture, which offers the tools to manipulate the most minute aspects of puppets' faces. In a way, using more advanced, semi-robotic puppetry is a fitting tribute to the original Dark Crystal, the production of which saw Henson, Oz, and their team of artists and engineers pioneer early versions of the animatronics that are so dominant today. "We had to achieve the same effects but with the modern way of doing things, which is a lot of remote control, animatronics, and radio-controlled stuff." "They're full of old-school mechanics, which would be controlled by bicycle cables and triggers, so not so much animatronic, heavy stuff," Chapman tells SYFY WIRE. The Jim Henson Company had preserved some of the Gelflings and Skeksis puppets in its archives, but according to puppeteer Dave Chapman, the inner workings of puppets have changed so much over the past 40 years that the old creatures served more as reference and inspiration for the new versions than practical assistance. Their quest brought them to a castle occupied by the Skeksis, a frightening clan of human-sized muppet vultures who controlled the titular life-giving crystal. Set in the magical, Middle-earth-ish world of Thra, the original Dark Crystal followed the adventures of the last two remaining Gelflings, a once-thriving race of creatures who look like the offspring of Yoda and a beautiful elf (Wendy Froud, who designed the Gelflings with her husband Brian, also worked with Oz on the Jedi master puppet for Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back). These new realities presented both opportunities and challenges to the team working on the new series, The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance, which hits the streaming service on Friday. The technology used to both construct and control puppets has advanced by leaps and bounds since Jim Henson and Frank Oz made the original 1982 cult hit fantasy film, as have viewer expectations in the age of CGI. The new Netflix-produced prequel to The Dark Crystal promises a return to old-school puppet techniques, but there's some sleight of hand to that claim.
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