Did you know that The Dark Crystal was originally meant to be darker and more serious, without narration or English-speaking Skesis and Mystics? I had never heard this, but the other day on Reddit I saw someone post their own fan-edit using original dialog and bits of the work-print that had never been seen. Christopher Orgeron worked on the edit for 2 years and you can now watch it on YouTube (or download it in 720p with a browser extension). From Christopher’s description:

Early versions of The Dark Crystal were a bit different than the version we see today. Jim Henson and Frank Oz originally sought to create a much darker story that relied more on the audience and less on voice-overs and inner monologues explaining the plot. In this version there’s no narrator, Jen’s inner monologues are gone, and the Skeksis hardly ever say anything in English (Aughra speaks some Skesis too!). This version is much more modern and a little darker with this original audio and the slightly different score. Some of the scenes are moved around too, which adds to the surreal feel of the original film. Some test audiences were more casual moviegoers and responded negatively to this version so the Henson team redubbed the ENTIRE film to help explain the plot to the audience up front and make things more obvious.

The Dark Crystal is one of my favorite movies and I’m excited to watch this alternate version over the weekend. Besides my love of anything by Jim Henson, I’m a huge fan of world-building in movies and I think Crystal is one of the best examples of this, right up there with Star Wars.

Watch it on YouTube

Edit: Mental Floss just posted a Q&A with Christopher about his edit, check it out!

PS – Dark Crystal Trading Cards are available from Boxsome!

The Top Hat Sasquatch team reads a lot of blog posts every day, and some slip through the crack or just don’t warrant their own post. That’s where Missing Links comes in. Every few days we collect the best links we’ve come across and pass them on to you.

Jim Henson & Frank Oz Talking In 1989 With Kermit & More | The Mary Sue
This is a great find, I love looking up Jim Henson stuff on YouTube.

A month with the iPad mini — Minimally Minimal
A great write-up of what an iPad Mini is like. I've had mine for less than a month and I love it.

10 Tips to Avoid Getting Burned by Kickstarter | ShezCrafti
Jaime over at ShezCrafti wrote an excellent guide to using Kickstarter (as a consumer). Some great tips here.

The Walt Disney Image Problem
Interesting article about Walt Disney. I always roll my eyes at people when they say something about Disney being a Nazi, but it’s hard to blame them when the company doesn’t do much to educate people about what he was really like.

HAL 9000 | Uncrate
Is this awesome? Yes. Is this practical? I don't think so, Dave.

Song of the South: Disney’s Most Notorious Film by Jason Sperb, reviewed. – Slate Magazine
I can't wait to read this book. Song of the South is one of the most interesting pieces of Disney history.

Steve Jobs Promotes “Toy Story” | Cartoon Brew
A very cool little piece of animation history. Great find.

I’ve loved the work of Jim Henson my entire life, and it seems like each year my appreciation of his creativity grows more and more. Even with his life being cut tragically short, his body of work is huge. As you could tell from our Muppet podcast last week, everyone has different parts of Muppet history that they remember the most, and there are plenty of pieces to pick up on later in life and enjoy for the first time. For me, Emmet Otter’s Jug-Band Christmas is one of the pieces of Muppet history that I didn’t see much as a kid, but now love as an adult.

There are a lot more dedicated Emmet Otter fans than me out there, but I recently did some digging, learning as much as I could about the special and comparing home video versions, so I thought I’d share the love a little bit.
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Fraggle Rock: The Complete Series Collection set is on sale for $58.99 right now, which is technically 58% of the MSRP. I hadn’t ordered mine yet so I just did a couple minutes ago.