It had all the right ingredients; a script by Monty Python’s Terry Jones, The Muppet’s creator Jim Henson in the director’s chair, a soundtrack by David Bowie and produced by George Lucas as well. Released in 1986, Labyrinth failed to find an audience in theaters, but did it deserve better?
Film
Labyrinth is actually a remarkable movie featuring a young Jennifer Connelly as Sarah, a girl with a very large imagination who wishes for The Goblin King, played by David Bowie, to take her baby stepbrother away. The Goblin King obliges of course and the only way Sarah can get her brother back is to reach The Goblin King’s castle located in the center of a giant labyrinth. Along the way she befriends a series of interesting characters that help her on her quest.
David Bowie gives an impressive performance as The Goblin King. For the most part, he wisely plays it straight opposite Henson’s amazing creature creations, including Hoggle, the most lovable troll you could ever meet. Still, he is obviously having a ball when he finally gets to rock out in a few of the movies many musical numbers. I’ve always thought that Labyrinth has one of the most under-appreciated movie soundtracks around.
This was Jim Henson’s last feature length film and it makes an excellent swan song. It has the same style of humor that made The Muppets Show so popular set in a fantasy world so magical it could have only been made by one person. If you haven’t experienced this movie yet and you’re looking for a family-friendly movie that is both appealing to both young and old audiences, then Labyrinth is a good place to start.
Video
The film takes advantage of 1080p/AVC-MPEG 4 codec and displays the video in its original 2.35:1 aspect ratio. The video is clean in comparison to older transfer I’ve seen, however with such crisp video, the signs of age are more noticeable. Whether it’s puppeteering strings or archaic CGI, everything is under scrutiny with Blu-ray.
Audio
Labyrinth‘s sound comes through using Dolby TrueHD 5.1. The audio is great throughout, the dialogue comes through clearly and music is enhanced to really take advantage of the new codec.
It also has French and Portuguese in TrueHD 5.1 and Spanish in regular 5.1. The subtitles also come in a variety of flavours, covering every language that there is an audio track for.
Special Features
- Making of Documentary: Inside The Labyrinth
- Commentary with Brian Froud
- Journey through the Labyrinth: “Kingdom of Characters”
- Journey through the Labyrinth: “The Quest for Goblin City”
Included in the special features are three behind-the-scenes featurettes, the main one being “Inside the Labyrinth”, which is approximately 50 minutes worth of information in documentary form. I was impressed with how in depth it was and felt like if they included the two “Journey through the labyrinth” sections into it, then they could sell it as a feature length documentary.
In terms of pleasing fans, all facets of the production are covered from pre-production (“The quest for Goblin City”) to puppeteering (“Kingdom of Characters”) and on top of the behind-the-scenes goodies, there’s a commentary with Brian Froud (Conceptual designer) that goes into detail about costume and character design and the overall atmosphere of the film.
All and all, they covered all the bases with the special features. I usually like to see a gag reel (depending on the movie), deleted scenes and possibly multiple commentaries to give a high rating, but I thought for a movie that probably has been bled dry of bonus material worthy footage, it’s not a bad collection.
Final Thoughts
Jim Henson creates a wonderful and believable fantasy world. If you loved Ron Howard’s Willow or Ridley Scott’s Legend, this movie is right up your alley. With a great cleaned-up transfer, a great mix to do the musical numbers justice and a good selection of special features, Labyrinth on Blu-ray is worth it for fans and new-comers alike. Hilarious and filled with some good life lessons, Labyrinth is a perfect family movie that could be recommended for kids of all ages. And remember, rocks friend.
