LABYRINTH
A film review by Brian Reid
This review is not copyrighted.
PREFACE: I read a lot of movie reviews in this newsgroup, but I never see reviews of the movies that I see. That's because I mostly see movies with my two young daughters these days. When the kids spend 40 hours a week in day care I can't see hiring a babysitter while I watch PRICK UP YOUR EARS or BLUE VELVET in a theater.
All of the other people I know who are parents of young children have similar situations. We love movies, and we used to watch them, but now our notion of drama is defined by Duck and not De Niro. Our criteria are not so much "Did I like it?" as "Could I stand to watch it 57 times on video?"
So I thought I should send in, from time to time, reviews of the movies that we working parents of pre-school kids are watching.
Never mind that this movie was released last year, and reviewed last year. I've now seen LABYRINTH 50 times, and movies take on a very different perspective when you see them that often. Like storybooks that your children want to hear every night, the classic jewel movies become part of the family literary tradition, and their characters and plot elements find their way into bedtime stories and playtime make-believe. LABYRINTH is such a jewel.
LABYRINTH was released in 1986. It was produced by George Lucas and directed by Jim Henson. It stars Jennifer Connelly (as Sara, a scrappy pubescent girl who likes to play the princess in her junior-high school play), David Bowie (as the white-fanged Goblin King), Toby Froud (the 6-month-old son of one of the screenwriters), a few other random humans, and several hundred puppets and creatures.
The plot is very gripping to my 4-year-old and her friends, entrancing to her 10-year-old and her friends, and delightfully silly to their parents. Sara is bullied by her shrill stepmother into babysitting her half-brother Toby. She loses her temper and wishes for the goblins to take Toby away. They oblige, and she spends the rest of the movie trying to get to the Castle Beyond the City, to rescue Toby from the vile clutches of Jareth the goblin king. The castle is at the center of a magic labyrinth, which presents her with various challenges and crises. Along the way she meets some good monsters and some bad monsters; the good monsters help her vanquish the bad ones and get to the castle, where she outwits the Goblin King, thereby enabling everybody to live happily ever after.
Sara is a wonderful idol for my daughters. She is a very attractive teenage girl, whose quick wits, fearlessness, good humor, and perseverance enable her to beat the Bad Guys and save her brother. Most children's movies have rodents or boys (or boy rodents) in the starring roles, and it's great to have an exciting adventure film whose hero is a talented girl. She's young enough that children watching the movie see her as a child, but mature and intelligent enough to keep the attention of their parents.
The monsters are cute but inconsequential. There is no memorable monster who steals the show, like Yoda or the Tin Woodsman or E.T., but there are a bunch of cute monsters and low-rent evil monsters. My children had nightmares for weeks after seeing Malificent in the Disney SLEEPING BEAUTY, and woke up mommy at 3 AM asking if Cruella was going to get them after seeing 101 DALMATIANS. I had nightmares about winged monkeys until I was 18. But the monsters in LABYRINTH are basically just muppets, and children trust them. The evil ones aren't evil enough to scare anyone, but they are symbolically evil, so the plot works. Also, Henson uses the standard Spielberg trick of substituting disgustingness for evilness. Slime and spiders, yes; cut throats and bashed heads, no. Children this age love slime and spiders, but recognize that they symbolize evil.
David Bowie is just brilliant as the Goblin King. He is evil but aristocratic, menacing but musical. He never lets you forget that he is regal while constantly reminding you that he is a devil. He is evil without being frightening. He holds the baby gently and lovingly while abusing ugly horned goblins.
The music is uneven; there are a couple of memorable songs by Bowie that my daughters and I sometimes sing, but there are also some stupid songs sung by silly monsters. The sets are what you'd expect from Spielberg or Lucas, and are so rich in detail that I see something new and amusing every time I watch it.
This movie is a classic, right up there with THE WIZARD OF OZ and PINNOCHIO. Rating: 4 gummi bears (on a scale from 4 to 0 cooked carrots, then 0 to 4 gummi bears). Available on Laser Disc, Super Beta, and VHS.
-Brian Reid
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