The Digital Bits have recently reported that Sony Pictures Home Entertainment will be re-issuing Labyrinth on 4K as part of its 35th anniversary of the film.
With that in mind I would assume that there might be a strong possibility for a re-issue of The Dark Crystal in 2022 for the 40th anniversary of the film, of course that’s just speculation from myself personally but I do think it makes sense and another reason to re-release the film again to sell.
While I know some fans may be annoyed at the ‘double dipping’ aspect of buying The Dark Crystal again possible in 2022, there is a number of video issues that I want to bring attention to The Jim Henson Company and Sony Pictures Home Entertainment that has bugged me since the 4K release in 2018 that is present on the 4K version as well as the 2018 Blu-Ray version and also was present on theatrical screenings of the film that were presented in 4K resolution.
The Great Conjunction needs to be fixed!
Here’s some GIF’s to illustrate my point.
Exhibit A
You’ll notice that the first frame of the wide shot of Jen on top of The Dark Crystal is the last frame of the shot.
Exhibit B
In this shot, there seems to be two colour grades within this shot. The first eight frames in this shot is bright, which makes sense with the three suns beaming light into The Dark Crystal, but the ninth frame onward it changes to being dark, I believe that the shot should’ve been consistent with the bright grade of the shot and not have the drastic change.
These two shots in particular have bugged me for years so now that Sony Pictures Home Entertainment is re-issuing Labyrinth, it seems like its a possibility that The Dark Crystal will get the same treatment and if they can fix those two shots. I’ll be very happy.
There are some other issues that could be adjusted as well but these are the most glaring of them all that I hope brings the attention to The Jim Henson Company and Sony Pictures to reconsider going over the 4K master of the film to fix the shots up.
If there are any video or audio issues that you had with the 4K 2018 release of The Dark Crystal, let us know and I’ll consider writing up another blog and hope that the issues can be fixed in a future release of The Dark Crystal,
Written by Philip Mitchell.