{"id":31727,"date":"2016-03-16T06:30:54","date_gmt":"2016-03-15T17:30:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/?p=31727"},"modified":"2016-03-14T21:57:00","modified_gmt":"2016-03-14T08:57:00","slug":"big-worlds-on-small-screens-fantasy-films-from-the-eighties-that-werent-that-bad-rebecca-fisher-discusses-labyrinth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/2016\/03\/16\/big-worlds-on-small-screens-fantasy-films-from-the-eighties-that-werent-that-bad-rebecca-fisher-discusses-labyrinth\/","title":{"rendered":"Big Worlds On Small Screens & \u201cFantasy Films From the Eighties That Weren\u2019t That Bad\u201d\u2014Rebecca Fisher Discusses “Labyrinth”"},"content":{"rendered":"

~ by Rebecca Fisher<\/em><\/p>\n

In researching this collaboration between famed fantasy-peddlers Jim Henson, George Lucas and Terry Jones, I was pretty astonished to discover that when Labyrinth<\/strong> was first released to theatres in 1986, it was largely considered a flop, spurned by critics and ignored by audiences.<\/p>\n

Today it’s considered a cult classic, and with the recent passing of David Bowie, I doubt I’m the only one who took the chance to rewatch him in his most famous movie role.<\/p>\n

\"Labyrinth1\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Sarah (Jennifer Connelly) is a petulant teenage girl who escapes her hyperbolic imprisonment as a live-in babysitter for her father and stepmother by delving into a rich imaginative world. One stormy night as she’s looking after her baby half-brother, Toby, she makes a wayward wish: for the goblins to take him far away from her.<\/p>\n

They oblige.<\/p>\n

Instantly regretting her words, she makes a deal with Jareth the Goblin King (David Bowie). If she can make her way through the Labyrinth to the castle beyond the Goblin City where Toby is being held captive, she can return home with him. But if she can’t reach him within thirteen hours, he’ll be irreversibly changed into a goblin.<\/p>\n

\"Labyrinth2\"<\/a>It’s easier said than done.<\/em><\/p>\n

The interior of the Labyrinth is very much an excuse for Jim Henson’s Creature Shop to show off their creativity. Filled with an array of unique goblins, talking door knockers, giant stone heads that intone dire warnings, and a pit full of hands that work together to form faces, the Labyrinth is practically bursting with imaginative power.<\/p>\n

It’s not without its dark side though \u2013 the environment is summed up nicely when Sarah picks up a beautiful little winged fairy, only to get badly bitten. The place is a beautiful Freudian soup of symbols and images, and though there’s no profound message to the film (thematic lines such as “life’s not fair”, “you have no power over me”, and “it’s all junk!” don’t exactly resonate) digging a little deeper below the surface yields some interesting rewards.<\/p>\n

\"Labyrinth3\"<\/a>Jareth offers Sarah her heart’s desire.<\/em><\/p>\n

For instance, Labyrinth<\/strong> is clearly a coming-of-age story, with the labyrinth itself as a metaphor for Sarah’s adolescence, and Jareth as the embodiment of the fear and allure of adulthood. Across the course of the film Sarah goes from a whiny, self-absorbed brat to a wiser and more empathetic young woman, and a keen eye will notice that most of the denizens of the Labyrinth are first glimpsed in Sarah’s bedroom as a collection of posters, toys, games, and other trinkets.<\/p>\n

There are even clues as to her mother’s absence: newspaper clippings and photographs on Sarah’s mirror reveal she ran away with a rock star who bears a passing resemblance to a certain Goblin King.<\/p>\n

Sure, the film has its rough patches: the mumbling Wise Man and his bird-hat, some of Bowie’s extended song-and-dance numbers, the Fireys that attempt to pull Sarah’s head off in a completely pointless sequence \u2013 but the treasure box of delights the film offers far outweighs its negatives.<\/p>\n

\"Labyrinth4\"<\/a><\/p>\n

From a misshapen dwarf to a cavalier fox, a tiny caterpillar to a giant monster, this is the Jim Henson Company at its creative height. The animatronics on Hoggle’s face are incredible, so too is the set design and costuming for David Bowie’s Jareth (showing off his assets to best effect \u2013 that’s right, no Labyrinth<\/strong> review is complete without at least one pointed comment about Bowie’s pants).<\/p>\n

Nowadays Labyrinth<\/strong> is considered a staple part of many an Eighties\/Nineties kid’s childhood. Perhaps even J.K. Rowling is a fan \u2013 at one point Sarah mistakenly calls Hoggle “Hogwart” and the recurring motif of a white owl is highly reminiscent of Hedwig, so I like to think that little traces of this film ended up in the Harry Potter<\/strong> series.
\n.<\/span><\/p>\n

Next Time: The Dark Crystal<\/strong><\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

Since we’re on the topic of Jim Henson, it seems natural to follow this up with a review of The Dark Crystal<\/strong>. Populated entirely by puppets, it was released to theatres before Labyrinth<\/strong>, but is definitely a precursor of what was to come in regards to its distinctive style.<\/span><\/em>
\n.<\/span><\/p>\n

About The Reviewer:<\/h3>\n

\"\"<\/a>Rebecca Fisher is a graduate of the University of Canterbury with a Masters degree in English Literature, mainly, she claims, because she was able to get away with writing her thesis on C.S. Lewis and Philip Pullman. She is a reviewer for FantasyLiterature.com<\/a>, a large website that specializes in fantasy and science-fiction novels, as well as posting reviews to Amazon.com<\/a> and her They\u2019re All Fictional<\/a> blog.<\/p>\n

To read Rebecca\u2019s detailed introduction of both herself and the series, as well as preceding reviews, click on:<\/p>\n

Big Worlds On Small Screens<\/a><\/h3>\n

Rebecca won the 2015 Sir Julius Vogel Award<\/a> for Best Fan Writer, for writing that included Big Worlds On Small Screens<\/em>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

~ by Rebecca Fisher In researching this collaboration between famed fantasy-peddlers Jim Henson, George Lucas and Terry Jones, I was pretty astonished to discover that when Labyrinth was first released to theatres in 1986, it was largely considered a flop, spurned by critics and ignored by audiences. Today it’s considered a cult classic, and with […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-31727","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-big-worlds-on-small-screens-with-rebecca-fisher"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31727","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31727"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31727\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31734,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31727\/revisions\/31734"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31727"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31727"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31727"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}