Labyrinth (Film) Information

Labyrinth is a 1986 British/American fantasy film directed by Jim Henson, produced by George Lucas, and designed by Brian Froud. Henson collaborated on the screenwriting with children's author Dennis Lee, Monty Python alumnus Terry Jones, and Elaine May.

The film stars David Bowie as Jareth the Goblin King and Jennifer Connelly as Sarah Williams. The plot revolves around Sarah's quest to find the way through an enormous otherworldly maze so that she can rescue her little brother, Toby, from Jareth. Most of the other significant roles are played by puppets or by a combination of puppetry and human performance. It was shot on location in New York and at Elstree Studios and Hampstead Heath in the UK. It was the last feature film directed by Henson before his death in 1990.

Plot

The movie opens with a scene of Sarah Williams, a 15-year-old girl, rehearsing lines from a book called Labyrinth in a park. While trying to remember her final line in the book, a bell rings and she realizes that she has lost track of time. She runs home to find her stepmother waiting for her. They quarrel, and her stepmother leaves with Sarah's father on a date. Sarah is left home to babysit her baby brother, Toby. Sarah realizes that her treasured teddy bear, Lancelot, is missing from her room. Storming into Toby's room, she finds Lancelot and yells at Toby, who then begins to cry. Sarah begins rehearsing more lines from Labyrinth, telling the story of a maiden granted special powers by the King of Goblins. According to the story, the girl could no longer stand the baby's cries and wishes for goblins to take away her screaming baby brother. As she ends the story and turns off the light, she remarks, "I wish the goblins would come and take you away. Right now." Toby suddenly stops crying. Worried, Sarah re-enters his room to find that he has vanished.

A barn owl flies through the open bedroom window and transforms into Jareth, King of Goblins. He tells her that he has taken the baby as she wished. Realizing what she has done, Sarah begs for the return of her brother. Jareth tells her that if she can solve his great maze, known as the Labyrinth, within thirteen hours, she can have Toby back. If she cannot, he will turn Toby into a goblin and keep him forever.

The Labyrinth is not a simple maze; the pathways and openings in the walls of the maze change intermittently and are riddled with logic puzzles and tests. At its entrance, Sarah finds Hoggle, a curmudgeonly dwarf, killing fairies with a fly spray; she bribes him with her plastic jewelry to lead her through the maze. Although he helps Sarah, it is later revealed that he is working for Jareth. Sarah acquires other companions along the way: Sir Didymus, a chivalrous, fox-like knight, and Ludo, a gentle beast she rescues from a horde of Jareth's goblins.

As Sarah and her friends venture through the Labyrinth, they encounter the Four Guards, where she must solve a Raymond Smullyan-inspired Knights and Knaves logic puzzle to avoid certain death; the detachable-limbed revelers known as "The Fire Gang", who try to remove Sarah's head; a detour through the Bog of Eternal Stench; a junkyard-like recreation of her own bedroom; and a hallucinogen-induced masquerade ball. There, Jareth attempts to distract her until the thirteenth hour by dancing with her. However, she wakes from this illusion and continues into his castle beyond the goblin city with barely enough time to spare.

The film climaxes in Jareth's multi-dimensional, Escher-inspired castle, wherein he makes a final appeal for her to abandon her quest and stay with him. She defeats him by reciting her monologue from the beginning of the movie, including the final line that had so often eluded her: "You have no power over me!" The room crumbles away, and Sarah finds herself back in her home as the clock strikes midnight and Jareth, in owl form, flies away.

Sarah gives Toby her beloved Lancelot, then returns to her room. As Sarah clears her dressing table, she seems confused about whether she has undergone the turning point in her life between childhood and adulthood. Hoggle appears, with Ludo and Sir Didymus, as images in the mirror. They seem to be bidding her goodbye as she leaves behind the fantasies of childhood, but remind her that they will still be available "should you need us." Sarah insists she needs them, and will need them every now and then throughout her life, and they appear in her bedroom. The film closes as Sarah and the creatures celebrate in her room. Outside, the owl watches the party and then flies away.

Cast

• Jennifer Connelly as Sarah Williams
• David Bowie as Jareth, the Goblin King
• Toby Froud as Toby Williams
• Shelley Thompson as Irene Williams
• Christopher Malcolm as Robert Williams
• Shari Weiser (Brian Henson, voice) as Hoggle
• Rob Mills (Ron Mueck, voice) as Ludo
• Dave Goelz, David Barclay (David Shaughnessy, voice) as Sir Didymus
• Steve Whitmire, Kevin Clash (Percy Edwards, voice) as Ambrosius
• Karen Prell (Timothy Bateson, voice) as The Worm
• Frank Oz (Michael Hordern, voice) as The Wiseman
• Dave Goelz (David Shaughnessy, voice) as The Wiseman's Bird Hat
• Karen Prell (Denise Bryer, voice) as The Junk Lady
• Warwick Davis as Goblin Corps
• Steve Whitmire, Kevin Clash, Anthony Asbury, Dave Goelz (Anthony Jackson, Douglas Blackwell, David Shaughnessy, and Timothy Bateson, voices) as The Four Guards (Alph, Ralph, Jim and Tim)

Soundtrack

The soundtrack album includes much of Trevor Jones's score, including "Into the Labyrinth", "Sarah", "Hallucination", "The Goblin Battle", "Thirteen O'Clock" and "Home at Last". "Underground" was released as a single in 1986, including an instrumental version and an extended dance mix.^[2]

The following songs were composed and performed by David Bowie in the film. The exception is "Chilly Down", which is performed by the Fieries, a.k.a. The Fire Gang: David Alan Barclay, Karen Prell, Rob Mills and Danny John-Jules

• "Underground" (opening credits)
• "Magic Dance" (sometimes known as "Dance Magic")
• "Chilly Down"
• "As the World Falls Down"
• "Within You"
• "Underground" (end credits)

Bowie admits in the 1986 documentary Inside the Labyrinth that he had to make baby noises during the "Magic Dance" sequence because the baby in the studio would not.

Reception

Box office

The film was a box office failure, grossing only $12,729,917, well under its $25 million budget^{[citation needed]}.

Critical reception

The film received mixed reviews from critics.^[3] On Rotten Tomatoes, the film averages a 61% positive rating.^[4]

Roger Ebert gave it only two stars out of four, noting in his review, "I have a problem with almost all nightmare movies: They aren't as suspenseful as they should be because they don't have to follow any logic. Anything can happen, nothing needs to happen, nothing is as it seems and the rules keep changing."^[5] Leonard Maltin liked the film a little more, giving the movie 3 stars out of 4 in his Movie Guide and stating, "I couldn't have asked for a more imaginative film." This quote was used on the back of the box for the VHS release.

Cult reception

Labyrinth has become a cult film,^[6] and it has been noted that the main audience for the film is now adults rather than children.^[7]

Since 1997, an annual two-day masquerade ball called the "Labyrinth of Jareth" has been held in Hollywood, CA, where revelers come dressed in costumes inspired by the film.^[8][9]

In other media

The film was novelized by A.C.H. Smith as Labyrinth: A Novel, which is currently out of print.^[10] Marvel Comics produced a three-issue comic book adaptation, which was also printed in a single volume as Marvel Super Special #40.

A video game based on the film was released alongside the movie in 1986 for the Commodore 64 and Apple II. A different version was also released in Japan for the Nintendo Famicom.^{[citation needed]}

A Muppet Babies episode with a similar plot, and featuring clips from the film, "Nice to Have Gnome You", has Miss Piggy in the role of Sarah.^{[citation needed]}

Manga sequel

Tokyopop, in partnership with The Jim Henson Company, published a manga-style four-volume comic called Return to Labyrinth, written by Jake T. Forbes, illustrated by Chris Lie, with cover art by Kouyu Shurei.^[11] It tells the story of Toby, the baby brother in the movie, when he has reached the age of 15.^[12]

The first volume was released August 8, 2006. The second volume followed in October 2007, and the third in May 2009. In an afterword, editor Tim Beedle announced that the series, originally planned as a trilogy, was being extended to include a fourth volume; this fourth volume was released in August 2010.

Sources and inspirations

• The filmmakers acknowledged several influences, including Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, the works of Maurice Sendak (the plot mirrors that of his story "Outside Over There"), and M. C. Escher.
• Many of the settings and creatures in the film were based on designs by Brian Froud, who had previously collaborated with Henson on The Dark Crystal. Froud and screenwriter Terry Jones later collaborated on the book The Goblins of Labyrinth which depicted some of the incidental creatures from the film.

References

1. ^ theoscarsite.com [4]
2. ^ Allmusic.com
3. ^ "Going To Great Lengths In A Trying 'Labyrinth'". The Los Angeles Times. http://articles.latimes.com/1986-06-26/entertainment/ca-21515_1_great-lengths. Retrieved 2010-10-18.
4. ^ "Labyrinth (1986)". Rotten Tomatoes. http://members.rottentomatoes.com/m/labyrinth/. Retrieved 2010-10-21.
5. ^ Roger Ebert (1986-06-27). "Labyrinth". rogerebert.com. http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/19860627/REVIEWS/606270302/. Retrieved 2010-10-21.
6. ^ Sparrow, A.E. (2006-09-11. accessdate=2007-07-10). "Return to Labyrinth Vol. 1 Review". IGN.com. http://comics.ign.com/articles/732/732053p1.html.
7. ^ Wright, Andrea (2005). "Selling the Fantastic". Journal of British Cinema and Television 2 (2).
8. ^ Liz Ohanesian (May 20, 2010). "Shawn Strider: Labyrinth of Jareth". LA Weekly Magazine. http://www.laweekly.com/2010-05-20/la-life/shawn-strider-labyrinth-of-jareth/.
9. ^ Alysia Gray Painter (Jul 15, 2010). ""Labyrinth" Masquerade Attracts Merry Fairies". NBC Los Angeles. http://www.nbclosangeles.com/around-town/events/Labyrinth-Masquerade-Attracts-Merry-Fairies.html.
10. ^ Amazon.com: Labyrinth (9780030073229): A. C. H. Smith: Books
11. ^ "Return to Labyrinth (Paperback)". Amazon.com. http://www.amazon.com/dp/1598167251/. Retrieved 2006-07-03.
12. ^ Tokyopop (2005-07-19). "The Jim Henson Company, TOKYOPOP, and Neil Gaiman Set to Bring ‘Mirrormask’ and Classic Fantasy Titles to Manga". Press release. http://www.tokyopop.com/news/press2005/2005_hensen.php. Retrieved 2006-06-07.

External links

• Labyrinth at the Internet Movie Database
• Labyrinth at Allmovie
• Labyrinth at Box Office Mojo
• Labyrinth at Rotten Tomatoes
• Muppet Wiki: Labyrinth
• Official Return to Labyrinth manga site from Tokyopop

Categories: English-language films | 1986 films | British fantasy films | American fantasy films | Films directed by Jim Henson | Screenplays by Terry Jones | Children's fantasy films | Coming-of-age films | American fantasy-comedy films | American fantasy adventure films | Films featuring puppetry | Fictional goblins | Lucasfilm films | Henson films | TriStar films

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