Recommendations of the Editorial team
Jim Henson’s “Journey into the Labyrinth” is a Muppets retelling of “Alice in Wonderland” starring David Bowie as “Goblin King” Jareth. As a dictator with a Tina Turner wig and white tights in riding boots, he struts through his fortress in the maze. Bowie’s “Heroes” dream, sung in 1977 in his most famous piece, his “I, I Will Be King” mantra, was sung in this role
finally reality. Jareth kidnaps baby Toby into the labyrinth, whom his sister Sarah (Jennifer Connelly, 16, in her first major role) wants to save.
Enough time for Henson to stage a number of hand-animated creatures during Sarah’s quest, including the challenging Hoggle – a cross between a character actor’s face and a Keith Richards shrunken head – and for Bowie to sing various pop songs, including the beautiful “As the World Falls Down”, which, however, takes on an unpleasant note due to his implied romance with the teenager.
Anarchic Muppets humor is evident everywhere in this fragile kingdom: almost all the magic traps and giant monsters, as Jim Henson packaged it with a wink, turn out to be cheap, groaning devices. Behind them there are little men who drive them mechanically and who are also supposed to be seen by the viewer.
The end of the fantasy boom
It’s a play within a play, a prop reveal within a prop film. But Henson never offered childish jokes, but always adult humor – which is an expression of the greatest respect for the youngest viewers.
Like his “Dark Crystal,” “Labyrinth” flopped and marked the end of the fantasy cinema boom of the late 1980s. It would also be Henson’s last feature film until his untimely death in 1990. “Journey into the Labyrinth” will be released as a 4k version for the 40th anniversary (Plaion).