From the far reaches of the Milky Way Galaxy, It's Retro Nerd Girl with a film review for you.
Today I'll be reviewing the movie Labyrinth released in 1986.
Starring:
David Bowie, Jennifer Connelly, Toby Froud
Directed by:
Jim Henson
Genre:
Adventure, Family, Fantasy
Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) Rating:
PG
Budget:
$25,000,000 (estimated)
Current IMDb Rating When Reviewed:
7.4
The Synopsis is:
Sixteen-year-old Sarah is given thirteen hours to reverse her selfish wish for the Goblin King Jareth to take away her baby brother, Toby, forever.
Story:
Most of us know who Jim Henson is, but on the off chance you don't, Jim Henson was an incredible creator, an American puppeteer, who created The Muppets in 1955. They appeared in the television series Sam and Friends, late night talk shows, in advertising and on Sesame Street. His characters of Muppets are celebrities on their own.
He then created the television show Fraggle Rock from 1983–1987 beloved by many. The producers of The Empire Strikes Back (1980) consulted with him to make a puppet character, Yoda, in which Jim led them to hire his colleagues, Stuart Freeborn to make the puppet and Frank Oz for the voice.
At the time, Jim wanted to veer away from the Muppets, by filming a movie featuring puppets with mature elements based on the conceptual artwork of English fantasy illustrator Brian Froud well known for his 1978 book Faeries with Alan Lee. That movie was The Dark Crystal in 1982, one of my favorite movies that eventually I’ll be reviewing in the future.
And let’s stop for a second to ogle over the art of Brian Froud. As a child I would spend hours and hours endlessly looking at his wonderful fantasy drawings mixing man with nature, fairies and folklore. I managed to still have the illustrated book for the Dark Crystal, The World of the Dark Crystal. The glue on that book is undone at the seams.
Hot off the ($15,000,000 budget / US gross $41,613,957) success of that movie Jim and Brian decided to join forces once again. At this point he did not have a story, but Jim threw around a few titles such as "The Labyrinth", "The Maze", "The Labyrinth Twist" and "The Tale of the Labyrinth".
Brian Froud felt that the film should feature a baby and goblins since it was common in old tales of goblins stealing babies and came up with an initial concept art piece. As well, whatever they came up with, Jim knew he wanted the film to be more lighthearted and comedic than the Dark Crystal.
The movie was very loosely based on "Outside Over There", a children's book written and illustrated by Maurice Sendak in 1981, who was also famous for the book Where The Wild Things Are published in 1963.
There was a closing credit that acknowledges the works of Maurice Sendak after there was some legal settlement with the author.
In the beginning of 1983 Jim Henson and Brian Froud met with children's author Dennis Lee who wrote a novella for the project that was completed by the end of 1983.
Monty Python's Terry Jones was brought in to write the film's script based on the novella. However, Terry didn’t like the novella because it was a little too poetic. He started from scratch using Brian Froud’s concept drawings as inspiration for the screenplay.
That draft wasn’t quite it because Terry said that Jim wanted it to be one thing and he wanted it to be “about people who are more interested in manipulating the world than actually baring themselves at all.” He’s right because that is totally different from what the story ended up being about.
It turns out that once rock legend David Bowie was attached to play the villain in the film, Jareth the Goblin King, Jim Henson asked Terry Jones to add in more scenes with him in it and a few spots for him to sing songs. Terry didn’t agree with it, but he re-wrote the script in spite of his feelings. About a year later, the script reappeared re-drafted by Laura Phillips and afterwards George Lucas who was a close friend of Jim Henson and one of the executive producers on the film.
Other contributors included, Frank Oz, Bernie Brillstein, Brian Froud, Wendy Midener, Lisa Henson, and Lawrence S. Mirkin.
After all of that, David Bowie was given a script that he thought lacked the light hearted comedy he thought it would have and had second thoughts about doing the film all together. Jim then took the script back to Terry to insert his comedic flair without re-writing it.
Elaine May and Jim met prior to filming 1985 to help humanize the characters a bit more and the changes were added to the shooting script. In total, the script endured 25 treatments between 1983–85.
One thing I found delightful about the story is that after having so many cooks in the kitchen, the finished product was seemingly dumb, silly, and a bunch of ideas smashed together in a messy spectacle. But actually, it's a brilliant story that was well thought out. In my opinion, one of those films that fool you into thinking it’s a weird children's film, but it’s much deeper than you originally imagined.
It’s the Muppets meets the Dark Crystal with your guest star appearance musical number. You know what I mean. On the Muppets, you’ll get a celebrity surrounded by a Muppets singing a song or two.
But then we get this interesting story that blends the psychological journey of The Wizard of Oz, Alice in Wonderland, Cinderella, Snow White and Peter Pan while using fairy tale imagery to teach valuable life lessons.
Oh, yes! I love the story and as I get deeper into the review, you’ll know why I think this is brilliant.
Pacing:
At 1 hour and 41 minutes the pacing is uneven and the runtime is a little long. I don’t mind it so much because the details are little ideas that support the fantasy and I am here for it. In fact, it could have used a few more minutes.
Challenge:
The challenge in the film was Jareth the Goblin King. Sarah, the protagonist in the film, makes a terrible wish to have goblins take away her baby brother. Her wish is granted and Jareth appears to her and tells her if she wants to reverse the wish, she has to complete his magical labyrinth within 13 hours or her brother will be turned into a goblin permanently.
Right off the bat, I want to address the biggest critique of the film, which is the fact that Jareth is played by a David Bowie who was 39 during filming the movie and Sarah is only 16 according to the film. Technically the actress playing her, Jennifer Connelly was 14 while shooting the film. Because of the romantic overtones, it seems a bit creepy to pair these two together as a couple.
In this film, Jareth is not a goblin, but a man that could be a mythical creature that is thousands of years old or maybe even zero years old, created and plucked right out of Sarah’s imagination.
It was more obvious in earlier drafts of the screenplay where it was explicitly explained that Jareth was an “ideal man'' that Sarah subconsciously conjured from some pictures of a handsome man in a newspaper. In Sarah’s room, you can see a figurine of Jareth on the right hand side of her desk and newspaper clippings of Sarah's famous actress mom who has been in an off and on again relationship with a man with Jareth’s face.
Now this does not necessarily mean that Sarah is in love with her mother’s boyfriend, but instead, you can see how much she loves her mom and idolizes her. Her mother’s boyfriend’s image is just a stand in for her Prince Charming until she can find one in the real world for herself. It’s much more innocent than you would assume.
So, the determination is that,
- Jareth and the owl that appears in the beginning of the film are the same entity.
- The owl is just a regular owl that Sarah uses as an anchor to create Jareth and the labyrinth in her mind.
- Jareth is a real magical creature that falls in love with Sarah, while in the form of the owl in the beginning of the film, can create worlds, and can change his appearance for her. (Oooh, I like these ideas. At the very end of the film, the Owl flies far away, possibly to visit some other child with it’s magic.)
- The owl is a magical guardian, leading Sarah through this imaginary journey to teach her the life lessons she learns in the film.
- The owl is a malefic creature that tries to lead Sarah astray.
This is what I love about this story. Jareth alone can be interpreted in so many ways.
Originally, Jareth was to be an older version of Jen from the Dark Crystal who lost his queen Kira. Then he was to be an actual goblin puppet, who transforms into a man.
There are some theories that since Jareth is a human, perhaps he was a stolen baby that was adopted by the former king of the goblins and was never transformed into a goblin. It’s possible. But again, it’s clear to me that his appearance is still the creation of Sarah’s imagination.
One interesting detail to help us single out Jareth’s origin is that when Sarah sees him, she does not say that he looks familiar. She knows him instantly. Like Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz, she appropriates people and things from her real word into her fantasy.
Jareth represents Sarah’s temptation. At one point he even throws a snake at Sarah, harkening to the snake of temptation in the Garden of Eden. Jareth is the White Rabbit from Alice in Wonderland who leads the protagonist into his strange world.
Jareth exists to do what Sarah wants and honor Sarah’s wish. It seems to break his heart that he can’t do that for her even though she has changed her mind. He offers her the gift of going back into her own bubble in her room; play with her toys and costumes to forget about little Toby. This is everything she wants, but her conscience won't let her do it.
Jareth wants Toby to add yet another servant to his kingdom. Since Sarah has protested the taking of the baby, he offers her the chance to make it through his labyrinth to trap her in his world forever and lose herself in her imagination. In this offer he makes with Sarah, he gains two subjects to rule over instead of just one.
Like the wicked witch in The Wizard of Oz, Jareth keeps popping up once in a while to terrorize the protagonist and even uses a crystal ball to spy on her. I love these connections so much and there are so many of them in this film.
The labyrinth itself is another one of Sarah's appropriations being that it was a wooden maze game on her dresser.
It is Jareth’s pride and joy, set up for entrapment, stuffed with so many riddles, puzzles and temptations. This is how he traps people there to become his subjects. The fire gang tries to recruit Sarah into a reckless lifestyle and a junk lady tries to trap Sarah in her own nostalgia. That lady almost got me too.
Terry Jones said that he felt that Jareth was actually using the Labyrinth to "keep people from getting to his heart." So when Sarah completes the labyrinth, she actually reaches his heart. This is why he sings a sad love song when she reaches his castle. He’s broken hearted that she won’t accept his gifts and the world he’s created for her. His storyline is sad and tragic. He says he can’t live within her… and that is, he can’t live within her imagination anymore. Her attention is on Toby now.
I enjoyed Jareth so very much as a melodramatic romantic with a flair for moody dramatics. It’s a classic bad boy charm that is mysterious and intriguing. In many ways he reminds me of Peter Pan, the leader of the lost boys. The goblins being the lost boys. Physically there are a few striking similarities to Peter Pan like the tights and the eyebrows. Like Peter Pan, who tempts Wendy into Neverland, Jareth tempts Sarah into the labyrinth. Anytime he’s on screen, it’s a spectacular moment and you can’t take your eyes off of him. He is a true highlight of the film.
The other challenge in the film is the emphasis on time. Like the White Rabbit, Jareth keeps track of the time and the ticking time clock helps give us some tension for the characters. Jareth keeps mentioning that forever is not long at all.
Sarah makes her wish near midnight and the entire adventure takes only a few minutes in real time while in the world of the Labyrinth 13 hours has passed. The number 13 has been long associated with the supernatural and magic.
Empathy:
There are so many facets of this movie to get nerdy on, so I hope you’ll indulge me as I get into a bit of a play by play on the details.
Sarah is a tough character to like, especially in the beginning. The story starts out with Sarah, a loner kid who practices reciting lines from a book alone at a local park in full period costume with her dog Merlin as an owl looks on. We know that eventually the owl will turn into Jareth.
Her lines are, “Through dangers untold. And hardships unnumbered. I have fought my way here to the castle; beyond the goblin city, to take back the child that you have stolen. My will is as strong as yours, and my kingdom as great...You have no power over me.”
In particular the line, “You have no power over me” is the line she keeps forgetting and it’s a self empowering statement you could apply to anything. But the entire verse she is reciting is an actual preview of what is to happen in the movie so that when she says it again, these are things that have actually transpired in the story and not empty words.
After getting home late, she gets into an argument with her step mother who she totally flips out on.
Her step mom mentions that no matter what she does, Sarah treats her like a fairytale stepmother. In Sarah’s mind, she is Cinderella, even though she isn’t. You can see that her step mom is concerned for her, even encouraging her to go out on dates. And maybe that is part of the problem too. Sarah may be feeling pressured to grow up faster than she’d like.
She begrudges the attention Toby, her 2 year old brother, gets and hates having the responsibility of having to look after him as if he is a terrible burden on her and she is a slave to her parents.
She totally flips out again when she realizes that one of her many exhibited stuffed animals, a teddy bear named Lancelot, had been given to her brother to play with. I mean she loses it completely.
It’s a total, “no wire hangers” moment. And instantly the audience hates her for being a ridiculous spoiled brat. She’s out of control.
As Sarah is raving about how much she wants to be taken away from her terrible life, she starts inventing a story of how she is a Cinderella type character and says “what no one knew was that the king of the goblins had fallen in love with the girl.” So we aren’t imagining that Jareth is in love with her, because she specifically wanted Jareth to be in love with her!
It’s a common fantasy of having a royal suitor. Nearly every fairy tale has it and Cinderella is an excellent example of that.
She awakens the goblins by telling her make believe story and specifically says that the girl in her story, “called upon the goblins for help”. I am mentioning all of this because I want to make a point that this is further proof that Sarah is creating the world of the labyrinth on the spot.
When she wishes for the goblins to take Toby away, she instantly regrets it when she realizes that it really happened. Her subconscious humanity kicks in and I think this is what brings this fantasy world to the surface. Jareth often mentions more than once that he turned the world upside down for her, bringing the fantasy world to the surface.
Many critics complain that Sarah was not very surprised by the characters in the film. I think that was because she has seen all of it before, it’s in her room. Why would she be surprised by something she sees every day in her room?
I also mentioned before that many aspects of her adventure appear in her room and her room is a fascinating place where we learn about the film’s literary influences and a bit more about Sarah. Her room is so much fun and filled with so many Easter eggs and interesting details.
In the film, the first character she meets in the labyrinth is Hoggle, who is part goblin and part dwarf. He appears in Sarah’s room as bookends. He represents Sarah’s personality trait of pessimism, cowardice, selfishness, and greed. Jareth uses him to unwillingly trick Sarah, however by the end she makes friends with him, making peace with that part of herself. And it’s important to note that his jacket shows two faces, letting us know that he should not be trusted.
Next she meets Ludo. He’s my favorite. He’s a big monster with horns that kind of looks like Sully from Monsters Inc. released in 2001 that is very gentle and sweet. Aw, you just want to give him a big hug. He actually appears as a doll in Sarah’s room. He can control rocks, so he represents Sarah’s strength, loyalty, and grounding spirit. When she meets him, it’s no mistake that his feet are not on the ground as he hangs upside down, meaning that she needed to get grounded.
In Sarah’s room there is a stuffed animal that looks like Sir Didymus on her dresser, who is the next character she meets, which is her bravery, valor, or bravado. He is a little chihuahua of a dog with a loud mouth. He means well and is a pretty good fighter, but his bark is much bigger than his bite. Most of these characters are so cute and Sir Diymus is probably a direct result of Terry Jones’ influence because his character carry on much of that classic Monty Python British humor. He’s a true treat. His steed is a dog, Ambrosius that looks like Sarah’s real life dog Merlin. It’s the dog on a dog joke that sends you into stitches laughing.
This about the time Sarah becomes more likable as she displays kindness towards her new friends. Once the whole crew gets together it's not too hard to see Dorothy and her friends travelling to the Emerald City in Sarah and her friends travelling to the Goblin City. The protagonist has brought together aspects of her personality to face off with her enemy. In this case, Sarah’s enemy is the temptation to ignore her responsibility of taking care of her brother and losing herself in her childhood fairy tales.
Jareth tries to give Sarah her dreams. One of them is revealed in a beautiful music box in her room, where a doll dressed like Cinderella dancing. There is a beautiful scene in the film where Sarah is the belle of a Cinderella-esque masquerade ball and her Goblin King dances with her until midnight. She rejects it, bursting her own bubble of false dreams realizing it’s a prison.
My favorite sequence is where this is revealed more, is when Sarah ends up in the Labyrinths version of her room. A junk lady keeps giving her things from her childhood that hold strong memories. I feel as if the junk lady is like a version of the Queen of Hearts taken more literally as she uses sentiment to get to Sarah. Sarah rejects it too because she doesn’t actually need them any more. They were once useful, but they have become a trap to keep her from growing.
This is directly dealing with her issue with Toby at the beginning of the film, playing with her toys. She’s not a baby anymore and although it’s nice to have the toy, she doesn’t need it. Toby could use it now. So she grows to the point of actually giving Lancelot to the sweet sleeping babe at the end. She is growing up and learning how to let go of her things that no longer serve her. This is one of the reasons why I just love this movie so much!
It is then that she puts a few items away in a drawer. I noticed that she didn’t throw them away. Among the items is the book she was reciting lines from at the beginning of the film. At first I thought she was a theater kid practicing for a play, but this proves she was doing this all on her own. It’s her favorite book and she’s breaking free of it’s spell over her.
Some critics had a problem with the end scene, when Sarah’s friends from the labyrinth appear in her room, right after she makes the decision to put aside childish things. They thought that it undoes her progress. However, to me, I thought that it meant that she can still use her imagination at any time, she can always be a kid at heart while being more mindful and responsible. And of course, since I am a crybaby, I sobbed. It’s such a good story.
As well, there are several other lessons Sarah learns, like, don’t take things for granted, nothing is what it seems, and life is not always fair.
Now there is something that I wanted to address with an adorable little worm that helps Sarah figure out how to get into the labyrinth, but then also leads her away from the castle. Sarah took his knowledge for granted so she didn’t ask him why he was leading her where he did. Many critics have said that she would have simply gone to the castle and the story would have been over. However, without her friends she meets along the way, she would have been captured by the goblins and never learned her life lessons.
The worm is this film’s version of the caterpillar in Alice in Wonderland.
Technical:
The film was shot in Upper Nyack, Piermont, and Haverstraw, New York in the U.S. Then West Wycombe Park and Elstree Studios in the United Kingdom which began in April and ended in September 1985. 5 months is a little long for the shoot after preparing a year and a half prior to shooting and it’s really due to having so many puppets and animatronic creatures that needed to be modified on the spot.
Much of the costumes were based on Brian Froud's incredible drawings and the most magnificent costumes were given to Jareth. The inspiration came from Grimms' Fairy Tales, Japanese Kabuki theatre, and Marlon Brando's leather jacket from The Wild One released in 1953. No comment on the tights, but gotta love the lapels on that jacket though.
His hair alone was a curious design much like Limahl, the lead singer of Kajagoogoo and the performer of The NeverEnding Story (1984) theme song. What a song. The wig that was used had spiky hairs cut short, with random longer spriggs throughout. In the back it had a more concentrated longer tendrils toward the nape of the neck.
My favorite costume that he wears is his last one, where he is embodying the owl. You can even see the bird like shoulder bones sticking up from the soft feathery jacket he wears. That whole scene is so creative because it looks as if the magic is wearing off and the owl can no longer create the full fantasy for her. He even says, “I’m exhausted living up to your expectations.” Even the makeup is less glamorous and more somber as if the illusion is wearing off. Oh my goodness, I loved it so much.
Jareth offers Sarah dreams in the form of crystal balls he magically rotates in his hands throughout the film. The effect was done by having choreographer Michael Moschen crouched behind David Bowie’s back and replacing David's right arm with his own while he blindly enacted his routine. It was a genius way to pull off that incredible effect. I remember seeing this for the first time and thinking it was indeed David Bowie pulling off this stunt.
Let's talk about the main showcase of the film, the puppets. I can't tell you how much I love puppets and admire all of the talent and work that goes into each and every little puppet featured in this film. It’s just amazing.
There were so many wonderful puppets of goblins. At one point during the "Dance Magic" scene there were over 48 puppets and eight people in goblin costumes.
The first puppet I want to talk about is Hoggle. The concept of him being part goblin and dwarf was brilliant because this was a chance to bridge humanity into the puppetry. The physical performance of the body was wonderfully played by Shari Weiser, who was given enlarged robotic hands to match the character. Hoggle’s face was radio-controlled by four puppeteers to coordinate facial expressions with Shari. Brian Henson was one of them who not only controlled the mouthpiece and other facial movements, but gave an excellent and heart felt vocal performance. The result was an incredible character, which took several weeks of practice and coordination.
Can you believe this? The costume for Hoggle got lost in travel and ended up in an unclaimed baggage claim, where it has stayed.
2 puppeteers split the performance for Ludo because the rig was just over 70 pounds. Initially it was over 100 pounds but redesigned to help relieve the weight as much as possible. A miniature video camera the right horn fed a small television monitor inside the puppet's stomach. There is something about Ludo that seems so real, or maybe it’s just that I wish he was real and as sweet as he is.
In order to keep things coordinated choreographers are often brought in and one such crew member was Cheryl McFadden, most famously known for playing the role of Dr. Beverly Crusher under the name Gates McFadden on Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987).
One scene I absolutely loved was the ballroom scene, which she choreographed. It was the one of the few scenes without puppets and it was said to be one of the easiest shots to film. They specifically made the scene look like a young girl’s Cinderella fantasy, but the masquerade ball was the element that gave it a nightmarish twist. This drives home the message of nothing is what it seems. It was said that the humans at the ball were the hedonistic aristocracy pretending to be goblins while living out their fantasies. Another interpretation was that The Goblin King’s goblins were transformed into humans and the goblin masks held their illusion.
Jareth is all powerful in the Labyrinth, so much so that he sees everything and knows everything that goes on in it. You can see hidden Jareth faces throughout the scenes in the labyrinth. And to support that, he even speaks like a god as he urges Hoggle not to throw away the poisoned peach from beyond. That peach is this film’s version of Snow White’s poisoned apple.
Those places are:
- Upper right corner of the (stone) maze
- To the right of the screen, after the rung under Hoggle breaks, as he watches it fall.
- Upper left corner of the hedge maze, as Hoggle is muttering "Get through the labyrinth, get through the labyrinth, one thing's for sure... "
- right corner of the wall bordering the Bog of Eternal Stench, just after the ledge breaks under Sarah and Hoggle for the first time.
- During the wide shot of the hedge maze in the middle left on the stony floor just after the hat says, "It's so stimulating being your hat."
- In the forest as Sir Didymus says "We should reach the castle well before day."
One incredibly striking scene in the film is during the "Escher" scene inspired by and replicating a piece of art hung in Sarah’s room. The piece is called “Relativity” which depicts a world that defies the laws of gravity, printed in 1953. It’s a lithograph print by the Dutch graphic artist M. C. Escher, who made mathematically inspired works of art. The way it is used in the film shows off the fantasy world that Jareth has created for Sarah, defying gravity and as he keeps saying that he turned the world, “upside down” for her. Again brilliant.
The work done to create the illusions in the scene were mostly done in camera and a few rigs but mainly done with editing, such as flipping the footage to create anti-gravity and reversing the film to create the scene where Toby catches one of Jareth’s orbs.
Sarah falls into a shaft of hands, which at some point actually forms faces and talks to her. Jennifer Connolly was strapped to a body mold rig that descended on 30 feet. It featured a combination of 200 prop hands, with 150 live hands to pull off the effect.
120 truckloads of tree branches, 1,200 turfs of grass, 850 pounds of dried leaves, 133 bags of lichen, and 35 bundles of moss made up the forest within the Labyrinth.
The fire gang scene is probably the most criticized in the film and it’s pretty obvious why. At the time, black screen was used, putting all of the puppeteers in black while a picture of the forest was used for the background. It didn’t work, and Jim Henson was not happy with the result either, but he thought it was important to keep in the film.
One scene that I feel gets unfairly criticized is the digital owl that appears in the opening credits. I don’t think it was meant to fool anyone into thinking it was a real bird. It’s a fantasy bird. It was the very first attempt at a CGI animal character in a feature film. I think it looked awesome for 1986 and I must commend the film for introducing the first CGI character to the world. I can appreciate the many hours of dedication it took to do it, knowing first hand how computing in the 1980’s was. It was in its infancy compared to what we can do now. If you think of it, in order to get a character like Thanos from the Marvel franchise, we had to get here. So I respect it. It is often the first attempt that inspires progress and the art form has grown leaps and bounds since then.
I must also commend the film on the creative sets and matt paintings that were used to create this fantasy plane if you will, what Jareth refers to as the, “underground” in the film through his songs. It was not meant to look realistic because it is a girl’s fantasy place covered in glitter. I loved it because that glitter is a very distinct detail, that no place would exist like this. The sky is very static and sometimes an odd orange color, because it is an illusion… a fantasy. Jareth has a lot of power but he can’t recreate planet Earth. The secret is in the details, the details, the details!
Trevor Jones did the score, consisting of six tracks: "Into the Labyrinth", "Sarah", "Hallucination", "The Goblin Battle", "Thirteen O'Clock" and "Home at Last". It doesn’t get enough credit and I think because it’s understated but I think it’s gorgeous. It’s synth heavy with wonderful orchestral notes featuring fairy tale melodies.
David Bowie wrote 5 original songs for the film, which provided some of the most memorable moments in the film, making the film a musical. "Underground", "Magic Dance", "Chilly Down", "As The World Falls Down" and "Within You".
He made music videos for "Underground", which can be heard in the opening and the final credits and "As the World Falls Down", which is my personal favorite. I remember seeing the video for “As the World Falls Down” on MTV back in the 1980’s and it was not the official video. What I saw was simply the fantasy ball scene in full that was cut specifically for MTV.
For the song “Underground” he incorporated blues and gospel sounds featuring the voices of Chaka Khan, Sissi Houston, and Luther Vandross for his backup.
Many people just love the Magic Dance song and scene, which I must admit is so much fun to see. Choreographer Charles August was brought in to help David with his dance movements and it really paid off to insert lots of energy into the scene.
Performances:
Of the contenders to play Jareth, Michael Jackson, Prince, Mick Jagger and Sting were considered. Jim Henson’s kids convinced him that David Bowie was coming off of his 1983 hit album "Let's Dance". Henson met with David Bowie that year and kept him in the loop of everything going on for years. Finally in February of 1985, just 2 months before filming, David officially signed on to the project. The biggest draw for him was being involved in the music-writing aspect of a movie as well as that it was a children’s movie.
I really enjoyed David Bowie in this so much. He’s no stranger to odd costumes and wearing it with ownership. Through his career he has embraced makeup and fashions to create characters for his music. He wasn’t the first guy to wear makeup, but he had a way of doing things in his career that was iconic and this is no exception.
He was no stranger to acting either playing interesting and challenging roles in movies such as Man Who Fell To Earth in 1976 and The Hunger in 1983. One other thing that I liked about his performance, is how much he gave Jareth a personality different from his own and anything I had never seen in any of his other films. Jareth is the villain in the film, but he is also a tragic character that is often misunderstood.
16 year old Sarah was played by 14-year-old actress Jennifer Connelly during the time of filming. This totally blows my mind because she does look a little older than what she is. Just listening to interviews that Connelly gave during that time she was very mature and well spoken for her age, with a good knowledge of what was expected of her on set. It’s impossible not to admire her work ethic and grown up sensibility just looking at all of the stunts she is actually doing in the film. I don’t think she gets enough credit for playing Sarah because in my opinion I felt she knew her character well. There are times when she’s acting like she’s acting, and it seems like it’s a bit stiff. However, when you realise that Sarah is obsessed with being a make believe character and being part of a fantasy, you know why she acts the way she does. Sarah is not practicing for a school play, she’s just doing this on her own. I just felt Jennifer nailed that detail.
The baby who played Toby was Toby Froud, son of Brian Froud. Babies can’t act, but you can catch moments of their moods and create a performance from that. I love all of the scenes with Toby smiling and being cute, but it was difficult to watch him cry.
With his mom and dad close by, Toby was never in any danger. The scene where Toby was surrounded by puppets and crying one would have thought that would scar poor Toby for life from puppets, but on the contrary. Toby went into the family business, because his mom is Wendy Froud, a puppet maker and sculptor. He has worked on Hollywood projects since 2005 such as The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, Kubo and the Two Strings 2016 and even worked with his parents on The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance (TV Series in 2019) as a design supervisor for 10 episodes. Isn’t that cool?! Go Toby!
I thought this was cute, when Toby’s son, Sebastian was two, he dressed him up as Toby from the movie for Halloween.
Enjoyment:
Labyrinth had a great deal of publicity to promote the film, including a television special, and computer games. However, it failed at the box office.
I’m not sure what it was. I wanted to see the film when it came out, but going to the movies depended on my mom. She’s the one who would take me to the movies and I don’t think this one was something she was interested in. Which is odd because we loved the Dark Crystal so much! I guess we took it for granted that Jim Henson would make a lot more movies and we’d catch this one on cable.
Sadly this was Jim Henson’s last movie and he passed away in 1990. I actually didn’t catch the movie on cable, but always kept catching the last part of it on late night TV over the years. I only saw in its entirety in 2012 and LOVED IT! Why did I wait so long to see this? I don’t understand, because I love this style of film. Everything about this movie is for me and I see it as a masterpiece.
Over the years, through the decades, people have been wising up to this awesome movie. I’ve been hearing so many people say how it’s their favorite film period.
And come on, Jareth is the perfect character for cosplaying if you want to get the most attention at any event.
Since 1997, a 2 day event called the "Labyrinth of Jareth Masquerade Ball" has been held in San Diego, Hollywood, and Los Angeles. I’d love to go to that one time.
The legacy continued with Tokyopop’s 4 volume comic sequel Return to Labyrinth between 2006 and 2010.
As well a sequel has been in the works since 2016.
If none of those storylines work for you, Fanfiction.net hosts over 9,800 stories for Labyrinth fanfiction alone.
Revisiting this movie over the years, has been a true pleasure and I seem to discover a new wonderful details to ogle over every time.
There is one solitary cat that is seen in the distance as Sarah and her crew enter the Goblin City. This is a direct reference to her poster of the Broadway musical Cats in her room.
The little worm in the labyrinth is so cute. He’s this film’s version of the caterpillar in Alice in Wonderland, providing a teaching moment for the protagonist and a little humor for the audience.
There were Alice In Wonderland type door guards that were two faced. Those guys were fun.
The bickering door knockers remind me a lot of the balcony guys on the Muppet Show, Statler and Waldorf.
The biting fairies. Oh, they were so cute and a vision plucked right out of one of Brian Froud’s books.
The man with the bird hat had a small role, but I feel he’s the movie’s twist on the Mad Hatter. Instead of manic and insane, he was silly and sleepy.
The Bog of Eternal Stench is a character in it’s own right, pulsating and bubbling about the scene. I thought it was this film’s version of the field of poppies. Instead of smelling good, it smelled bad.
And who can forget the stone faces of discouragement, the freaky eyeball plants, and the helping hands?
I love this wonderful adventure of massive personal growth that Sarah experiences, learning not to take things for granted, nothing is what it seems, and life is not always fair. Sarah makes peace with her pessimism, cowardice, selfishness, and greed. She taps into her inner strength and gets grounded. She aligns herself with her bravery, valor, or bravado. She brought together these aspects of her being to face off with the temptation to ignore her responsibility and losing herself in her own bubble of false dreams realizing it’s a prison. She has learned to let go of her things that no longer serve her. And she can always be a kid at heart while being more mindful and responsible.
Cancel that self help seminar and go watch Labyrinth!
My Rating:
9.5
That sums up my review. I hope you liked it. If you did, I’ve got over 100 of these videos, so go on and browse the channel to see more reviews from me like this. Subscribe if you haven’t done so already and hit the bell icon to be the first to be notified of my next video. This is Retro Nerd Girl signing off!
Take care movie lovers! I'm off to the next review!
If you enjoy my content and want me to continue you can help at Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/retronerdgirl
Follow Retro Nerd Girl on twitter: https://twitter.com/Retro_Nerd_Girl
Like Retro Nerd Girl on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/retronerdgirl
No comments:
Post a Comment