As a tribute to the late David Bowie, I feel like I should review the Jim Henson movie Labyrinth, which co-starred Bowie.
Teenage
girl Sarah (Jennifer Connelly) is stuck at home to babysit her baby
brother Toby. When she wishes the goblins could take her away, Sarah
actually gets her wish when Jareth (David Bowie), king of the goblins,
takes the baby away, he tells her that Toby can be given, but only if
Sarah solves a complex labyrinth within 13 hours. If she doesn't, Toby
will be turned into a goblin. Along the way, Sarah meets characters like
a grumpy dwarf named Hoggle (Brian Henson, son of Jim Henson), a
friendly beast named Ludo, and a canine knight named Didymus.
After
the failure of The Dark Crystal, Jim Henson wanted to make a fantasy
movie starring puppets, but not Muppets, but this time, have humans
interact with the puppet characters, and having George Lucas as
executive producer. Also, unlike 'Crystal', Labyrinth was more comedic
and had pop songs. Using new technology that was used on Fraggle Rock,
characters like Hoggle were brought to life by at least two puppeteers:
One person inside the suit, while another person performed the facial
features through cables and motors. Other characters, like the 'helping
hands', were brought to life using simpler retro techniques. In this
case, they were performed with 150 pairs of gloves.
Labyrinth is
probably one of the Creature Shop's highest achievements at the time,
and has aged quite well to this day.
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars.
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