THE FOLLOWING REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS OF THE DISCUSSED FILM. READERS DISCRETION IS ADVISED.
Do not let your inner thoughts get the best of you, or you’ll go through a crazy adventure as shown in Labyrinth.
PLOT
The 1986 film follows 16 year old Sarah who has grown irritated of her baby brother Toby she has to babysit while her father and stepmother go out for dinner. Before leaving, they scold her for coming home late as she was carried away reading the titular book outdoors. Annoyed of Toby’s tears and livid that he was gifted her favorite teddy bear Lancelot without her permission, she wishes for him to be taken away by the goblin king himself, Jareth, from the book. Little would she expect her wish to come true as her brother vanishes and the goblin king appears to confirm he has taken him to his castle. Wanting to undo what she said, she pleads to have Toby back. Reluctantly, Jareth gives her 13 hours to solve his maze or he will convert the baby to be one of his many goblins. The challenge would be proven difficult as Sarah mistakes it to be endlessly straight until she starts to look at things differently, which helps her find new directions. As her journey progresses, she meets a dwarf named Hoggle (Brian Henson) who helps her find her destination but she doesn’t know Jareth wants him to betray her. Since he chose to take her back to the beginning, the goblin king demands the dwarf to give her an enchanted peach that’ll make her forget she has a brother. Together, he and Sarah also befriend a large beast named Ludo (Ron Mueck) after freeing him from a trap. When passing through a forest portion of the labyrinth, they encounter a creature gang called the Fire Gang, who they fend off after getting harassed by them. By the end of it, they meet an anthropomorphic fox terrier named Sir Didymus (David Shaughnessy) who guards the swamp with sheepdog steed Ambrosius. Didymus & Ambrosius join them as well after they pass through a trail rocks that prevent them falling into a bog. When getting hungry, Sarah eats the peach without hesitation and ends up forgetting of Toby. In the middle of a trance, she rejects Jareth’s advances, which only leads to her finding herself in a junkyard outside the maze. A junk lady tries to brainwash her, but the voices of her new friends help her restore the memory of her brother. As they reach the castle, they’re able to overpower robotic guards and the goblin army. Sarah tries to confront Jareth alone, which leads to her walking into a room with infinite stairs, modeled after MC Escher’s lithograph ‘Relativity’. Remembering the final line in her book “You have no power over me”, the goblin king surrenders Toby and flies away as he turns into an owl. With normalcy restored in Sarah’s perspective as she & her brother return home before their parents, she proves her love by giving him Lancelot. Aware that she’s growing up, she still wants the book’s characters to be part of her life. She gets just that when the likes of Hoggle, Didymus & Ludo appear raucously and joyfully hug each other. The film ends with Jareth watching outside before flying into the moonlight.
THOUGHTS
We knew Jim Henson was one of a world builder through The Dark Crystal, which only made 80s audiences what he could do differently if given another chance. In this case, he is able top himself exponentially and create his biggest world yet. Scene by scene, he pulls you in each time because he surprises you with more fantastic creature designs no one but him could’ve thought of. With Dave Goelz & Frank Oz returning from The Dark Crystal to aid him in puppeteering and getting to witness more fantastic set pieces to digest. Every creature is so extraordinary in their own way that you’re gonna have a hard time picking a favorite. Going into this with the awareness that David Bowie would star as the goblin king and perform music for this picture, you know you’re set for a good time. From the opening track, ‘Underground’, you feel sucked into the fictional world the way Sarah does. Things definitely feel jiggy when you hear ‘Magic Dance’ and once you hear ‘As the World Falls Down’, you feel compelled on the film’s message of persistence and acceptance: We should be firm when it comes to overcoming obstacles, but also embrace the changes past our control otherwise we won’t adapt the way we wish. This is the dynamic that is incredibly explored through both the antagonist and protagonist. Since this is not Bowie’s first acting role, we knew he’d be a welcome enigma this film was already gonna be. The artist is co captivating as Jareth because he’s written to be extremely egotistical to where he doesn’t dare to let people have their way. In his world, it is his way and nothing else’s which he spends the whole time imposing towards those who don’t agree with him. Once Sarah looked past his charade however, he accepted defeat and had to move on from what he called a life because he knew he couldn’t lie forever. Jennifer Connelly gets a true breakthrough as Sarah because she has to go from petulant from to mature enough to figure things out with/without the help she gets. She never hated her baby brother the way she says aloud, she just spoke out of envy because the attention he was getting bothered her. It bothered her because it reflected she was growing up and didn’t want to go through even though it’s happening as she speaks. When Toby was swept from their home, it was an instant wake up call to be careful what you say to your family that never intended to harm you because you’ll likely not have a chance to make it right. Thankfully, she makes it right when she gets him back. The journey becomes a win-win for her in the end because now becoming grateful on having a sibling, she is able to live on with her inner child being part of her too. To me, seeing Jarrett watch over her epiphany before flying away was his nod of approval because he wish he had figured it out sooner in his lifetime. And now, he must live on as an inner conscience to those who might make the same mistakes he did which feels redeemable if you ask me. This movie was so fun to get through, but there were some things that confused me as I went along. Like if Hoggle was counting the fairies he was affecting with a death spray, what’s the point of counting if they don’t die from it? It’s one thing to be bored, but it’s another to harm without reason. And I think it was so bad of a decision for Sarah to tell Jareth midway that the labyrinth was a piece of cake when it was in fact getting harder even with Hoggle’s help. I know she wants him to be intimidated of her having a fighting chance, but don’t do that to the guy who ends up rigging the maze just as you make a false claim. Even Hoggle says this right before facing Jareth’s army once being so close to the castle. They come off like they want to lose. Also, how did Ludo & Didymus find her in the junkyard? Since we don’t see how she got there, it’s hard to but they know where she went. In short, Labyrinth is a peak moment for the fantasy genre as it lets loose on imagination and delivers big time. If you love expressing imagination, see this now.
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