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Labyrinth
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Jim Henson
Produced by	George Lucas
Written by	Dennis Lee Jim Henson Terry Jones
Starring	Jennifer Connelly David Bowie Toby Froud
Music by	David Bowie Trevor Jones
Cinematography	Alex Thomson
Editing by	John Grover
Distributed by	TriStar Pictures Lucasfilm Henson Associates
Release date(s)	June 27, 1986
Running time	101 min.
Country
Language	English
Budget	$25 million
Gross revenue	$12,729,917
All Movie Guide profile
IMDb profile

Labyrinth is a 1986 fantasy film directed by Jim Henson, produced by George Lucas, and designed through the art of Brian Froud. Henson collaborated on the screenwriting with children's author Dennis Lee and Monty Python alumnus Terry Jones. The leads are David Bowie as Jareth the Goblin King, and a teenage Jennifer Connelly as Sarah Williams. The plot revolves around Sarah's quest to rescue her little brother from the Goblin King while trapped in a world that is an enormous fantasy maze. 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 in the UK. It was the last feature film directed by Henson before his death in 1990.

Contents 1 Plot 2 Characters 3 Other characters 4 Songs 5 Reception 5.1 Box office 5.2 Cult classic 6 Labyrinth in other media 7 Sources and inspirations 8 External links 9 References

Sarah Williams (Jennifer Connelly) is a 15-year-old girl obsessed with fantasy and prone to playing dress-up. The movie opens with a scene of Sarah rehearsing lines from her book Labyrinth in the park. Sarah, who is trying to remember the final line of a portentous, triumphant speech, loses track of time, forgetting that she must babysit her infant half-brother, Toby, that night. When she remembers this task, she runs home only to find her stepmother waiting angrily for her. They quarrel, after which the stepmother leaves with Sarah's father on a date, while Sarah remains behind to babysit Toby. Here, the already furious Sarah realizes her treasured teddy bear, Lancelot, is missing from her room. Storming into Toby's room, she finds Lancelot and shouts a reprimand at Toby. He begins to cry; Sarah, possibly to tease him further in revenge, begins rehearsing more lines from Labyrinth. The part of the story she cites tells of a young woman granted special powers by the king of the goblins. According to the story, the girl (whom Sarah apparently uses to represent herself) could no longer stand her life's conditions and wishes for goblins to take away her screaming baby brother. As she ends the story and turns off the light, she says, "I wish the goblins would come and take you away...right now." Toby's crying suddenly stops. Worried, Sarah enters his room, to find that Toby has vanished.

A barn owl flutters through the opened window and transforms into the goblin king Jareth (David Bowie), who tells her that he has taken the baby as she had beseeched. Appalled at the realization of what she had done, Sarah begs for the return of her brother. Jareth gives her 13 hours in which to solve his great maze, called the Labyrinth, and find Toby. If she fails, Jareth will turn him 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 from time to time, and are riddled with logic-puzzles and tests. At its entrance, Sarah finds Hoggle, a small dwarf, spraying fairies with pesticide so that they will not bite him. She bribes him with plastic jewelry to lead her through the maze. Though he will eventually side with Sarah, it is shown that Hoggle is a half-hearted operative working for Jareth who has been deployed to provide false intelligence to Sarah. He is shown several times receiving orders and threats from his master, who seems to fear the loss of Hoggle's loyalty. Sarah's other companions, acquired along the way, are Sir Didymus, a chivalrous, furry knight who rides a sheepdog called Ambrosius, lives near the Bog of Eternal Stench, and guards a bridge to uphold a sacred oath; and Ludo, a giant, gentle beast she rescues from some of Jareth's goblins. Sir Didymus and his English sheepdog steed, Ambrosius are the main inhabitants of the bog, along with some frogs and flies. Perhaps because he is there constantly, Sir Didymus' nose seems numb to the bog's pungency. Sir Didymus has sworn a solemn oath with his lifeblood to let no one cross the bridge leading from the bog without his permission. Sarah manages to overcome this promise by simply asking for permission to cross; being extremely polite, he says yes.

After a variety of adventures, including an encounter with detachable-limbed revelers known as "The Fire Gang", who try to remove Sarah's head; a detour through the Bog of Eternal Stench; a stop at the Four Guards, where she must solve a Raymond Smullyan-inspired Knights and Knaves logic puzzle to avoid certain death; a junkyard-like recreation of her own bedroom; and a hallucinogen-induced masquerade ball, Sarah makes her way into the castle beyond the goblin city. Her means of overcoming the obstacles are logical thought, recollection of her purpose, and the aid of her friends. Most of the obstacles are put in her path by Jareth, who (as Sarah herself had stated to Toby) has become slightly enamoured of her and desires her to forsake her task in favor of reciprocating his feelings.

The film climaxes in Jareth's multi-dimensional M. C. Escher-inspired castle, wherein he makes a final appeal for her to abandon her quest and stay with him as his queen. She rejects him at the last moment, reciting her monologue from the beginning of the movie, including the line she could not remember: "You have no power over me". The room crumbles away, whereupon Sarah finds herself in the front hall of her home with the clock striking midnight and the barn owl (Jareth) flying away.

In Toby's room, she gives him 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 growing up and remaining a child. Hoggle appears, along with Ludo and Sir Didymus, as images in the mirror. They seem to be bidding her good-bye as she leaves behind the fantasies of childhood, but remind her that they will still be available "should you need us." Sarah, however, insists that even as she grows up, she will still need them, whereupon they appear in her bedroom. The film closes as the Labyrinth creatures celebrate Sarah's refusal to give up her imagination. Outside, the owl watches the party for a while, then flies away into the night.

• Jennifer Connelly as Sarah Williams: Protagonist. Sarah is an imaginative girl with a preference for make-believe and strong attachments to her past. She is tall, black-haired, and pale-faced. Sarah is also shown to be big-hearted and to have a firm sense of right and wrong. Although she briefly wishes for Toby to be taken away, she repents almost immediately and asks for his return. She is dedicated to her quest for that return, very attached to her friends, and courageous when another is threatened. There are hints that she is enamoured of Jareth, and he of her, though she must overcome him (and therefore this emotion) in order to fulfill her quest. A later music video shows them actually pining for each other.
• David Bowie as Jareth: Antagonist. Jareth is the master of a wide kingdom of goblins, which is called the Underground even though it does not seem to be subterranean at all. He is the most human-like of the goblins in the film, who resemble variously birds, bats, humans, hippopotamus, squirrels, worms, and many combinations of these and other animals. He is long and thin (though not much taller than Sarah, despite features that make him seem so) with a narrow, hard face, a huge shock of yellow hair, and large, pointed ears. Jareth is cunning, feared among the goblins, and ubiquitous throughout his fortress. He appears to be able to manipulate aspects of his world at will, creating bizarre landscapes and redirecting Sarah's journey. He is able to create, seemingly from thin air, small crystal orbs which are used to work magic. One of these is used as a scrying tool, whereas another is changed into a hallucinogenic peach. He is shown contact juggling them throughout the film; this was produced by having another actor stand behind David Bowie and perform the juggle while organizing the picture to make the seeming that only one man stood in the viewers' field of vision. Jareth frequently uses visions of marriage to him to distract Sarah, for whom he has evidently a soft spot. Jareth is shown to be able to change into a Barn owl, in which form he appears at the beginning and end of the film.
• Toby Froud as Toby Williams: Toby is Sarah's infant half-brother through their father. His mother is Irene Williams while Sarah's mother was Linda Williams (Sarah's father's first wife). Conceptual artist Brian Froud's infant son (also named Toby) played Sarah's brother in the movie.
• Linda Williams: Only seen in the photographs in Sarah's bedroom and mentioned in the novelization, Linda Williams is Sarah's biological mother. She showed signs of having bipolar disorder and was a passionate actress. She had a sexual affair with a co-star, Jeremy (who may or may not have been Jareth in disguise), and therefore abandoned Sarah and her father. Sarah's father later married a woman named Irene, of whom was born Sarah's half-brother, Toby.
• Shelley Thompson as Irene Williams: Irene was never mentioned by name in the film (although many fans dubbed her 'Karen'); however in 2006 she was officially named "Irene" by the Henson Company in the 'Return to Labyrinth' manga. Irene is very prudish and believes things should be normal, proper, and acceptable. Sarah resents her, as does Toby in the manga.
• Christopher Malcolm as Robert Williams: A somewhat one-dimensional character; he only appeared briefly in the film as Toby and Sarah's father. He is only mentioned by name in the novelization.
• Shari Weiser and Brian Henson (voice) as Hoggle: Hoggle is a cowardly dwarf-goblin that works for Jareth but becomes loyal to the sweet-natured Sarah. Hoggle gets irritated when Jareth gets his name wrong, which he appears to do deliberately to annoy Hoggle. There is some implication that Hoggle may have been developing romantic feelings for Sarah; Jareth's peculiar threat to throw him into the Bog of Eternal Stench could be interpreted as evidence of jealousy. Against his own wishes, Hoggle gives Sarah a peach as a gift from Jareth, who again threatens to dump him in the Bog of Eternal Stench if he does not do so. When Sarah loses her way as a result of being induced into a deep sleep by the peach, which subsequently causes Sarah to temporarily lose her memory, Hoggle is unable to cope with his feelings of guilt and remorse, and becomes estranged from Sarah, who publicly brands him as a coward. However, at the entrance to the Goblin city, when Sarah, Ludo and Sir Didymus are under attack from the guardian - a goblin in a towering suit of armor, brandishing a large axe - Hoggle risks his life to save them. Hoggle is commended for his bravery by Sir Didymus and Ludo, whereas Sarah forgives him for his earlier mistake.
• Ron Mueck (voice) as Ludo: Ludo is a yeti who was being tormented by goblins until Sarah rescued him. Despite his great size and strength, Ludo tends to be reluctant to enter into a confrontation with anything, and instead will issue a deep, lowing howl which will psychokinetically summon rocks of many sizes and number to his aid; a talent which proves useful several times throughout the film. He speaks with a very limited vocabulary, often using only nouns to make his point (for example, "Sarah friend"). Ludo, unlike the conventional depiction of a yeti, has shaggy red fur, horns on his head, and a long, straight, swinging tail.
• David Shaughnessy (voice) as Sir Didymus: Sir Didymus is a small dog-fox goblin who guards The Bog of Eternal Stench. Shortly after he meets Sarah, he joins her in her quest to rescue Toby. He has a 'steed' named Ambrosious (a sheep dog identical to Sarah's own dog, Merlin), who runs from trouble. In contrast, Sir Didymus is quite fearless and frequently taunts his enemies, goading them to attack. Despite his size, he is an excellent fighter, utilizing a miniature lance and his sheer quickness to battle larger foes. A battle showed him to be an approximate match for Ludo, who is many times his size, in solo combat. He is shown 'adopting' Ludo as a foster-brother.
• Percy Edwards (voice) as Ambrosius. Sir Didymus' loyal steed. Unlike his courageous master, Ambrosius is a coward and generally runs from trouble, but stops short of abandoning Didymus altogether.
• Timothy Bateson (voice) as William the Worm: The worm is a small, blue goblin who wears a red scarf and lives in the brick wall of the first passage of the Labyrinth. He encounters Sarah during her earliest time within the maze. When Sarah asks him 'How do I get through this Labyrinth?' he mistakenly thinks she means 'How do I get out of this Labyrinth?' unaware that she wants to reach the castle. He therefore sends her one way and tells her never to go the other way. Behind her back, he remarks, 'If she had kept on going down that way she would have gone straight to that castle." This provokes viewers to think that he was deliberately misleading her. The novel version changes his line to "If she'd gone the other way, she'd have walked straight into that dreadful castle."
• Frank Oz and Sir Michael Hordern (voice) as The Wiseman: This goblin encounters Sarah halfway through the Labyrinth, giving her puzzling advice and arguing with the bird-like figure that lives upon his head. His scene possesses no real significance, but serves to bring comic relief to the movie and transition into a more significant piece of the story.
• Dave Goelz (voice) as The Wiseman's Bird Hat. Spends most of his time arguing with the Wiseman; like the Wiseman, has no real significance, but again, brings some comic relief to the story.
• Karen Prell and Denise Bryer (voice) as The Junk Lady. The Junk Lady encounters Sarah after she wakes up from the dream invoked by Jareth's peach. On the surface, it would appear that the Junk Lady is trying to distract her from her quest to find Toby, as Sarah has lost her memory after eating the peach. In fact, she represents a kind-hearted but over-protective maternal figure trying to cling on to memories of Sarah's childhood (possibly alluding to Sarah's past relationship with her natural mother). Hence, the Junk Lady leads Sarah into a "junkyard" version of her own bedroom, giving her an array of toys that her language suggests Sarah once owned and loved but were discarded by her parents. She talks to Sarah in the same tone as a concerned mother would speak to a girl aged about six. After reading a passage from the "Labyrinth" book, Sarah realises that the Junk Lady is not real, but an illusion created by Jareth. She then remembers that she has to save Toby, and discards the toys, at which point the room and the Junk Lady both disappear. Sarah is immediately reunited with Ludo, Sir Didymus, and Ambrosius.
• Warwick Davis as Goblin Corps.
• Steve Whitmire, Kevin Clash, Anthony Asbury, & Dave Goelz (voices) as The Four Guards.
• Robert Beatty and Dave Goelz (voices) as Right and Left Door Knockers (respectively): The door knockers are a dynamic duo literally living upon a set of doors. One has a knocker ring in his ears; the other in his mouth. Therefore can hardly speak and the other can hardly hear, making them a form of irony. Both are obvious cameo appearances of the Muppet Show characters Statler & Waldorf, another Jim Henson creation.
• Kevin Clash, Charles Augins, Danny John-Jules, Richard Bodkin (voices) as Firey 1-5: The Fierys (also called the Fire Gang) are a group of wild goblins that lurk within the Labyrinth's forest. They have detachable body parts and enjoy playing athletic activities. However, they fail grasp the concept that Sarah does not come into pieces as they do, and attempt to take her apart. They, along with Ludo, Hoggle, Didymus, and many other unnamed goblins, appear in Sarah's room for the final celebration.

• Agnes is actually a species of goblin. Sarah runs into a particular Agnes on her journey. Agneses are female goblins who are extremely sentimental and carry all their former possessions on their backs. They are selfish and possessive and would like to make Sarah like themselves. In early versions of the script, the Agnes Sarah meets was actually Jareth in a robotic disguise.
• Humongous is a giant robot that guards the entrance to Jareth's castle. It resembles a goblin and is controlled by a pilot inside its head.
• The Lichen: A yellowish fungus that grows in the Labyrinth walls. It has eyes and mutters amongst itself.
• False Alarms are rock-formation faces that cover the walls of the underground passages of Jareth's Labyrinth. They falsely tell Sarah that she is heading in the wrong direction when she is not.
• Alph and Ralph are two goblin guards in front of two doors. One tells the truth and the other one always lies. One door leads to certain death and the other leads to the castle. The trick is not to find out which one is telling the truth, but rather how to get the same answer from either of them. This mystery is solved by asking 'Would he (meaning the opposite guard) tell me this door leads to the castle?' If a traveller asks one guard what the other guard would say, it would automatically get the opposite of the truth. Sarah got this riddle right, though many viewers mistakenly thought she got it wrong. It is explained in the children's book version of the Labyrinth. Sarah went through the correct door, but mistakenly remarked that thereafter the Labyrinth's troubles would be "a piece of cake". She therefore fell down into a shaft of helping hands; from there it was her choice to go up or down. She chose "down" and fell into an oubliette (see below).
• Helping Hands are gnarled, hand-shaped goblins that protrude through the walls of the shaft that leads to one of the Labyrinth's many oubliettes. They talk by making their hands into face-formations and acting as a group, though they sometimes argue amongst themselves.
• The biting fairies are pixies that live on the outer wall of the Labyrinth. They bite those who touch them, possibly in self-defence. When we first see them, Hoggle is shooting them down with a spray-gun. They do not have human-like minds, despite their appearance.
• The captain of the guard is a goblin with a long white moustache, who serves Jareth.
• Other Goblins: Every single Goblin within Jareth's Labyrinth has his own name and backstory, which is compiled in the book Goblins of Labyrinth as well as the now out-of-print The Goblin Companion: A field guide to goblins. Some of these goblins are Quiver, Luerk, Bakobobs Kamabissca, Bubi, Squeek, Pug, Pitch, Fodder, Pongo, Skoat, Boing, Sneek, Skuell, Candlewic, Zitzi, Gibbergiest, Amam Pherruginius, Trysop, Frolo, Bec, Caull, Faustius, Hortenz, Target goblins (Multiple goblins), Nipper Sticks (Multiple goblins), Twark (A goblin bird), Eled the worm tamer, Spue, Hywr, Lowr, Roem Babba, gurdy, Quilk, Maelicious, Groeg, Dogsthorpe, Bregg the poet, Kluttons (multiple goblins), and Bonius Eventius.

The following songs were composed by David Bowie and performed by his character, Jareth, in the film. The exception is Chilly Down, which is performed by the Fieries (a.k.a. The Fire Gang).

• "Underground" (Opening)
• "Magic Dance" (Sometimes known as "Dance Magic")
• "Chilly Down"
• "As The World Falls Down"
• "Within You"
• "Underground"

David Bowie admits in the documentary Inside The Labyrinth that he had to make baby noises on "Magic Dance" because the baby they had brought into the studio would not.

The film turned out to be a failure at the box office, grossing only $12 million from ticket sales (The budget for the film had been $25 million).^[1]

A 35mm reissue of the Labyrinth was shown at various theaters in the Landmark Theaters chain, beginning with a run from July 27, 2007 to August 2, 2007 in San Francisco, California. ^[2]

Labyrinth grew popularity over the years as a cult classic and is now considered fashionable among teenagers, Generation X-ers, and David Bowie fans. Labyrinth has gained much popularity over the years that there was even a recent action figure of Jareth that came to stores in May of 2007.^[3]

The film was novelized by A.C.H. Smith.

Marvel comics produced a three issue comic book adaptation, which was also printed in a single volume as Marvel Super Special #40.

The soundtrack album Labyrinth includes much of Trevor Jones's strictly instrumental music including "Into the Labyrinth", "Sarah", "Hallucination", "The Goblin Battle", "Thirteen O'Clock" and "Home at Last", and David Bowie's five songs, "Magic Dance" (also credited as "Dance Magic"), "Chilly Down", "As the World Falls Down", "Within You", and the single released for the film, "Underground". A single for "Underground" was released in 1986 and included an instrumental version as well as an extended dance mix of the song.

A video game based on the movie was released alongside the movie in 1986 for the Commodore 64 and Apple II. It was also released in Japan for the Nintendo Famicom.

The Muppet Babies episode "Nice to Have Gnome You" features Miss Piggy in the role of Sarah for a similar plot. The episode features extensive clips taken from the movie.

Main article: Return to Labyrinth

Tokyopop in partnership with The Jim Henson Company published a manga-style four volume comic called Return to Labyrinth. The first volume was released August 8, 2007. It was written by Jake T. Forbes and illustrated by Chris Lie with cover art by Kouyu Shurei.^[4] It is a sequel to the film and is about Toby, the baby brother in the movie, when he has grown to be 15 years old.^[5] In October 2007, Tokyopop released the second volume, Return to Labyrinth 2. In an afterword, editor Tim Beedle announced that the series, originally planned as a trilogy, was being extended to include a fourth volume.

• The filmmakers acknowledged several influences, including Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, and 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 Jim 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.
• Some of the puzzles and riddles are inspired by the logician Raymond Smullyan.
• Some of the films visuals including set pieces were inspired by MC Escher artworks.

• Labyrinth at the Internet Movie Database
• Labyrinth at All Movie Guide
• Muppet Wiki: Labyrinth

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See also Films directed by George Lucas