LOS ANGELES, Oct. 10 (UPI) -- Jim Henson Company chair Brian Henson says his father's 1982 film The Dark Crystal, returning to theaters Sunday via Fathom Entertainment, initiated the company's incorporation of animatronic techniques into their puppetry.
Jim Henson created The Muppets, Sesame Street and Fraggle Rock as a puppeteer. For The Dark Crystal, his company developed mechanical apparatuses to make the film's characters move.
In a recent Zoom interview with UPI, Brian Henson said subsequent Henson Company projects made use of animatronics. Henson worked for his father as a puppeteer on Labyrinth and the TV series The Storyteller before directing A Muppets Christmas Carol in 1992.
"That was the beginning of the animatronic thrust of the Jim Henson company, which continued right through Labyrinth, the Storyteller series, Witches, then on my watch, Farscape, Dinosaurs, Ninja Turtles," Henson said. "All of those were that animatronic thrust as opposed to the Muppet style, Fraggle Rock style, simpler hand puppets."
The Dark Crystal takes place on planet Thra, where the character Gen (Jim Henson) believes he is the last of his Gelfling kind until he meets Kira (Kathryn Mullen).
