Slime & Snails, Puppy Dogs Tails (Labyrinth (DVD))

Member Name: Tingram2012

Product:	Labyrinth (DVD)
Date:	02/08/09 (58 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Entertaining, For the whole family

Disadvantages: None

Labyrinth is a film from my childhood, I loved it then and I still love it now, so when it came out on DVD I had to buy it. Last night I decided to sit down, make myself comfortable and watch it again, I've lost count on how many times I have seen it already.

Labyrinth was released in 1986 and was directed by Jim Henson the creator of the Muppets and Fraggle Rock. It has the imagination of Jim Henson, the wizardry of George Lucas and the excitement of David Bowie. It takes you to a world of fantasy and adventure.

Plot
Sarah Williams loves to read fairytales and act them out. She spends her time in the park acting out parts from her book called 'Labyrinth'. Whilst she is in the park she realises that she is late and has to run home where she is scolded by her step mother for being late to baby sit her little brother, Toby. She is furious with having to baby sit and when she realises her teddy bear Lancelot is missing she goes storming into Toby's room to find Lancelot lying on the floor. Toby starts crying and Sarah still angry starts telling him a story about the King of Goblins who has special powers and can take him away. Whilst she is telling the story, a group of goblins are sat waiting for her to say the right words so they can take Toby away. As Sarah leaves the room she says "I wish the goblins would come and take you away...right now". Sarah then realizes that Toby has stopped crying and when she returns to his room he is no longer there.

The windows fly open and standing there is Jareth the Goblin King who tells Sarah he has taken her brother to the goblin castle by her wish. Appalled at what she has done she begs the Goblin King to return her little brother. Jareth gives her 13 hours in which to solve the labyrinth and get to the castle, if she fails her brother will be turned into a goblin and will remain in the labyrinth forever.

At the beginning of the maze she bumps into a goblin called Hoggle who for want of a better word is extremely grumpy and does not want to help Sarah. As Sarah makes her way through the maze Hoggle changes his mind and decides to help Sarah. Along the way she also meets Ludo, a big hairy red monster with huge fangs who is ever so soft and goes on the journey with Sarah. Throughout the maze she comes up against pathways and openings in the walls of the maze that change at intervals and are riddled with logic puzzles and tests. Meanwhile Jareth the Goblin King is doing ever thing in his power to stop Sarah reaching the castle by the 13th hour.

To defeat the Goblin King she has to reach the castle by the 13th hour and recite a phrase from the book. "Through dangers untold, and hardships unnumbered, I have fought my way here to the castle beyond the Goblin City, to take back the child that you have stolen. For my will is as strong as yours and my kingdom as great..." including the final line that Sarah had been having difficulty remembering. Will she reach the Goblin Castle in time and if so, will she remember the final line?

Characters

Sarah Williams is played by a 14 year old Jennifer Connelly; Sarah is an imaginative adolescent who has a passion of fantasy and fairy tales. She wishes for her brother Toby to be taken away but repents almost immediately and asks for his return. She is dedicated to her quest for the return of her brother and she has a strong attachment to her friends. She resists the Goblin King's affections in order to fulfill her quest. Jennifer Connelly was perfect for the part and acts out her role extremely well.

Jareth the Goblin King is played by rock legend David Bowie who performs five of the original songs. Jareth is the cruel, yet handsome master of a wide kingdom of goblin he is cunning, manipulating and is feared amongst the goblins. The Casting of David Bowie was excellent for this film, everything about him fitted the film perfectly, the look, the hair, the songs.

And now we come to the Special Features on the DVD. I watched these as I was interested on how the film had been put together as it had been done really well. There is 56 minutes showing 'inside the Labyrinth'. Theatrical Trailer. Talent profiles for Jim Henson, George Lucas, David Bowie and Jennifer Connelly.

The character Hoggle is a small and feisty ancient looking dwarf. To get the right effect for this character they decided that someone should be inside the dwarf. To my surprise the person that they used was female actress Shari Weiser and the voice of Hoggle is Brian Henson. It took five people to operate Hoggle as there was a lot of different eye movements, facial expressions, mouth movements and the difficulty was making sure that everyone was in sync.

The Character Ludo also had someone inside operating him, this fell to Ron Mueck and Rob Mills who had to keep interchanging as the fittings were too heavy to work with for a long period of time. His character is also able to summon the rocks and this goes along way in helping get through the Labyrinth.

The best part for me was the part in the Goblin Castle where Jareth (Bowie) sang Dance Magic. There were over twenty goblins in the room dancing around and singing and you couldn't tell who was being operated by whom or who had a person inside the goblin costume. The special features showed that they had used a lot of little people (their words not mine) and the smaller goblins were being operated by hands through walls or up through the floor. It made the whole thing flawless in my opinion and even though the film is over 20 years old it still doesn't seem dated at all.

This DVD features a highly-informative documentary on the making of the film, with interviews from all the main characters and behind the scenes access. It shows how they did the "Helping Hands" scene and how the MS Escher staircase illusion was created.

This is a film where everything seems possible and nothing is quite as it seems. I don't think there is any part of the film that I didn't like. All the characters were great especially the goblins, the character Hoggle, looks surprisingly real so they captured him perfectly and they gave each character its on unique and well suited personality.

The film is a certificate U
Run time 98 minutes
The anniversary DVD can be bought on Play.com for £3.99 or on Amazon for £3.98

This is a film that never gets old, I loved it when I was a kid and kids today will love it too. It is a timeless film that everybody should own.

Summary: A wholesome film for the whole family