Flashback Films: Labyrinth (1986)

It's been years since I last saw Labyrinth and I recently saw it for sale on bluray so I decided to pick up this childhood classic. I have lots of nostalgic memories about the movie, and I was curious as to how well it would hold up to the test of time, and my own growing-up. The basic story is that young Sarah is trying to save her baby brother from David Bowie the Goblin King Jareth, and to do so she must traverse a massive labyrinth filled with tricks, traps, monsters and various other fantastical creatures. Hit the jump to see if I thought the Labyrinth stood up to the test of time.




Some of the things I remember most about Labyrinth as a child were all the traps, creatures and a crazy dreamworld adventure a girl goes on through the Goblin King's land. Now, however, I can see there's much more to the story besides getting from A to B which was all I remembered. There's all these undercurrents about growing up, what I now know as the classic coming of age tale. What it's like to be on the verge of becoming an adult, and the changes in personality you have to adopt to be successful. Even so, a tale of a young girl growing up before our eyes isn't exactly a story I could connect with.

"Ludo Friend!"

This brings me nicely to the characters of Labyrinth. Let's start with the lead, Sarah, who played by a very young Jennifer Connelley. In the beginning of the movie, she's one of the most annoying girls ever put to film. She's a spoiled, selfish, whiny brat. Thankfully she quickly starts maturing upon entering the realm of the Goblin King and becomes a character you root for instead of wishing failure upon. The cast of characters she meets along the way are all varied and in their own way memorable. The most memorable of all most likely being Ludo, the giant monster with a heart of gold she rescues from being tortured. Ludo is still everything I remember him to be, which is totally awesome. Lastly I'd like to mention the Goblin King himself, Jareth. Preformed by David Bowie, he does what you might expect David Bowie to do. He sings. He sings quite a bit. But even after the years, I still found the songs fun, creepy, and most importantly, good. I just wish he didn't wear pants quite so tight.

The Fireys still creep the hell out of me!

The magic of the Labyrinth of course is all in thanks to the amazing work of Jim Henson and his puppetry company. Labyrinth mixes possibly every kind of puppetry I know of together. There are standard hand puppets, giant robots, costumed actors with animatronic faces like Hoggle, huge costumed creatures manned from the inside like Ludo, and even stick puppets like the Fireys which are shown on screen combined with early green screen technology. There's even some very early CG at work in there. While most of the effects still hold up, especially the expressive puppets themselves, some of the other effects dreadfully show their age. The early CG and the green screen work in particular. Otherwise it all still looked good to me.

So does Labyrinth hold up after all these years? Sort of. The story doesn't really hook me anymore, and the girl is terribly annoying in the start. The puppets and most of the creature characters are mostly just how I remembered them, but the super early CG and screen effects fall terribly short and stick out like a sore thumb. The songs are still kinda haunting, but Bowie looks comical in his skin-tight spandex pants. It's funny to now recognize a young Jennifer Connelly as Sarah, walking around with all these characters I remember from my past. Labyrinth still holds some magic for those nostalgic about the movie, but it's probably best kept as a movie for kids.