Verily, it is surprising that we have not yet seen some soulless CGI reboot of this film yet. (There was that short manga series from a while back. Never got around to reading that.)
Bit ironic that Bowieâs music and lyrics are probably the least memorable part of the film, isnât it? Aside from âMagic Danceâ, of course, which is practically unrelated to the plot. (Did you know that the whole âpower of voodooâ bit originated from an entirely different movie?)
I love Labyrinth, even though itâs a very messy movie that feels like it was being made up as it went along; that sort of adds to its charm. Hensonâs previous Froud collaboration, Dark Crystal, was amazing and beautiful, but very dark and dour and scary, and it feels like they turned up the silliness to near-Muppet levels at times, with lots of characters doing that annoying mid-80s Lucas productions âfunny voiceâ that sounds like a sped-up Mexican stereotype. But Bowieâs magnetic, the design and puppetry is wonderful, the musicâs a lot of fun, and I even appreciate Jennifer Connolyâs whiny teen behavior and how it evolves during the film.
Fun fact: Ludo was designed, built, and performed by sculptor Ron Mueck during his brief time with Henson.
Another fun fact I just found out: The lead singer on the song Chilly Down is Danny John-Jules â Cat from Red Dwarf.
And âMagic Danceâ is a terrible song, pretty much.
I know Labyrinth inspired a lot of people, but it never did much for me. Itâs no Princess Bride or Neverending Story.
Just Look At It
Nooooooo! Have you seen Neverending story recently? It pales against Labyrinth.
Is anyone arguing that the movie is NOT awesome?
Labyrinth was what made Jim Henson give up films, and for that itâs not awesome. Also itâs mostly a confused series of vignettes with minimally coherent plot and ridiculously bad acting, though the Henson touches were great and Bowie improves anything. I liked it when I saw it in the theater but it was really rough to watch as an adult. #UnpopularLabyrinthOpinion
Once upon a time, I half-wrote an article arguing that the films Mirrormask, Panâs Labyrinth and Labyrinth should be seen as a sort of triptych - or even a full-blown trilogy - each of them taking the same themes but tackling them in very different ways, and all of them with their own virtues and, yes, flaws too. Iâd perhaps even go as far as to say that they are the closest we have got to a modern take on the medieval chivalric romance - made more interesting because the protagonist in each case is female.
Labyrinth itself is probably the shallowest of the three, although thatâs understandable since it was made explicitly as a family film, but the seduction of Sarah and her ultimate rejection of Jareth is surprisingly dark at times.
I re-watched it recently, and I still like it. I was struck by the orgy of product placement at the beginning, though.
I have not seen the Dark Crystal, Mirrormask or Labyrinth, so perhaps Iâm unaware of the paralells.
While reading The Wee Free Men, I was reminded of Panâs Labyrinth as well. Given that Pratchettâs novel predated Panâs Labyrith, I had assumed that both Pratchett and del Toro were drawing on the same source material, and any similarities would probably be familiar to aficionados of fairy tales.
Those pants had no pockets. Where did you THINK he was carrying the magic peach all that time?
No mention that Terry Jones (yes, that one) wrote the story? 
Sometimes something as awesome as this can lead to this.
Either way, that âwho do, you do, do whatâ exchange is etched firmly into my psyche⊠and oft bubbles up whenever something approaching that pattern is encountered.
Edit: stoopid autocorrect âGregâ
I remember being in a Copenhagen club in the mid 80s that played lots of dance mixes from the film. And we watched it dozens of times in college.
Interesting! Would you add Coraline for a quartet? Why or why not?
He pulled it out of hammerspace?
Ouroboric, ouroboric, ouroboric!
while i love Bowie (of course), and i liked Labyrinth well enough back in the day, i just donât get the millennial obsession with it. /shrug
