The Dark Crystal is a 1982 Fantasy-Adventure film famous for its use of puppets and puppets alone, without any characters played onscreen by human actors. According to the history of this film, when it was originally finished, the studio ran test audiences to gather in reactions and most were negative, due to most of the audience being familes with small children who felt alienated by the film's content. Against Jim Henson's wishes, approximately 20 minutes of film were cut, and re-written dialogue and monologues added to make the film more clear to a broader audience. There are 2 available Workprints of The Dark Crystal, one is a murky VHS transfer from a color workprint, taken from a Laserdisc for the DVD/Blu-ray releases, and a Black-and-White Workprint that was made to test different versions of the score, both are very similar in the way they're edited, although the BGM Test Workprint is rumoured to be longer than the color Workprint. Differences between both Workprints to the Theatrical cut are:
- During a good chunk of the movie, Jen originally had no idea of what to do with the shard, and the big question until he and Kira reach the old Gelfling temple is What is The Dark Crystal, and what do I do with the shard, this was changed on the Theatrical release to make it more obvious.
-Scene where the Ur-ru hum originally was supposed to take place after Aughra drops the vase of shards in front of Jen, but was moved to an earlier point to introduce the now called Mystics
- Removal of the funeral scenes
- All of the Skeksis scenes were re-dubbed into english, while originally they had their own language
- Dialogue between Jen and Aughra at Aughra's place is different
- No monologues what-so-ever for Jen, the entire Dreamfast sequence is devoid of any dialogue, and instances in the Theatrical where Jen is concerned about the Crystal are completely abscent in the Workprint.
Deleted Scenes (Based on the BGM Test Workprint)
- After the Skeksis ritual, The camera fades through landscapes and mountains to the canyon where Jen lives, there, we see Jen swimming naked, he plays his flute for a while, while a friend Ur-Ru appears and tell him someone wants to see him and that a Storm is coming.
- The scene where Jen hears his master dying words is completely different here than in the Theatrical, first off, it's more vague and kinda confusing, which was changed for the Theatrical, in which they used alternate footage and re-written dialogue to make the scene less vague and more obvious. Jen's Master dissolves at this scene rather than later
-After the Skeksis emperor dies, his remains are burned in an Archaic fashion, there are a couple of scenes here that isn't in the Color Workprint. As well as a few extra shots of Jen leaving the Valley
-In the B/W Workprint, the Haashkeekah (Trial by Stone) Is longer, the reason for that, is that according to the Marvel comic, the Haashkeekah consisted of 2 challengers hitting a stone 3 times, and the one who hits it harder is the winner, This was changed in the Color Workprint/Theatrical to keep the running time lower, therefore, making the Chamberlain hit the rock only once, while the Garthim General hit twice.
- Deleted dialogue in Aughra's place (here played by another actress, while in the Color Workprint, played by Frank Oz)
-Deleted shot of an exterior of Aughra's place supposed to take place after the Ur-Ru hum
-Deleted explanation of the Dreamfast
- Alternate Gelfling Song
- Deleted scene during the Podling party, Jen asks Kira how long can they stay there, to which she replies with As long as we want, when suddenly Jen gets up and dances with a podling, replying Then I don't want to go, ever! to Kira, who looks at him, shocked.
- Scene of Jen looking at a Lizard creature at the Skeksis's castle dungeons
- Alternate shot of the Garthim General (New Emperor) looking at the Chamberlain while Kira is dragged to the Scientist's lab, This scene in the theatrical was replaced with a shot of him talking As for the Whimpering Chamberlain, return his robes to him.
- During the climax, there are countless extended scenes that range from more shots of the Garthim collapsing, one more shot of The Podlings returning to normal, an extended shot of Jen approaching Kira while the Skeksis panic around him while playing a sad version of The Love Theme and Low angle shots of The Priest, the General and The Chamberlain dodging rubble falling form the ceiling.
- Different voice acting for the Urskeks.