Labyrinth of Adventure (Labyrinth (DVD))

Member Name: Sabalom_Glitz

Product:	Labyrinth (DVD)
Date:	04/07/01 (428 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: A clean transfer giving good audio and visual playback, Scene Search, A decent making of documentary comes with the movie

Disadvantages: No English subtitles on the documentary, No subtitles at all on the musical numbers

Sarah is just like any other teenage girl that doesn’t feel appreciated by her parents.
Forced to baby sit her step-brother, Toby yet again on a weekend night, Sarah unknowingly says the magic words asking The Goblin King to take the baby away to his Kingdom.
Once she realises what she has done, she pleads with The Goblin King to give Toby back, but he refuses. The Goblin King makes a deal with her, that if she can get to his castle in thirteen hours, and save her step-brother, he will return him to her.
Thirteen hours seems like plenty of time, but that is not allowing for the fact that she must get through the labyrinth to reach the Goblin Castle.
So Sarah sets off in search of Baby Toby, meeting cute, cuddly, dangerous and totally crazy creatures on her quest.
Will she make it in time? Who does she meet? What dangers will she meet?
Is the bog of eternal stench as bad as it sounds? Who or what it Ludo?
Welcome to the movie Labyrinth; where everything is possible, and nothing is as it seems!

Made in 1984 this movie is a forgotten gem that will appeal to both children and adults. The story itself is not that original, person goes on a quest to save a life. This doesn’t detract from the strength of the story at all though. This was produced and directed by Jim Henson, creator of The Muppets. Using the skills of his team he takes you to a land that is as real as the one we live in. A land, of fun and danger, colour and fantasy.

The main star is Jennifer Connelly. This was one of her earliest roles when she was only fourteen years old. Despite her age, she carries the film on her shoulders well.
It could so easily of been over-played and for her to become a whining, annoying teenager. But, she avoids doing that totally and makes her a strong and believable character.
Her co-star is David Bowie, who plays The Goblin King. When I saw the trailer for this film on its cinema release I remember thinking,
this could be bad!
I was wrong though, he comes across as very believable, playing the part with subtlety, when it could so easily have been played over-the-top. I’m not a fan of David Bowie, but credit where its due, he is good in this role.

The real stars of the film are the puppets from the Jin Henson Creatures Workshop.
When you see the first puppets, you know that they are puppets, by the time Sarah starts her journey through the Labyrinth, you believe that they are real. This is especially true of the first goblin she meets called Hoggle, who is urinating in a fountain when she meets him.
Don’t let the thought of puppets put you off the film, they are so much more than puppets, some are people in costumes, some are glove puppets, some automated puppets, all quite fantastic. The only time you remember that you are actually watching puppets, is when Sarah meets the Fireys. Computer graphics mixed with people and puppets are used and it shows up badly, as it is so out of place with the rest of the film. This was at the time and I believe still is the film that has the most Henson puppets ever used at one time in it.

As well as starring in the film, David Bowie wrote the music. You are only aware of four songs, all perfect for their place in the film. The main song “Underground,” was released as a single, but wasn’t one of his biggest hits. In this film you get two versions, a fast dancing version and a slow mysterious version at the films opening as a computer-generated owl flies around the screen.
Despite being only sixteen years old, the amount of computer graphics used is minimal; this adds more charm to the film.

What are the Extras?

This disc isn’t over endowed when it comes with extras sadly. The main extra is an 56 minute behind the scenes documentary entitled “Into the Labyrinth.” This documentary was made when the film was, so it doesn’t seem as goo
d as it could be, but it is still worth watching. Keep an eye out for the choreographer Cheryl McFadden, better known now as Gates McFadden from Star Trek: The Next Generation.
The other extras are more the usual standard ones, filmographies and a theatrical trailer and subtitles in English, French, German and Spanish,.

The subtitles are the weakest point of the disc. There are no English subtitles on the making of documentary, so that isolates the hard of hearing from enjoying what is a major extra. The foreign language subtitles fair no better either; so non-English speaking people miss out as well.

If that wasn’t bad enough, they have also messed up with the subtitles on the movie itself.
There aren’t any subtitles for the songs and you really need them as well. One of the songs comes during a ballroom sequence. Two of the other songs are actually musical numbers, the first being The Goblin King singing and dancing. The second, being a mocking song by the fireys. Not being able to hear them deprives the hard of hearing viewer a lot as well.

I personally would like to have been able to switch off the dialogue and have the soundtrack as an option included.
It would have been nice if the film had an audio commentary as well, maybe by the writer Terry Jones (Monty Python)

Starring - Jennifer Connelly and David Bowie
Screenplay - Terry Jones
Producers - Jim Henson & George Lucas
Director – Jim Henson

Running Time 98 minutes

Certificate U

Released by Columbia Tristar Home Video

Summary: