5 Magical Facts About Jim Henson’s ‘Labyrinth’
Get ready to magic dance, magic dance back to the ’80s this Saturday night, when — for the first time ever — Svengoolie screens Labyrinth on Saturday, Oct. 19, as the second part of a double feature on his MeTV series Svengoolie Classic Horror & Sci-Fi Movie.
Jim Henson’s 1986 musical about a baby-kidnapping goblin king, and the teen girl who must stop him — starring a pre-fame Jennifer Connelly and David Bowie in a wig that looks like it’s on loan from Tina Turner — wasn’t a hit right away. In fact, it underperformed at the box office and was met with mixed reviews, which some believe drove Henson away from directing for good.
But today, the film is seen as a classic, equally beloved by kids, Bowie fans, and puppet enthusiasts alike. So let’s all take a trip through the mirror, and learn some Labyrinth facts fit for a goblin king.
1It Was Written By a Member of Monty Python
Getty Images
While you’re well aware of the star power on screen, you probably don’t know that this innocent (and relatively serious!) children’s story was written by comedy royalty Terry Jones, of legendary comedy troupe Monty Python.
But while Python’s humor was typically much edgier than what’s on display in the film, pairing Jones and Henson makes more sense than you might initially think. Post-Python, Jones had spread his wings into children’s literature, writing a picture book called The Saga of Erik the Viking in 1983. Jones worked from drawings by designer Brian Froud, but he felt that the final shooting script was different than what he turned in — probably because it had been rewritten in part by a number of people, including Elaine May.
2The Film’s Production Was Almost Stopped By … Maurice Sendak?
LAST DANCE, Maurice Sendak, 2001
Yep, that Maurice Sendak — author of countless beloved children’s books, including Where the Wild Things Are. Sendak was also the author of a 1981 book called Outside Over There, in which a young girl’s baby sibling is stolen by goblins, and it is up to the girl alone to save her. Sound familiar? Sendak thought so, too, and hit the film with a legal complaint, asking it to stop production. Henson and Sendak were able to come to an agreement, and the ending credits still bear the statement, “Jim Henson acknowledges his debt to the works of Maurice Sendak.”
3David Bowie’s Role Was Almost Played By a Puppet
TriStar/courtesy Everett Collection
The story that became Labyrinth went through a seemingly endless array of changes before it hit the big screen — and in one of those drafts, Jareth the Goblin King, the film’s main antagonist, was supposed to be played by one of the film’s many puppets. Henson later decided he wanted a charismatic star instead — and who better fits that description than Ziggy Stardust himself?
It was a bit of an unusual role for Bowie, who traditionally acted in more adult fare, like The Hunger or The Man Who Fell to Earth. But that maturity was part of why Henson wanted Bowie for a role in a film about the confusion of growing up. In a 1987 interview, he said “I wanted to put two characters of flesh and bone in the middle of all these artificial creatures, and David Bowie embodies a certain maturity, with his sexuality, his disturbing aspect, all sorts of things that characterize the adult world.”
4One of Its Most Famous Lines is an Homage to Cary Grant
Depending on your tastes, you find the film’s famous “you remind me of the babe/ what babe” exchange to be endlessly quotable, or just endlessly annoying. But that bit wasn’t the invention of Henson, or any of the writers on the script — it’s pulled almost verbatim from the wacky 1947 Cary Grant comedy The Bachelor and the Bobby Soxer. In the film, Grant is court-ordered to date a lovelorn teen, played by Shirley Temple — the idea is that he’ll squash her crush on him by acting as off-putting as possible. Part of that plan? Annoying her with a gobbledy-gook exchange that begins “You remind me of the man …”
5It Was Turned Into a Video Game
Like many movies of its era, Labyrinth was turned into an early video game. In the Labyrinth game, which was released for Commodore 64 and Apple II computers, players scrolled through a text-based opening to get to a movie theater screening of Labyrinth … when suddenly, David Bowie appears on screen, and challenges you to fight him (seriously).
The game was considered frustrating and almost impossible to beat … but it does represent your only chance to get David Bowie to personally challenge you to a fight, so there’s that!
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