Over the Christmas / New Year holiday time the New Zealand Herald
newspaper ran this series of articles with journalists giving their
suggestions for New Zealand's favourite family film for The Great
Family Film Poll ...


*Labyrinth*
A trippy, beautiful and wild film that serves as a
timeless ode to Jim Henson's boundless imagination,
Labyrinth is my favourite kids' film of al time. It's
a bizarre tale set in an amazing fantasy world created
with the film-maker's trademark fusion of astounding
puppetry and human talent.

A young Jennifer Connelly stars as Sarah, a dreamy
teen angry at being left to look after her baby brother
while her parents go out. Wishing he would be taken
away, she's mortified when he is - by an alternate
dimension Goblin King played by David Bowie. Thus she
must embark on an adventure into his fantastical land
to rescue the infant, meeting weird and wonderful
creatures along the way.

Some of them - Hoggle and Ludo in particular - are a
big part of why this film is so beloved. That they are
physical beings moving about in a very tactile world
makes them incomparably more real and lovable than CGI
creations in a CGI world.

There's a truly 80s feel to the style of fantasy
Labyrinth exhibits, helped in no small part by the
classic soundtrack. The funky synth score work by
Trevor Jones is great, but the original songs by Bowie
- especially Underground and Magic Dance - are iconic.

For some children, Labyrinth may be quite a scary film;
I remember the hallucination sequence freaking me right
out when I was a youngster myself. Others may recall
Bowie's notable bulge disturbing them.

It's hard to overstate the weirdness of the film, partly
written by Monthy Python's Terry Jones and executive
produced by George Lucas. It may be their attempt at
fairytale grandeur like the classics seen in Sarah's
bedroom (Alice in Wonderland, Where the Wild Things Are,
'The Wizard of Oz).

But the very contemporary (for the time) spin they gave
it, the funkiness rock god Bowie imbued it with and the
direction emphasises the craftsmanship of Henson's
Creature Shop make Labyrinth a unique oddity that never
ceases to impress.

- Daniel Rutledge, Flicks.co.nz Contributing Writer
6 January, 2016

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