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Excellent adaptation.

I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

Funny, strange, confrontational and subversive, this is one of the most interesting experiences you'll have at the cinema this year.

A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

A classic. This was a mysterious and twisted tale full of whimsy and magic. A story that both children and adults will enjoy.

Scary Muppet things and David Bowie... Need I say more.Well maybe I could say more, but it's best kept mysterious. A maze of fun and unexpected turns... Dare I say it, a labyrinth of delight!

Another childhood classic that I decided to reappraise now I am a cynical jaded adult. For clarification purposes, I actually saw it during a limited cinema release and it didn't appear to be remastered in any way. For the uninitiated, Jennifer Connelly plays Sarah, a teenage girl who is frustrated by her infant brothers crying to the point she calls for the Goblin King (David Bowie) to take him away, which he duly obliges. To rescue her brother, Sarah has 13 hours to navigate the labyrinth and get to the Goblin Kings castle, but the maze is populated by both friends and foes and physics and logic don't always apply. Directed by the legendary Jim Henson, the puppetry work is, of course, top notch. They have a timeless quality that still rings true today. Some of the other visual effects though haven't aged quite as well, the CGI owl that bookends the film and some of the green screen work don't measure up to today's standards - though the film is now 30 years old. Plot wise, it's a little wayward - more like a collection of events rather than a story that progresses. It doesn't really earn Sarah's redemption given how horrible she is in the opening scenes. That said, some of these events are now iconic moments, mostly linked to the songs that Bowie wrote and performed for the production. These include the song and dance routine around "Magic Dance" and the MC Esher themed "Within You". Bowie is excellent throughout, funny but with a danger behind the eyes that never goes away. There's lots of humour in the film, the contribution of Terry Jones as scriptwriter is evident. Whether a younger audience will still view it as kindly, I can't say but 30 years later "Labyrinth" is still hugely enjoyable to someone like me, whose been watching it as long as he's been watching films at all. There you go, 300 words and no mention of David Bowie's crotch ..... damn.

Labyrinth features incredible set design and puppetry. The world is consistently magical and darkly beautiful. Unfortunately, the film sags deeply in the middle. With only a couple of exceptions, the dozens of creatures all share the same squeaky and shrill voice that gets increasingly grating as the movie goes on. The script also steadily declines until the final sequence. Even during the worst parts of Labyrinth, there's still a lot of fantastic things to look at, but I just felt like putting the movie on mute. There's an incongruity in Labyrinth between the themes and the presentation: the themes are clearly intended to resonate with young teens, but the movie frequently plays out like a cartoon for young children (there is one overly-long sequence dedicated to toilet humour, and a lot of weightless slapstick violence, as a couple of examples). As a children's film, I wouldn't recommend it because of the sexual content, and as a teen movie, I wouldn't recommend it because of its childishness. Labyrinth stands as an achievement in design and practical effects technique, but as a story it is severely lacking in plot, characters, dialogue, pacing, and cohesiveness.