Review of Labyrinth (1986) by Spangle — 10 Jun 2017

Often mirroring the weirdest acid trip imaginable, Jim Henson's Labyrinth is often cited by many as a childhood classic, especially for young girls. Considering it is one of the rare films to offer a teenage girl protagonist who embarks on a hero's journey that was once reserved for just men or even young boys. Thus, Labyrinth's success with young girls is hardly a surprise given that it is the rare film they can watch and actually see somebody like them take charge, instead of being treated like a damsel in distress. Featuring excellent puppetry alongside this story of a young girl going to rescue her little brother (talk about a gender swap) from the Goblin King (David Bowie), Labyrinth is raucous fun that is highly imaginative, nicely acted, and a great fairy tale for the modern age even if it can get a little too odd at times.

The times in which it gets a little too odd are largely delivered via song. With David Bowie or various puppets breaking into spontaneous and decidedly random moments of song, the film halts too much. Not only do the songs contribute very little to nothing at all to the film, but the songs are very odd (one about removing a girl's head) and never really captures the imagination. Instead, it feels like stomping on the brake and brings the film to a screeching halt. Had the music been good, it would have been excusable, but the songs are just not interesting lyrically and go on for far too long. The end result is a film that can sometimes feel too broken up and disjointed to wind up matching its fantastical feeling. Instead, it feels like a childhood fantasy film interspersed with songs that got left on the cutting room floor of the latest David Bowie album.

Fortunately, as a fairy tale, Labyrinth is nonetheless impressive thematically. Written by Terry Jones of Monty Python fame, it should be no surprise that he writes some similar morals to fellow Monty Python member Terry Gilliam. In his film Time Bandits, Gilliam went heavily anti-materialistic and with Labyrinth, Jones does the exact same. The highlight example of this theme comes as young Sarah (Jennifer Connelly) bumps into a woman in a trash heap. The woman has various pieces of garbage on her back and has been sent by the Goblin King to try and distract Sarah from her quest to rescue her brother. Tricking her into going into her room at home by enticing her with some her possessions, the woman begins placing various toys and clothes on Sarah's back while urging her to just stay and forget about Toby. With her possessions literally creating a weight on her back due to the value she places upon these material goods, Sarah is forced to decide between being crushed by the weight of this material greed or breaking free and relying upon human connection as a means to fill in her heart. This materialistic nature is what had gotten her into this mess in the first place as she asked the Goblin King to steal Toby after she found out he had taken one of her stuffed bears. It is thus only by renouncing this love of material goods in favor of loving her brother that she is able to solve the Labyrinth and find her brother. Jones adds a further thematic layer to this by introducing the materialistic temptation via a piece of fruit. Given to her by Hoggle (Shari Weiser/Brian Henson), her friend, the piece of fruit mirrors the apple bitten by Eve that introduces sin to the world. Biting the fruit without hesitation, Sarah is then forced to confront the sin that has held her back from happiness for so long.

It is only natural then that the film proceeds to discuss themes regarding selfishness. Derived straight from Sarah's materialistic nature, she is incredibly selfish. She loves her toys for sure, but is annoyed that Toby would dare think that she would share those toys with him. Her parents ask her to babysit and, though she has nothing to do, she resents them and showers them with teenage angst for asking any action from her. As her stepmother says, she gets treated like an evil stepmother (hello Cinderella) despite asking her to babysit being the only demand she makes of her stepdaughter. Not only is she immature, but Sarah is selfish in how she wants to still be treated like a baby and resents Toby for stealing the spotlight from her after having it to herself all these years. Thus, Labyrinth forces her to put her life on the line by making her take the selfless and arduous journey through the Labyrinth to rescue Toby, which forces her to realize how much she loves the kid without the cloud of materialism and selfishness.

In line with this, Labyrinth also explores themes of responsibility. Approaching the age at which she will be considered a woman, Sarah must learn a measure of responsibility. When her parents ask her to do something, she needs to know it is not because they hate her, but because they just need some assistance from her. Whether she wants it to be case or not, she must take care of Toby from time to time.