I think Hoggle makes it abundantly clear right from the beginning, when Sarah gets bitten by the faerie: “It BIT me!” “What did you EXPECT faeries to do?” “I THOUGHT they did nice things? Like granting wishes…” “Shows what you know, don’t it?”
I love the way that the fae are portrayed in the labyrinth, the regretful deal, the peach making her forget. I always love it when the fae are accurate and scary.
In interviews with Brian Henson, he talks about the fact that his father specifically wrote this story as a cautionary tale about young women falling prey to predatory older men. He was a father whose youngest daughter was the same age as Sarah. Given what we know about Hollywood, his concerns make a lot of sense. The fact that so many people think this is a romance has always been strange to me. This is my favorite film and has been since I first saw it when I was 8. I never thought it was romantic.
I'm the same. I never saw Bowie's character as a romantic figure: he was a kidnapper and cruelly tormented those below him. I never understood why anyone would think he was meant to be a positive romantic figure, he was clearly a predator
I first saw it when I was 15 and watched it over and over again and read the book around that age. When you also realize Jareth is patterned after her mother’s boyfriend and her mother is an actress (if I recall) who floats in those kinds of circles, it does speak even more volumes. This isn’t a romance and never was. It wasn’t meant to be. All that’s sparkly and beautiful isn’t kind and sweet. Now going to watch this video and going off of memories from nearly 35 years or so ago when I read the book. Maybe this will refresh me a little too.
I find the creep factor of the adult Goblin King appropriate. He is a Fae, so he doesn't have the same morals and/or understanding of right and wrong as mortals do. This works, I think, especially seeing as how appealing fae and other beings tend to be to teenagers (especially in folklore)
Yeah, humans and far have VASTLY different views. Humans are more ingrained in the order of their reality, Far are ingrained in the chaos of their irreality.
Also to his true age, every human would be shockingly young, so him having zero feel for it and having been alive for times, where 12 and 14 used to be adequate marriage ages for girls....
A meaningful and terrifying quote that sticks out for me is "fear me, love me, do as I say, and I will be your slave." It sounds like so tempting a deal, to have someone powerful be at your beck and call, someone you would love to be with. But like all Fae deals, there is a catch. It is a way of gaining control through subservience, luring you into something much harder to escape. You gain something that could grant all you desire at the cost of your freedom and sense of self. It's full of contradictions and that is the point.
I was in a relationship with a narcissist, he said almost the exact same thing to me. I thought it was so strange. I told him I didn't want him to be my slave. But it was projection in the end, he wanted me to be his slave
Since having left my narcissistic former partner I've always had the sharpest pang of cringe from this line. He never said it so directly that I recall, but it is the reality of what he wanted.@@Aashka_The_Mystic
I was in my teens when I watched the movie for the first time (it was a couple years after it came out) and I always thought that quote was weird. And weirdly predator like.
One extra detail that often goes unnoticed in the movie because it is so hidden away in the set dressing: there is a photo of the mom and Jeremy in Sarah’s bedroom… and Jeremy is also played by David Bowie.
Labyrinth is just perfect representation of the Celtic fables of the fey. The goblins waiting for Sara to say the exact right words, Toby being swapped with a changeling, Jareth offering Sara the crystal in exchange for her brother, him offering to give her brother back if she can complete the seemingly easy task of getting to his castle but it ends up being much more complicated than expected, the fact that to get what she wanted all she had to do was ask the worm or others the right questions, the fact that in Irish folklore you never eat food offered to you by the fey, (what happened with the peach is a perfect example of what happens.) and the obviously lopsided deal he offers in the end of the story. (Fear me, obey me, do as I say and I will be your slave) it sounds just like most lopsided deals the fey offer.
As someone who reads a lot of folklore and has for many years; to deal with the Fairies safely just be a good person. They reward those who... How do I put this...? They reward the humble, kind, talented, generous people. Where people kept getting caught off-guard was, well, because they thought that they were going to get away with what they were doing... And usually it was something self-serving, ie; the Human character was being selfish, self-centered and/or greedy. You get out of bad situations involving Fairies by simply not being greedy and/arrogant. It's the only consistent method that I've come across so far. Regarding Changelings; I highly doubt that it would be for the very Human reasons cited in the stories... Or the idea that life among Humans would somehow be easier given the descriptions of their own realms. One of these days I'm going to have to write a story, or in Universe fable about it...
@@bluelunarmonkeytarot8533 Someone impatient or naive would only catch the "what's in it for them" part. Sarah stopping and considering what he says is a sign of how much she'd matured in the labyrinth.
@@ApsaraSilverwing from what i've read tho you can get into hot water w the fae even if you were 'humble' because firstly their terminology is different so you could get into a deal with one without realising it, i read "thank you" for example, locks you into a deal in which they've done something for you and now you owe them something. the irish don't even say the word fae/faeries thats how cautious they are of them. so i personally wouldn't recommend having any kind of interaction with them, if you see them or they show themselves to you i would not engage. seeing as faeries have different morality to us i wouldn't let them be the judge of my character and give them power to dish out what they thought i deserved lol. they are self serving too. i would look forward to your story tho, i've loved faeries since i was a child!
Nah the book didn't change my view on Jareth. It EXPANDED it. He's a fae, and he acts like it more in the book than he does in the film. Everything was more wild as true fae in the book. Nothing is ever as it seems with beings who hold vastly different views and concepts than you. However, David Bowie was an excellent choice for a film adaptation. He definitely has an otherworldly glow to him. While the film was watered down in terms of shock, he captured what a high ranking fae would actually look like.
@@jsmith6599 not exactly, it's not just looks with fae. It's about how they act. While some CAN look like an 80s hair metal himbo, others are quite literally trees. Jareth is shown as powerful and quite capable of warping his own realm, that is what I was getting at. The same with the "you have no power over me" scene. Fae only have as much power as you invite them to. And this includes names. Everything is a power tool to a fae. And they ain't shy of abusing their tools. Hence the ball scene, he tried to rob her of that pesky innocence. As much as there are ways of power to a fae, there is also ways to protect against them. He's powerful but also follows his own self imposed chaotic rules. Making him as much a force of nature than a villain. Which in the time of this film's era, Hair Metal had that otherworldly feel to it.
@@elderleon1844 *innocent, second off, define what you mean by innocent. Because, as a teen I knew about sex and the darkness of the world due to having parents who had horrible upbringings and wanted to shelter me, but I was Asexual and refused to do anything with anyone in my school thus I was technically a virgin but wasn't innocent minded. the way you wrote this just sounds creepy.
@@elderleon1844 Teenagers are so innocent especially bc they think they already know everything and are easy to manipulate since they don't have much experience with being alive and everything that goes with it. That's why so many old creeps go after them.
He's a pedo creepo in a kid's movie. But hey, it's a prepubescent girl imagining it in goblin form, unaware of how sick older men liking her truly is. So really, it's motivated by her own inclinations. Which is, although strange, somewhat realistic.
Its simple for me. Jareth's interest in Sarah reminiscents that of a mythological god, say like Zeus, eying an attractive mortal and having their way with them. In some stories, Fairies would also kidnap beautiful mortals and keep them as their kept lovers. Sarah was just the first to boldly and bravely reject the advances of a powerfully supernatural pursuer.
Her baby brother Toby represents her innocence. She decides to give it away, but then changes her mind, thus turning down Jared’s and taking her brother/ innocence back.
@@moutinexeidwkei I always thought he was her tie to the mortal world. I was almost Sarah's age in the story when I first saw the movie, AND I had a baby brother at the time. He was like an anchor to home for me when things got stormy.
It makes sense, too, because the entire mythical world is constructed from her imagination while failing to evolve from her premature state, and Sarah was kind of acting immature to her folks in the beginning.
Another reviewer did this movie, I think she's "The Fangirl" she talks about her her step mother didn't take her teddy bear away from her, she was hoping she'd play with Toby and bond with him. "You know you're getting old when you relate more to the parents in these movies"
@@misspinkpunkykat Oh, you mean the baby brother didnt take her teddy bear away from her - it was her step mom who put it in her brother's room to get them to play together?
"It's only forever. Not long at all." Only one of my favorite lines. Despite the over all creep factor of this story, I have loved this movie since I was little.
My interpretation as a kid watching this was that everything he said or did with Sarah was in the service of getting her to forget about Toby. That all of the seduction was just to make her cave and forget the task at hand. I never considered that he had any genuine feelings for her at all
What I love about this movie is that it can be layered enough to have several interpretations. On a deeper level, we can use it as an allegory for girlhood and growing up. Or we can see it as both allegorical and about Jareth tricking Sarah into forgetting Toby. Then, there’s the added layer of those who want to apply fae lore into the story, and view Jareth as the archetype of fae “stealing”, seducing , deceiving mortal girls/women.
In original Fae mythology, the Faeries only live a couple thousand years, so that’s likely why Jareth started to feel his age. He was running out of time, and human souls can help restore their timeline.
There isnt an original Fae mythology. The stories come from different regions over different time periods and it's not always even clear what creatures are "Fae" as opposed to other mythological creatures.
I think what it boils down to though, is that we're supposed to see the movie much in the same way as the 1939 Wizard of Oz movie (one of the first movies Jim Henson ever saw as a child, and we even see the book in a very early scene). Sarah is a young woman caught between wanting to be seen as a mature young woman, but still holding on to beloved childhood objects. I remember being pretty much the same way at that age, and I would watch Labyrinth and Legend and Company of Wolves and Ever After on a constant rotation. I had massive crushes on Bowie and Tim Curry in high school lol (and don't get me started on Colin Firth as Mr. Darcy)
@abitfrank have you read the first screenplay draft by Terry Jones? It's very different from both the book and the movie, so there must have been a lot of cooks in the kitchen here. I think most of his contributions to the end product ended up being things like the Worm and the Door Knockers.
I remember Lindsay Ellis reviewing the movie and explaining that for herself and countless other girls, this movie was their sexual awakening. And as a straight man, I see it. Bowie commands your attention every moment he's on screen
It was more than just an awakening in the usual sense for many. The scenes have a sexually predatory undercurrent to them (especially the ballroom) and you feel like the main character is powerless. For the majority of the film the only request/order she gives is 'No/stop' but the majority of characters never follow it. The friends she found along the way give her agency to set boundaries and so she lets them in emotionally- freezing out the ones that won't respect that or try to shift the blame to her for things they did. This movie was able to show a lot of little girls in a way no parent could ever teach them that by simply existing as an adult- they would need to be on guard from their own Jareths.
My older sister took me to see this movie when it was in theaters. I had a baby brother at the time, and my family structure wasn't much different than the movie. I encountered an older man around the same time, and I discovered a million and one reasons to revisit the "stranger danger" topic with teenagers. My "Jareth" was in his late 20s, and a friend introduced us, so I didn't realize he was still a stranger. My "Jareth" is in prison for life now. I wasn't his first, but I was his last. That's what Labyrinth means to me.
I'm sorry that happened to you, this is why we can't just teach stranger danger alone, we need to teach people how to identify predatory behaviour from family, friends and acquaintances as they are more likely to assault you than a stranger
@@valkyriedarquese All I can say is that when you reach a certain age, the lures aren't candy or clowns, but shopping and adult conversation, hearing, "You're so mature for your age!" is a huge red flag for me when I hear people say it to kids nowadays. That's the line that got me. The "lures" have to do with being seen as intelligent enough to make one's own decisions until it's too late to make any decisions at all.
@@Sarappreciates Yes that's a classic grooming technique, telling victims they're so special and different and mature for their age. I was well educated as a child and that included well educated against all grooming behaviour so I could spot this and turn it back on creeps, but other girls my age? they fell hook line and sinker because their parents and society didnt teach them :(
yes, this movie is so traumatizing for me imo. the ick factor is like 100000000. it displays predator behavior perfectly. I just wish that it was discussed more that Jareth *is* a predator because for some reason young girls don't seem to grasp that despite a literal monster stealing away the MC's brother, trying to kidnap/SA her, and then turning into a monster when the MC says no. like society has warped girls' minds.
0:38 that's not what happens. The labyrinth is Sarah's construct, Jareth is there because he's 'safe' - this is the world she creates to confront all her own coming-of-age issues. As Jareth tells her, he's only frightening because she made him that way. As she says, he never had any power.
@@LenaFerrari that raises the question of what 'real' means. All the things she sees in the Labyrinth are things she imagined, based on things in her real life - even Jareth, and time flows differently - she's in the labyrinth for about 5 hours of real time and about 13 hours of labyrinth time. Even though we see Sarah's friends in the room at the end, we don't see anyone else see them... every indication is that they only exist in her own imagination.
@@MichaelJohnson-kq7qgyes thats exactly what makes it all a PARADOX! imaginary vs reality. fun fact: pardoxes are what make the world go round. ever watch the disney cartoon of sword and the stone!?
So basically she accidently gave him power by believing that he was real or by believing he truly had power in the first place which in turn actually did give him power?
I think my favorite variation on the movie is a partially filmed ending where Jareth smiles at her while the throws the glass ball at the end. That he was always just trying to teach her a lesson on strength.
My German vhs version had the smile and throw ending, it also looked like his realm was in the ball or the ballroom and it shattered. That's why I never saw it negatively, he taught her life lessons and went away. Maybe it's his favourite game, testing young humans and watch delightful what they do. Like a child watching an ant and putting rocks and sticks in it's way..
@@StrangeQuack I think I have two different dvd releases, and now I wish I had something to play them on again so I can see if there's a difference in versions. (I always thought I imagined him smiling, because he clearly wasn't all that upset)
It doesn't change anything for me. He is fae and they are hundreds of years old. Known to lure humans of all ages off. They can be tricksters, and a peach wiping the memory is pretty normal also. Lore says partaking in fae food or drink is basically like a memory wipe or long drug trip where you lose all sense of time. I've known since I saw the movie as a young child that it was a fae kidnapping a human....or trying to. That actually appealed to my child self. I'd have given anything to have had the chance Sarah did when I was younger than the character Sarah. It was the escape from my childhood hell. I was actually obsessed with fae because their stories usually involved kidnapping humans and leaving them in a trance, basically making them numb. Always sounded better than what I was living through. 🤷♀️ So there's really no change other than the book adding the mom's bf ick factor. That I'm glad wasn't overly covered in the movie. But any story with fae and humans the age gap is huge. Bigger than a humans life expectancy to begin with. Hell, they look like 5 and be 1000. So the fae part doesn't creep me out. Edit: favorite quote... "Things aren't always what they seem in this place, so you can't take anything for granted." From the Ello worm And song lyric "It's only forever, not long at all."
I originally watched this aged 11. I have seen it many times since and I don’t find it disturbing. Sarah isn’t sexualised in the movie and the male lead isn’t human. It’s coming of age side is subtle. It is literally Sarah’s fantasy. It’s frightening, it’s heady, it’s confusing, glamorous, sordid,dangerous etc. A book would hit different.
The impression I always got was that Jareth is meant to be her teenage fantasy version of her mother's boyfriend, whom she had a crush on, the whole adventure being a dream.
The entire analysis of the Ball Scene now reminds me of Sweeney Todd; how Mrs. Lovette explains what happened to Lucy Barker - Benjamin's wife. The fact that Beadle Bambford comes to her, claiming that Judge Turpin wishes to apologize for his behavior toward her. Beadle takes her to the Judge's house, where there is a Masquerade Ball going on, at which the Judge seizes the opportunity while under a mask, to force himself onto her; and the other attendees of the ball just laugh at the display. This sends the idea that these Masquerades were done purely for promiscuity; it was most likely that in addition to wearing masks, recreational drugs were also used, and most of the attendees there probably assumed that Lucy and the Judge were just _hooking up._ So it could very well be likely that young girls could fall victim to such a thing at some of these parties. But in a lot of ways, the book helps put things into perspective for me. Granted, I know that all of this is metaphorical cause it's Sarah's fantasy, but the trick is to figuring out how the jagged pieces fit together in the puzzle. I like that they give Jareth his own character arc in that he fears he's getting old, which is why he takes Toby - I feel like its a reference to a Manga Sequel that Labyrinth received, that follows Toby as the main antagonist, now as a pre-teen boy. The idea being that in that story, Jareth has named Toby as his Heir and wants him to inherit the throne of the Goblin King. So in a sense, this story is doing the same thing; Jareth wants an heir to raise and mold in his image so that he can retire in peace. Then there's Sarah. Jareth is intrigued by her because she can defy him. She's too old to turn into a Goblin like he can do with Toby, but she's also too young for him to seduce and keep her - whether it be as a consort or maybe even make her into his queen, so that she can produce heirs for him. It's like you said; she's so young that she hasn't really experienced those kinds of things as of yet. So this explains the ball scene. It's fascinating to consider what Jareth is doing. In the movie, without the context, we can only infer that he's doing it to try and distract Sarah long enough to run-out the clock. But with this context, you realize that Jareth was trying to get them _both._ Not only was he trying to run-out time so that he could keep Toby, but also that he was trying to keep Sarah as well. The ball was meant to corrupt Sarah, and introduce her to the world of the lascivious, thus awakening those urges within her. If she had succumbed, then Jareth would have power over her and he would have won. It doesn't really change how I view the ball scene cause I more or less saw it in a similar way already; but it gives me more context that I can appreciate. It also somewhat explains why Jareth seems forlorn when Sarah makes it to the castle and he confronts her in the MC Esher staircase room. He wants her to stay because he believes they can create something beautiful together, but at the same time, he knows that she can't stay; she is not corrupted and he is powerless to corrupt her. And I think part of his sadness comes from the fact that because he is so corrupt, he cannot entice her to stay. Therefore, literally, he and Sarah cannot exist in the same world.
Connelly was what, 15 when she filmed this? I think they cast exactly the right person. Actually all the casting was great, admittedly mostly voiceactors.
A few months ago Cinema Therapy did a video on this movie. Normally their content is great, analyzing characters and stories in movies and relating them to things like therapy, self-worth, and self-growth. But their video on this movie wasn't very good. They didn't like the movie, so they just kept making fun of it. In particular, they kept going on about how Sara and Jareth's relationship was not real love, it was just creepy and illegal. The backlash was significant, however. Everybody pointed out to them that was the whole point of the movie. Jareth is the villain. Villains do villainous things, after all. And everybody pointed out that the movie was about Sara's self-growth, learning that this was not a healthy relationship.
I'm glad that I stopped watching them before they did that movie. Can't remember which one it was, but it was so obvious that they uploaded the best parts only to Patreon, since the YT version was very bland and the analyze wasn't very analytic at all. Which was sad because it was a great movie/character which would be perfect for their type of analyzing. Doesn't surprise me if they have gotten even worse, I'm sad to say. How could they miss the point of this movie that bad?
@@Elora445 actually, I feel like they've gotten much better since then. They took down their Labyrinth video, and issued a public apology for it. They still haven't taken down the apology, either. I haven't been able to watch every video they've released since then, but I've watched most of them, and I feel like they've improved. You don't have to go back to them if you don't want to. Just because they've improved, doesn't mean they never crossed a boundary you felt should never be crossed. Besides, that would make me a huge hypocrite. I've unsubscribed from a number of content creators for the very same reasons.
Not to mention the "love" was only ever one way! Sarah didnt ever see him as anything other than a person who was making her life harder, and the only time she looked like she might be wavering, she was literally drugged. CinemaSins sounds like they were just going for straight rage bait!
I stopped watching them when they insisted that Better Help, a well-known sh!tty company at this point, was completely okay. Please click the link so we can get more money off a bad company who preys on people desperate for help. You can trust us! One of us is a licensed therapist! It was just really gross.
As a kid watching this I understood why Jim Hansen did this. The Goblin King represented that weird combination of power and authority and danger that parts of our culture encourage young woman to be attracted to and instead of giving in and her love "changing him" (which is unrealistic) the young girl in the story rejects the allure, a healthier option. I get exactly why he would want that narrative told.
My understanding is the goblin kingdom is a reflection of the real world - I haven’t read the book in a really long time but I’m sure there’s a description of Jeremy wearing essentially what wearing what we see Jareth in - the story is her essentially working through teenage stuff, her attraction to her mothers boyfriend etc
From what I have seen lately about the movie, David Bowie wouldn't allow things to happen in the movie that were just too creepy. One thing he was against was Jareth kissing Sarah.
I always found Sarah to feel neglected by her family in the movie, which probably makes her fantasize of someone who does everything for her, this being Jareth. In the film we see her father wont even 'break down her door even though he wants to talk to her', which is most likely why she hoards and lives so much in her fantasies, as an escape. But in the Labyrinth, Sara realizes she cant just escape constantly to this realm because people like Jareth will take advantage of that, so she learns to take her power back and matures in that way. By the end, she talks to her own fantasies to remind them that theyre not gone or broken up, but that shell only come back to them in times of need
It's creepy that Jareth's character blended protective and possessive behaviors in such a way that it is difficult for those who don't know to identify which it is, and easy to confuse possessive and manipulative with what is truly not protective behavior.
Particularly with the scene of Jareth's "owl form" showing up at the end, it always seemed to me that he did all of that to give her the gift of the adventure she craved from her books. He goes over that at one point when he confronts her about how he was exhausted with living up to her expectations.
It was a warning to girls on the edge of adulthood, to be wary of older men (or even males their own age) who want them to make adult leaps before they’re ready.
Labyrinth is an insane coming of age/sexual awakening story. I'm happy I havent read the book. The ball room description reminds me of the Theater of Vampires scene in Interview with a Vampire and how the humans are so enthralled. I'm surprised the weird sequel book series didn't have another Jareth/Sarah romance angle.
Interestingly enough, Jareth is (at least in my interpretation) much like Armand, who wanted Louis to be his companion because he felt disconnected from the world, being an old vampire or something like that... long lives tend to take a toll in the mind it seems...
If you mean the return to labyrinth manga yeah it did. Sarah just realized that they both had responsibilities and that if they ran off together Labyrinth would collapse in on itself. But it was still there, hence the kiss scene.
If you look closely, Sarah’s mom is dating a character played by David Bowie in the movie, you can see the photo on the mirror and some in the scrapbook.
I read the "romance" in this movie the same way as the "romance" in Phantom of the Opera. It’s not a good relationship, and you,re supposed to root AGAINST it.
I don't think "root against" is exactly how I'd put it?? Like, most of the women I know (and Andrew Lloyd Webber himself if you count the awful sequel) write and read Christine/Phantom fanfiction. But the whole point of the story is that he's a bad evil man and it'd be very bad if she actually had ended up with him and we all know it? It's a hard feeling to explain. But that's dark romance/fantasy for you. I love them, but I'd have had a fit if the original story had them getting together because it would have been a bad story.
Labyrinth is a story about that critical moment right before adulthood. To where sarah tests her bounderies. Experiencing the possibility of advances from an older man is testing her. See if she's ready to be an adult. Always stopping before anything ever got too far. Sarah always realized shes not ready on her own. Jerrith made everything a choice and allowed sarah freewill. I wouldn't put any more into the film than what is presented.
I was, like, 3 or 4 when my mom showed us this back in the early 90s and I remember her commentary on how she'd totally say "eff you all, I'm going with the Goblin King" and we just laughed our butts off cause it was the funniest thing we had heard. But we totally agreed. =P
The writers of screenplay novelizations often bring their own interpretations to the story, and I don't think you can get this one from the movie itself. If you lay aside the distraction of Bowie's tight pants, the message is more that he is there as the opponent/guide that you find in some versions of the Hero's Journey. He is like Cerridwen in the tale of Taliesin, or Merlin in The Once And Future King, who provides challenges for the Hero/ine to encounter and grow through. One part of the challenge may be sexual. However, there is another way of interpreting the ballroom scene. It is the false distraction of frivolous romance. Just because Jared is the masculine focus for this, it does not mean that he is interested in Sarah from a sexually predator's point of view. The words that he utters in the final conflict reveal that he is there to test her and he is at least partly aware of his role. There is no love story in this movie; Jared exists as an archetype. There is no reward for him. If Sarah loses, he has failed, and she will go on into a future of insipid immaturity. This encounter is a sort of divine intervention, designed to deflect her away from a life of petty selfishness. Looked at from this angle, Jared is a heroic being, who seizes the opportunity of Sarah's cry to the goblins to teach her a valuable and life changing lesson.
so basically from this angle, The Labyrinth would serve a sort of ""modern"" variation of a Grimm fairytale. A dark challenge set to teach the protagonist (often a young, naïve child) a lesson to nudge them in the direction of maturity
@@itsClaptrap I think the 'Hero's Journey' aspect of this makes it less of a push towards conformity and more a source of empowerment. There is very much a sense of Sarah discovering her powers as she makes her way through the Labyrinth. In other tales, the ending amounts to rebirth. Most obviously with Gwyddion, who is consumed by Cerridwen and is literally reborn as Taliesin. And the hero/ine often comes forth as a person of special purpose after their transformation, even if in Sarah's case it is just a step towards becoming a more fully empowered woman.
I just thought it was about growing up and letting go of childish things. One of those childish things is a mysterious stranger offering to take you away from your perceived problems. Also there could be some parallels to a poem called goblin market about goblins selling "fruit"
I've always seen the movie as following the "Man versus Self" plot; after all, everyone, from the Worm to Jareth does everything Sara ASKS them to do, even if what she ASKS isn't what she WANTS. It was a story of a little girl in a teenager's body maturing emotionally into a young woman in a teenager's body. The book, from what I've learned in this video, sounds like it is a blend of "The novelization of the film" and "Rewriting Lolita into the fantasy genre."
The book was the original idea for the story before they changed it. There's a video of it online. Bowie even had a double role as the mum's boyfriend.
Its not re-writing lolita, it also explores that maturing comes with romantic and sexual awakenings; and that adult men are often predatory to young women and girls.
I wouldn’t say labyrinth re-writes Lolita at all, Lolita being written from the view of Humbert Humbert, where in that novel we read the distortion of the kidnapping and exploitation of Delores through her abuser’s eyes-he calling her Lolita, his ‘nymphet seductress’ not the person she really is, the 12 year old Delores. Very much not a coming of age story, as Humbert would want us to believe, but a cautionary tale showing the illusionary power of predators to hide behind pretty words to spin their abuse as conventional romance. What they do is so horrible to look in the eye that the people around them take their word at face value. And maybe the similarity lies in that what’s being presented to us is a fantasy, however the person constructing it wouldn’t be analogous to Sarah, actively wanting the reader to also take on his accounts of events.
You should do the never ending story book version. That is so much darker and I have been ruining childhoods with those revelations since I read it in middle school. I love the movie even more for having read the book even if it never reveals the true villian
The rock-biter's name has been randomly just inserting itself into my thoughts for decades now thanks to that book. I've literally worn out two copies. ♡
I agree 100%! I love telling people how much deeper and darker the books are. I read it at least once a year and I am 35! I always find something new to contemplate and debate about. Such a mind trip!
As a child, the Labyrinth was fun but filled with confusing themes. Watching it as a grown adult its all so clear, especially the masquerade scene. Its a brilliant movie to grow up watching bc you become Sarah in a way.
Finally, someone gets that it is a coming of age story and that the Labyrinth was created by Sarah's mind, which is why a sequel should not have any of the original characters, because she already grew up. We would need a new protaganist and their subsequent mind world to navigate. This is also my all time favorite movie ever. I love the Fierys.
I remember reading somewhere that she isn't the first Sarah. That the Goblin King is forever searching for a Sarah that wants to be rid of her little brother, but none of the other Sarah manage to get through the maze in time. That all the goblins used to be human children. The way she meets Hoggle, he's completely unsurprised to see her, and when she states her name, "that's what I thought".
The concept behind the labyrinth is simply that a young lady growing up does not want to give up her childhood. In the fit of rebellion she rejects her new responsibilities and wishes that her little brother would just go away. The story is nothing more than the tale of a young lady growing up and turning away from her fantasy world. Although the ending allows her to keep a little bit of that nonetheless it was the moral point of the movie.
I previously thought the ending with Sarah inviting her friends to her room was a rushed metaphor for regressing into her childhood, rather than growing up. But your video gave me some deeper insight. If what you say is true, Jareth and the obstacles he throws Sarah's way are a metaphor for the memories of her biological mother, and the glitzy glammy world she abandoned her family for. By that logic, the friends Sarah made could possibly signify Sarah making peace with her stepmother, and understanding she's not the wicked step-parent she paints her as.
Sarah always loved fantasy and playing pretend. The Labyrinth friends at the end mean that although she goes through self maturation, it doesn’t mean she has to let those things go completely. 😊
I remember kid's movies being way edgier and scarier back in the '80s. In many ways, that's a good thing IMO, because many children are forced to grow up fast and often don't have friends their age to breach such grownup subjects with in order to explore, leaving them to feel ostracized from both their own age group and adults that may be able to help. But, much like the old fairy tales, the stories can delve into the unnerving aspect of things that kids don't always have the vocabulary or lived experience to frame into the kind of questions that they may or may not fell comfortable asking to their parents or other trust-worthy adults for answers. Yes, some of the content for kids in the '80s was pretty dark, but still extremely tame compared to the original versions of the old fairy tales that were used to warn children about the real and disturbing dangers of the world around them, albeit in the form or shape of monsters. A good way to frame the real monsters of our lives. There are some good real-world comparisons to the baddies of those old stories. Some might find them a bit much for kids, but, then, so can be their own real day-to-day lives, out in the world, or sadly, even at home. Aligory is a strong teaching tool for sensitive subject matter. And, some subjects are a litle too harmful to just come right out and explain outright. These illusive tales can help open some windows to let in the air, to see if the discussion needs to be had, now, or can be left to discuss at a later time. And, the memories of these stories can linger, so that if a child finds themselves in a questionable situation in the future, they have something to compare and make some connections that might otherwise not click in a moment of judgment. The need to shelter kids from some realities of life can be a hindrance to their growth, ability to learn, and ability to protect themselves, and kids understand a lot more than some parents give them credit for. Letting them be a little scared is ok. Some kids need to learn a little fear to keep them from getting into situations they shouldn't be in. I think The Labrenth did a pretty fantastic job of addressing some very adult concepts that are unavoidable for someone, especially young girls coming of age. One could argue that 15 is even a little too late for some girls to be warned about the intentions of boys and some men in this day and age. Knowledge is power, and girls need to know what to look out for by the time they're 11 or 12... sadly. It's like we've fallen back to the olden days when young girls were married off to rich land owners at the age 10 or 12, only it's not only an arranged marriage, but, any random creep out there who might try to take advantage that they need to be afraid of today. Some humans have always been monsters. That's why such dark stories even exist.
Unfortunately in some cases, not even 11 or 12 is soon enough... I was being molested by the time I was 8. And you're right. Some humans have always been monsters... I lived with one until I was 17, sadly...
@@shadoewater I can't even begin to imagine what that must have been like for you. 8-years-old? My God!?! I am so sorry.😧 It angers the hell out of me to even think about.🤬 I'm glad, at least, that you were able to get away from that. And, I hope you've been able to heal from it in some way. 🥺 I think that people sometimes have a hard time understanding that "protecting" children means more than just shielding them from the world, and the harsh realities of life. The more a child knows, the better off they'll be when faced with bad situations. Kids are way more clever and understand vastly more than most "grown-ups" hardly ever give them credit for. Shielding them, more often than not, makes it harder for them to adapt and deal with things. I can't express enough how sorry I am that you went through such a thing. My heart goes out to you. Truly. 💔❤🩹❤❣
@wirelesmike73 I appreciate it. :) Unfortunately the story gets worse before it gets better. The person was my stepfather, and I was 17 before my mom understood what was actually going on and how bad it was. I had to wait until she and I were actually, truly alone before I could tell her the full story, because he always found a way to stay near us and prevent me from telling her anything. I'm almost 30 now, and still working on healing... But making progress. I have a toddler son, and I love him to bits. ❤️ Working on trying to get at least primary custody of him, since my neglectful ex currently has that and I get visits... One stupid mistake on my part because I panicked while leaving, and the court ruled in his favor. 🥲 But we'll get there... He's 2 and a half and already showing signs that he prefers to be here with Mama. He RUNS to the door when he sees that I've arrived to pick him up for the weekend. He just stands there when my ex comes to get him.
@@shadoewater Abuse is all too often primarily about control over their target, and abusers always strive to maintain that control. I hate that it took so long to find your moment. I'm just glad that your mom, ultimately, believed you when you were finally able to get the full story across. Sadly, that is often not the case. I'm not even going to voice what horrible, heinous things I hope befell him. There is no punishment that could even come close to being enough. As for the future, I wish you a speedy ruling in your favor. I hope you get your boy back. Best of luck to you, both. ⚖✊🖖 Never forget that we are our own worst critics. But, no mater what anybody else says, or how down on yourself you may sometimes feel, even at your weakest, you're stronger than you think.
@@shadoewater Just remember to tell yourself you were the victim. Live life the best you can and show he has no power over you and you will have been the winner. These are words my mom swears by. She had us 3 kids and says we made her world amazing despite the trauma she went through being molested by her uncle from the age of 2 until she was 5. We live in the PNW away from most our family cause they blamed her for being touched and took our great-uncle's side. She fought to keep him in prison and they let him out but last I heard he relapsed a 3rd time and hopefully this will be the last time they let him out.
In the scene when she is in the pit with all the hands holding on to her. Who else had the thought that maybe one of them might try something inappropriate with her? At first I thought I might just have a messed up head, but after hearing all these excerpts from the book, I’m started to rethink that.
@@bryanmiller8604 I loved the behinds the scenes for that and Brian Henson explaining the idea they were going for. That and him explaining the intricacies of the eyes in the animatronic puppets.
I’m a linguistic anthropologist and I loved this analysis of labyrinth. Many don’t want to discuss such subject material in relation to children’s media so thank you for your courage and wisdom.
I once bought a really cringy book called Nerds, Geeks, and Dorks or something like that which explained movie and comic references as well as gave advice. (It was a weird book) I'll never forget that the section on Labrynth was about how being a female geek could be difficult (the book mostly referenced guy geeks). The quote I will never foregt was "like Sarah you have to remember your not just the babe your the babe with the power". I think about the quote a lot when in sketchy situations because while being female comes with challenges we can choose say no and remove ourselvesfrom dangerous or preditory situations (if other people respect that decision is another thing unfortunately). Labrynth has always been a deeply feminist movie for me in that way. Sarah has power, but unlike other films its not a sword or spells but her right to choose, and that's so powerful. Sorry for the rambling response I'm just glad someone else has seen this movie in the same light.
I have so many thoughts about the movie. I've never read the book. But I think a lot of the insinuated scenes definitely make me feel differently as an adult than they ever did as a teenager who was mostly oblivious to the world and hadn't been subjected to the way older men can prey on young girls. As a teen, I simply considered it a great dark fairy tale and swooned over Jareth like everyone else, because who wouldn't want a very powerful and hot fae king to lavish them with attention and promise them their dreams if they just feared them, loved them and did as they said? As an adult, I find it to be an extremely well told story of a young girl wanting to be seen as a grown woman but also still just a child who isn't ready for that yet, and how she comes to terms with her life, her own naivete, and how others will use her innocence of both the world and physicality against her until she's willing to stand up for herself and take her power into her own hands. And using an imagined world where all the obstacles she encountered were her own machinations and she was never in any real danger was a great way to safely explore it while still getting the point across that growing up is filled with mixed emotions and perils that can have some very confusing and, often, unwanted experiences.
There is also the manga which explores the future of the baby in the movie being all grown up and brought back into the labyrinth to take over as Jareths replacement as the goblin king. You should check it out as it's super interesting
My mum loves this movie so much, and it rubbed off on me to such a degree it made me a Bowie fan and it's a big nostalgic mood for me. Seeing the book passages certainly makes it more overt, I already had questions about the themes in the movie. I'm still enchanted by the ballroom scene though, I even want to dance to the song when I marry my girlfriend. I think the fact it sold the fantasy to me makes me question a little bit about myself, but when viewed as a commentary of the fantasies of a teenage girl I suppose it on some level makes sense that I was at the time, and in some ways still would, be willing to accept it. It's a bit conflicting. "Come inside and meet the missus" - Just a worm
According to to Minty Comedic Arts video on the movie, there was an unused script in which Jared would give Sarah an ultimatum. She should stay and be his queen as he'd rather have that than a little goblin prince. Supposedly she called him a miserable creep, punches him in the face and kicks him in the shin. In this version Jared was actually a goblin and this loss of standing due to her resisting his charms causes him to revert into a snivelling little goblin form who says "why does everything happen to me".
Oh I was waiting for this, specifically as someone who watched it for the first time as a kid well after most people forgot about it (mid 00's). Now i've got to rewatch it... Maybe also The NeverEnding Story and Flight of the Navigator while i'm at it.
So I've read the book too and I see it a bit differently as regards to Sarah & her step-monster. Sarah was not spoiled and selfish, she was mentally and emotionally abused by a step-monster and a father who didn't love her. Who saw her as trash. They wouldn't have noticed if she was gone. If I had been in her place and treated as poorly as she was, I would've told Jareth that I would stay under the condition he returned Toby since that was the only child step-monster and her "father" (and I used that term loosely since his one scene in the book proves he didn't care one bit about her) loved.
You realize that the point of the entire story is to be careful what you wish for? How each time Sarah complained that something wasn't fair, it was in fact very much fair, and usually the result of what she asked for? Aside from her mom walking out on her, Sarah's world only seems unfair because she is a teenager and therefore has little control over her circumstances, but that doesn't mean she's being treated unfairly (again, aside from her mom leaving.) Sarah was most certainly not abused in any way, either in the book or the movie. Not sure which Labyrinth movie you watched...
Honestly, I never saw it like this till I got older. I had a massive crush on Jareth as a kid, but I guess it shows it worked. I still love Jareth so much. This was such a great video as I never read the book, but I want to. There's a really good fanfic called "That William's Girl" where Sarah is an adult with a toxic family and Jareth is more monster/fae-like. It's so good and I really recommend it!
There's a fan theory that all of the goblins the goblins are just children disfigured by age. They are past children given up by other "Sarah"s. His aging placed into the children but also magical lands keeping them alive perhaps even being kept alive by Jareth so the aging/disfiguration doesn't revert back to him. Also Sarah being hebrew for Princess might be more important. So when Hoggle asks "Who are you?" She replies "Sarah" he responds "That's what I thought " could be more of a recognition of oh of course the mortal allowed in is another Princess. After all kings would be trying to court a Princesses and it's obvious she isn't his first target.
Strange, this must be one of those differences between men and women that kicks in from a very early age: seems like I hear this sort of thing from a lot of young women, not just about 'Labyrinth', that there's confusion about how romantic a character seems to them that, to me, was always pretty clearly predatory and creepy. As a guy, it never crossed my mind at any point of seeing this movie so many times since the '80s that the Goblin King was anything BUT exactly the sort of person people were talking about when they would say "Don't talk to strangers!" Incidentally, there is no baby in the story: he's a metaphor for childhood innocence, which the girl is wishing impulsively would be taken away from her, only to have second thoughts as the story progresses and she matures a little more, escaping just by the "skin of her teeth" . I wouldn't quite have caught that much in my first few viewings as a kid, but I definitely understood there was a little more to what was going on than was being presented on the surface. I never noticed or remembered the "Jeremy" character, but yeah, the identification with "Jareth" fits! I always understood the movie to be not a love story - that never crossed my mind - but instead a movie about two different roads toward growing up which the main character could go down, one of them far more tempting and pleasant on the surface than the other, but not at all a healthy sort of maturity - and part of reaching a more genuine maturity would come with realizing the difference, and the main character learning to tell the difference and make wiser decisions is the heart of the story. Whatever - no, the Goblin King is NOT a misunderstood good guy in a romantic story, and he's not there to be rescued or fixed, he's absolutely the story's villain in direct conflict with the story's main character, and to be avoided and resisted or beaten by growing up and growing strong and independent enough to tell when he is being deceptive, manipulative, and seductive - it really surprises me how easy that apparently is to miss!
Girls and women are trained by society from a young age to be unable to identify toxic and abusive behaviour, and to even romanticise it. I am a woman who loves the film and watched it a lot as a kid, and I understood it and its warnings because I am fortunate to have had a very good education, especially in regards to learning predatory/grooming behaviours. Most women do not get this :( girls my age in high school would get mad when i told them they were being groomed by adult men, they just thought I was jealous. It wasn't until they were older that they realised what had happened. Look at twilight as a 'love story' for example; written by a woman in a cult, who has a weird crush on her brother, romanticising abusive controlling relationships with dangerous age gaps; teaching young girls this is exciting and desirable.
I never read the book, but my favorite line from that movie should be obvious: "The Bog of Eternal-" no, no, no, no. "You have no power over me!" With those six words, Sarah takes back control of her life, shames the Goblin King, and proves herself to be the girl-boss Hollywood wishes they could right. Old stories where the best.
without the novel, which i didnt know about til now, i always had the idea that not only is jareth old and bored, but that age and boredom are infecting the rest of the goblins as well and they're savvy to the fact that its because of jareth. but they're all still afraid of him at the end of the day because he's their king. even needing prompting to laugh during magic dance i always kinda interpreted the final song of jareth's "within you" as him trying to hold on to power, to maintain the illusion, but at the end of the day he knows he's lost sarah.
I've always seen Jareth as learning from Sarah's rejection. By the end he throws the ball away and resigns himself that Sarah doesn't want him, and he has no power over her. He is present as that owl at the end, amd os watching her celebrate her win, and I'd like to think that he learned what he was doing wasn't love. That the most loving thing he could do was leave her alone and sort himself out.
0:30 I’ve only watched this far into the video so I don’t know if you’ve addressed it yet but Jim Henson NEVER intended for his creations to be for children. Even the name muppet means monster puppet. It just happened they worked better for things like Sesame Street than they did for things like American horror story.(I watched a documentary one time on a plane ride)
Wait, a girl that wants to live in imagination and doesn’t want to grow up gets whisked away by a magic man who also kidnaps her younger brother??? Is Labyrinth the alternative to Peter Pan?
i remeber first reading the book was such a wonderful experience for me because it completely enhanced the movie for me! i already loved labyrinth, but the content of the book gave me a new look into sarah's psyche and made me understand her so much better, solidifying her as my favorite character in the story!
As a 47 year old woman, it's easy to see that Jareth is a self-centered, creepy, childish man. But in my tweens and teens, he was profoundly sexy and alluring; the perfect representation of that period in a girl's life when she's getting curious about men and how they seem so much sexier and interesting than boys her age. The fact that Jareth openly is preying on a teenage girl is something that I think almost every teen girl has faced at some point, and even if you don't fall for it, there is often a temptation to do it. Labyrinth really hones in on that vibe
I have always loved Labyrinth, when I was a young child I did not pick up on a lot of the darker metaphors when it came to awakening sexuality. However, as I got older I started to think that the Labyrithth was about female puberty and the overwhelming, confusing, terrifying yet beautiful wonder that comes with it. I also picked up the feeling of accepting the changes from childhood to adulthood and how as people we want to grow up fast but also want to cling to the innocence of our childhood. anyways loved the video.
A few years ago, I started looking back on this movie and realizing just how, well, strange it was. As a kid, I just thought it was a fairy tale kind of movie, but as an adult, I see it as more of a cautionary movie. Something isn't right about a fully grown man loving a child in a romantic way, and you should always say no to them and their offers because they don't truly have your best interests at heart.
I found the labyrinth a good metaphor for the twisting emotions of our lives, full of dangers or allies which weren’t always easy to tell apart. For a young girl an enticing older man could be either, and the only way to know are his methods… Which Sarah thankfully figured out.
I haven't seen that movie in so many years I've forgotten all the little details, but I've never once thought of the story as romantic and can't imagine what kind of twisted mind would. Seeing it as a kid I just thought of it as a fantasy adventure story. She either imagined or dreamt everything that happened in the labyrinth because she was sick and tired of her baby brother crying his little head off, and as a reader of so much fantasy she slipped into one as a coping mechanism. After all, she was left home to take care of her brother while the adults went out to play. I guess I'd just have to watch it again as an adult to really make a proper analysis of it.
The whole thing being a perfect example of how abuse victims escape into fantasy to cope with what happens makes me love the book even as I commit to never reading it.
Return to Labyrinth said Jareth ruled the Goblin Kingdom for 1300 years, so at this point, Sarah could be a hundred years old and he'd STILL be way older than her.
In a way The Labyrinth is a very faithful adaptation of the way old fairytales were told. They weren't just fun stories to entertain or be churned for a profit (looking at you House of Mouse), they were used to teach children about the ways of the world, and the world does have very dangerous people like Jareth who would take advantage of a young woman's innocence for his own gain.
I think the book only enhances it and makes Jareth's intentions that much more insidious and creepy. It's the age-old trope of feeding off youth to ward off mortality (as if doing so will stop it entirely).
I love this video! P.s. sorry if everything I say doesn’t make sense I kinda ramble. i think it does good as a coming of age story, I think this was to show Sarah how horrible adults are, showing her growing up isn’t what she thinks it is, and how weird Jeremy was. Another thing is the movie has a few deleted scenes that are available on TH-cam where jareth smiles after she says he has no power, insinuating that he was proud of how much she grew.
We see pictures of her actress mother (instead of her stepmother she hates) with a guy that looks strikingly like Bowie (because it is Bowie - which is another interesting layer to this story). I love how it shows the very dangerous allure of the world of the fae or the Sidhe in Irish folklore - they make us mortals beautiful promises but the sacrifice is very dear indeed…”it’s only forever…not long at all”
Movie title: Labyrinth
How it lives rent-free in my head and heart: THE Labyrinth 🔮
I know of pan's labyrinth but not quite familiar with this labyrinth.
Yep, the subtext is strong on that one, which is good because you can have a different experience watching as a child, a teenager and an adult!
you are right i remember this movie vaguely from when i was a kid, mom put it on a few times and now im a little weirded out
Labyrinth.
Adding "the" is just silly and unneccessary
there is a manga sequel where the goblin king wants toby to be the new goblin king
I think Hoggle makes it abundantly clear right from the beginning, when Sarah gets bitten by the faerie:
“It BIT me!”
“What did you EXPECT faeries to do?”
“I THOUGHT they did nice things? Like granting wishes…”
“Shows what you know, don’t it?”
Dang... this definitely hits different post Epstein, Cosby, Nickelodeon etc. This world is so evil.
In Ireland epically, faries are notorious for being mean and nasty.
Fairies are tricksters
Yeah and we all know which people goblins represent 👺
Even the head of those fighting against predators. Turned out to be one himself. They lurk where it is easily accessible to their victims.
I love the way that the fae are portrayed in the labyrinth, the regretful deal, the peach making her forget. I always love it when the fae are accurate and scary.
I mean... I'd normally fight them, buuuuut if they lookin' like David Bowie I wouldn't argue being spirited away
It's legit like all other fae lore from around the world.
Technically they are neither good or bad, they vary. You can look it up, its interesting. But a sinister one is good for the movie.
It's funny when the fairy bites her, and Hoggle acts like it is common sense that it would.
@@theflowerhead agreed I’ve done plenty of research. I was just saying that for the case of this particular fae.
In interviews with Brian Henson, he talks about the fact that his father specifically wrote this story as a cautionary tale about young women falling prey to predatory older men. He was a father whose youngest daughter was the same age as Sarah. Given what we know about Hollywood, his concerns make a lot of sense. The fact that so many people think this is a romance has always been strange to me. This is my favorite film and has been since I first saw it when I was 8. I never thought it was romantic.
Yeah, I've seen shippers go into tantrums online when it's brought up that Sarah canonically never loved him like that.
I'm the same. I never saw Bowie's character as a romantic figure: he was a kidnapper and cruelly tormented those below him. I never understood why anyone would think he was meant to be a positive romantic figure, he was clearly a predator
I first saw it when I was 15 and watched it over and over again and read the book around that age. When you also realize Jareth is patterned after her mother’s boyfriend and her mother is an actress (if I recall) who floats in those kinds of circles, it does speak even more volumes. This isn’t a romance and never was. It wasn’t meant to be. All that’s sparkly and beautiful isn’t kind and sweet. Now going to watch this video and going off of memories from nearly 35 years or so ago when I read the book. Maybe this will refresh me a little too.
I never knew this, I learned something new today. Thank you
I believe that. People have romanticized Lolita and that was never the author's intent.
I find the creep factor of the adult Goblin King appropriate. He is a Fae, so he doesn't have the same morals and/or understanding of right and wrong as mortals do. This works, I think, especially seeing as how appealing fae and other beings tend to be to teenagers (especially in folklore)
Yeah, humans and far have VASTLY different views. Humans are more ingrained in the order of their reality, Far are ingrained in the chaos of their irreality.
@@AmaryInkawult ooh, well said. I like the wording of their irreality
Also to his true age, every human would be shockingly young, so him having zero feel for it and having been alive for times, where 12 and 14 used to be adequate marriage ages for girls....
As an Irishman, I can confirm the Fae are massive JERKS.
or this is a story about something completely different.
A meaningful and terrifying quote that sticks out for me is "fear me, love me, do as I say, and I will be your slave." It sounds like so tempting a deal, to have someone powerful be at your beck and call, someone you would love to be with. But like all Fae deals, there is a catch. It is a way of gaining control through subservience, luring you into something much harder to escape. You gain something that could grant all you desire at the cost of your freedom and sense of self. It's full of contradictions and that is the point.
And I always loved that line because of the trap it really is, how tempting it is.
I was in a relationship with a narcissist, he said almost the exact same thing to me. I thought it was so strange. I told him I didn't want him to be my slave. But it was projection in the end, he wanted me to be his slave
Since having left my narcissistic former partner I've always had the sharpest pang of cringe from this line. He never said it so directly that I recall, but it is the reality of what he wanted.@@Aashka_The_Mystic
I love the use of the M.C. Escher style endless staircases to illustrate this Labyrinthine paradox.
I was in my teens when I watched the movie for the first time (it was a couple years after it came out) and I always thought that quote was weird. And weirdly predator like.
One extra detail that often goes unnoticed in the movie because it is so hidden away in the set dressing: there is a photo of the mom and Jeremy in Sarah’s bedroom… and Jeremy is also played by David Bowie.
I'm going to have a to rewatch until I find that
@@kohakuaiko It's at 10:46 in this video.
@@tomigun5180 I meant in the movie, but thank you for the timestamp.
Yess
Great catch!
Labyrinth is just perfect representation of the Celtic fables of the fey. The goblins waiting for Sara to say the exact right words, Toby being swapped with a changeling, Jareth offering Sara the crystal in exchange for her brother, him offering to give her brother back if she can complete the seemingly easy task of getting to his castle but it ends up being much more complicated than expected, the fact that to get what she wanted all she had to do was ask the worm or others the right questions, the fact that in Irish folklore you never eat food offered to you by the fey, (what happened with the peach is a perfect example of what happens.) and the obviously lopsided deal he offers in the end of the story. (Fear me, obey me, do as I say and I will be your slave) it sounds just like most lopsided deals the fey offer.
Brian and Wendy Froud were involved in all of this. They know more about Fae fables and myths than maybe anyone.
with regards to the deals...if you just listen to the words its not that hard.
As someone who reads a lot of folklore and has for many years; to deal with the Fairies safely just be a good person. They reward those who... How do I put this...? They reward the humble, kind, talented, generous people.
Where people kept getting caught off-guard was, well, because they thought that they were going to get away with what they were doing... And usually it was something self-serving, ie; the Human character was being selfish, self-centered and/or greedy. You get out of bad situations involving Fairies by simply not being greedy and/arrogant. It's the only consistent method that I've come across so far.
Regarding Changelings; I highly doubt that it would be for the very Human reasons cited in the stories... Or the idea that life among Humans would somehow be easier given the descriptions of their own realms. One of these days I'm going to have to write a story, or in Universe fable about it...
@@bluelunarmonkeytarot8533 Someone impatient or naive would only catch the "what's in it for them" part. Sarah stopping and considering what he says is a sign of how much she'd matured in the labyrinth.
@@ApsaraSilverwing from what i've read tho you can get into hot water w the fae even if you were 'humble' because firstly their terminology is different so you could get into a deal with one without realising it, i read "thank you" for example, locks you into a deal in which they've done something for you and now you owe them something.
the irish don't even say the word fae/faeries thats how cautious they are of them. so i personally wouldn't recommend having any kind of interaction with them, if you see them or they show themselves to you i would not engage. seeing as faeries have different morality to us i wouldn't let them be the judge of my character and give them power to dish out what they thought i deserved lol. they are self serving too.
i would look forward to your story tho, i've loved faeries since i was a child!
Nah the book didn't change my view on Jareth. It EXPANDED it. He's a fae, and he acts like it more in the book than he does in the film. Everything was more wild as true fae in the book. Nothing is ever as it seems with beings who hold vastly different views and concepts than you. However, David Bowie was an excellent choice for a film adaptation. He definitely has an otherworldly glow to him. While the film was watered down in terms of shock, he captured what a high ranking fae would actually look like.
lol the book is the adaptation
So, high ranked fae is supposed to wear 80s rockstar hairstyle?
@@jsmith6599 not exactly, it's not just looks with fae. It's about how they act. While some CAN look like an 80s hair metal himbo, others are quite literally trees. Jareth is shown as powerful and quite capable of warping his own realm, that is what I was getting at. The same with the "you have no power over me" scene. Fae only have as much power as you invite them to. And this includes names. Everything is a power tool to a fae. And they ain't shy of abusing their tools. Hence the ball scene, he tried to rob her of that pesky innocence. As much as there are ways of power to a fae, there is also ways to protect against them. He's powerful but also follows his own self imposed chaotic rules. Making him as much a force of nature than a villain. Which in the time of this film's era, Hair Metal had that otherworldly feel to it.
@@jsmith6599 It was supposed to mimic his owl form's plumage.
@@jsmith6599 It's written in their code and bylaws
9:45 Sarah, they behaved that way *because* you were innocent, because they knew they could take advantage of it.
I swear, I never knew a single teenager who is inocent, even being one myself I am not inocent
@@elderleon1844 *innocent, second off, define what you mean by innocent. Because, as a teen I knew about sex and the darkness of the world due to having parents who had horrible upbringings and wanted to shelter me, but I was Asexual and refused to do anything with anyone in my school thus I was technically a virgin but wasn't innocent minded. the way you wrote this just sounds creepy.
@@elderleon1844 Teenagers are so innocent especially bc they think they already know everything and are easy to manipulate since they don't have much experience with being alive and everything that goes with it.
That's why so many old creeps go after them.
I dunno, a Goblin being a creep checks out.
Yeah agreed
Also explains the tight trousers 😅
*Goblin slayer has entered the chat*
He's a pedo creepo in a kid's movie. But hey, it's a prepubescent girl imagining it in goblin form, unaware of how sick older men liking her truly is. So really, it's motivated by her own inclinations. Which is, although strange, somewhat realistic.
@@generallymexican8978 I was just about to make a Goblin Slayer comment. 😂
Its simple for me.
Jareth's interest in Sarah reminiscents that of a mythological god, say like Zeus, eying an attractive mortal and having their way with them.
In some stories, Fairies would also kidnap beautiful mortals and keep them as their kept lovers.
Sarah was just the first to boldly and bravely reject the advances of a powerfully supernatural pursuer.
Hopefully, he learns that's not the way to attract a woman.
Tell that to all the hardcore shippers out there, LOL.
@@imjessietr29 well, not all shippers are right.
Maybe she's not the first. It'd be hilarious if Jareth has to go through this over and over because he keeps getting rejected 😂
@@TheMormonSorceressIt depends on the woman, or the man for that matter. We are all individuals either our own set of desires, & tastes.
Her baby brother Toby represents her innocence. She decides to give it away, but then changes her mind, thus turning down Jared’s and taking her brother/ innocence back.
I always wondered why the brother was taken. This helps in my head cannon.
I think he represents her responsibilities as an older sibling, which she gives up to prolong the carefree spirit of her childhood.
@@moutinexeidwkei I always thought he was her tie to the mortal world. I was almost Sarah's age in the story when I first saw the movie, AND I had a baby brother at the time. He was like an anchor to home for me when things got stormy.
@@Sarappreciatesalso, faes are just known to take babies, as in this case, to extend their lives
@@Sarappreciates basically you're all correct. Toby's all of those things.
Aww, that message about her stepmother always being there for her - and her realizing who is a true parent to her - is really sweet.
It makes sense, too, because the entire mythical world is constructed from her imagination while failing to evolve from her premature state, and Sarah was kind of acting immature to her folks in the beginning.
Another reviewer did this movie, I think she's "The Fangirl" she talks about her her step mother didn't take her teddy bear away from her, she was hoping she'd play with Toby and bond with him. "You know you're getting old when you relate more to the parents in these movies"
@@misspinkpunkykat Oh, you mean the baby brother didnt take her teddy bear away from her - it was her step mom who put it in her brother's room to get them to play together?
"It's only forever. Not long at all." Only one of my favorite lines. Despite the over all creep factor of this story, I have loved this movie since I was little.
My interpretation as a kid watching this was that everything he said or did with Sarah was in the service of getting her to forget about Toby. That all of the seduction was just to make her cave and forget the task at hand. I never considered that he had any genuine feelings for her at all
I thought he was fascinated by her.
Like a kid would be fascinated with new shiny toy.
tbf no adult (and jareth is adult-coded) has ever had genuine feelings for a minor
@@bobob9969 Well, I agree, but there are people who think he was in love with her or something
What I love about this movie is that it can be layered enough to have several interpretations. On a deeper level, we can use it as an allegory for girlhood and growing up. Or we can see it as both allegorical and about Jareth tricking Sarah into forgetting Toby. Then, there’s the added layer of those who want to apply fae lore into the story, and view Jareth as the archetype of fae “stealing”, seducing , deceiving mortal girls/women.
@@ScarletVoodoo the ones who take it all at face value
In original Fae mythology, the Faeries only live a couple thousand years, so that’s likely why Jareth started to feel his age. He was running out of time, and human souls can help restore their timeline.
In what culture exactly? Also what myths??
In Tam Lin the Faerie Queen pays a tithe to hell in the form of a human’s soul.
@@seed_drill7135 that's not exactly evidence of them aging...
There isnt an original Fae mythology. The stories come from different regions over different time periods and it's not always even clear what creatures are "Fae" as opposed to other mythological creatures.
@@NatashazDean917 ah..so your definition of "the original fae mythology" comes from The 70s
Nice.
I think what it boils down to though, is that we're supposed to see the movie much in the same way as the 1939 Wizard of Oz movie (one of the first movies Jim Henson ever saw as a child, and we even see the book in a very early scene). Sarah is a young woman caught between wanting to be seen as a mature young woman, but still holding on to beloved childhood objects.
I remember being pretty much the same way at that age, and I would watch Labyrinth and Legend and Company of Wolves and Ever After on a constant rotation. I had massive crushes on Bowie and Tim Curry in high school lol (and don't get me started on Colin Firth as Mr. Darcy)
It's such a tricky age to capture, but when done well it really resonates for sure! (Also Colin Firth IS the best Darcy)
@abitfrank have you read the first screenplay draft by Terry Jones? It's very different from both the book and the movie, so there must have been a lot of cooks in the kitchen here. I think most of his contributions to the end product ended up being things like the Worm and the Door Knockers.
@@abitfrankamen!
Ha! I saw you in the comments to another video (don't remember what it was anymore, but it's always nice to see a familiar fa-... er, avatar).
Same crushes here too 😅. Especially Mr. Darcy ❤.
Jareth: "Hoggle, if she kisses you, I'll turn you into a prince."
Hoggle: "You will?"
Jareth: "THE PRINCE OF THE LAND OF STENCH!"
Someone was clearly jealous
XD
Poor hogs breath..I mean Hoggle.
@@anastasia-fr1gn "Higgle--:
"*Hoggle*😤"
"Yes 🙄"
My fav exchange in the movie
“Oh vould you leeesten to this crrrrrap!”
He ACTUALLY followed up on that threat. And I don't mean in the movie.
"Such a pity."
and
"You say that so often; I wonder what your basis for comparison is."
I remember Lindsay Ellis reviewing the movie and explaining that for herself and countless other girls, this movie was their sexual awakening. And as a straight man, I see it. Bowie commands your attention every moment he's on screen
I was pretty young when I saw this movie and bowie definitely caught my attention with that cod piece.
@violetdusk1968 there's no cod piece..
It's a leotard and not much else.
It was more than just an awakening in the usual sense for many.
The scenes have a sexually predatory undercurrent to them (especially the ballroom) and you feel like the main character is powerless.
For the majority of the film the only request/order she gives is 'No/stop' but the majority of characters never follow it.
The friends she found along the way give her agency to set boundaries and so she lets them in emotionally- freezing out the ones that won't respect that or try to shift the blame to her for things they did.
This movie was able to show a lot of little girls in a way no parent could ever teach them that by simply existing as an adult- they would need to be on guard from their own Jareths.
I mean, who didn't have a little awakening triggered by David Bowie ?
@lococomrade3488 Well-known fact of movie was it was a cod piece. that tight of pants, you would be able to see the outline of everything.
My older sister took me to see this movie when it was in theaters. I had a baby brother at the time, and my family structure wasn't much different than the movie. I encountered an older man around the same time, and I discovered a million and one reasons to revisit the "stranger danger" topic with teenagers. My "Jareth" was in his late 20s, and a friend introduced us, so I didn't realize he was still a stranger. My "Jareth" is in prison for life now. I wasn't his first, but I was his last. That's what Labyrinth means to me.
I'm sorry that happened to you, this is why we can't just teach stranger danger alone, we need to teach people how to identify predatory behaviour from family, friends and acquaintances as they are more likely to assault you than a stranger
@@valkyriedarquese All I can say is that when you reach a certain age, the lures aren't candy or clowns, but shopping and adult conversation, hearing, "You're so mature for your age!" is a huge red flag for me when I hear people say it to kids nowadays. That's the line that got me. The "lures" have to do with being seen as intelligent enough to make one's own decisions until it's too late to make any decisions at all.
@@Sarappreciates Yes that's a classic grooming technique, telling victims they're so special and different and mature for their age. I was well educated as a child and that included well educated against all grooming behaviour so I could spot this and turn it back on creeps, but other girls my age? they fell hook line and sinker because their parents and society didnt teach them :(
yes, this movie is so traumatizing for me imo. the ick factor is like 100000000. it displays predator behavior perfectly. I just wish that it was discussed more that Jareth *is* a predator because for some reason young girls don't seem to grasp that despite a literal monster stealing away the MC's brother, trying to kidnap/SA her, and then turning into a monster when the MC says no. like society has warped girls' minds.
Hot.
0:38 that's not what happens. The labyrinth is Sarah's construct, Jareth is there because he's 'safe' - this is the world she creates to confront all her own coming-of-age issues. As Jareth tells her, he's only frightening because she made him that way. As she says, he never had any power.
It's both. It's real AND her creation. It's paradoxical, and that's why it's so good
@@LenaFerrari that raises the question of what 'real' means. All the things she sees in the Labyrinth are things she imagined, based on things in her real life - even Jareth, and time flows differently - she's in the labyrinth for about 5 hours of real time and about 13 hours of labyrinth time. Even though we see Sarah's friends in the room at the end, we don't see anyone else see them... every indication is that they only exist in her own imagination.
@@MichaelJohnson-kq7qgyes thats exactly what makes it all a PARADOX! imaginary vs reality. fun fact: pardoxes are what make the world go round. ever watch the disney cartoon of sword and the stone!?
@@bluelunarmonkeytarot8533I'm glad I'm not the only person who understands paradoxes make the world go round!
Kudos!
So basically she accidently gave him power by believing that he was real or by believing he truly had power in the first place which in turn actually did give him power?
I think my favorite variation on the movie is a partially filmed ending where Jareth smiles at her while the throws the glass ball at the end. That he was always just trying to teach her a lesson on strength.
👀There's cut footage from Labyrinth around?
My German vhs version had the smile and throw ending, it also looked like his realm was in the ball or the ballroom and it shattered. That's why I never saw it negatively, he taught her life lessons and went away. Maybe it's his favourite game, testing young humans and watch delightful what they do. Like a child watching an ant and putting rocks and sticks in it's way..
Ooooh where can I see it??@@StrangeQuack
@@veronika4870 come over with a vhs player and I rummage through the storage
@@StrangeQuack I think I have two different dvd releases, and now I wish I had something to play them on again so I can see if there's a difference in versions. (I always thought I imagined him smiling, because he clearly wasn't all that upset)
Nothing?! NOTHING?! NOTHING, TRA LA LA!
He really did have the best line deliveries
This is mine, too. 😂
Why does Hoggle have to be so close to his crotch during that part?
Jareth: Higgle...
Sarah: Hogwart!
Hoggle: Hoggle!!
Love that scene, I died😂💀
It doesn't change anything for me. He is fae and they are hundreds of years old. Known to lure humans of all ages off. They can be tricksters, and a peach wiping the memory is pretty normal also. Lore says partaking in fae food or drink is basically like a memory wipe or long drug trip where you lose all sense of time.
I've known since I saw the movie as a young child that it was a fae kidnapping a human....or trying to. That actually appealed to my child self. I'd have given anything to have had the chance Sarah did when I was younger than the character Sarah.
It was the escape from my childhood hell. I was actually obsessed with fae because their stories usually involved kidnapping humans and leaving them in a trance, basically making them numb. Always sounded better than what I was living through. 🤷♀️
So there's really no change other than the book adding the mom's bf ick factor. That I'm glad wasn't overly covered in the movie.
But any story with fae and humans the age gap is huge. Bigger than a humans life expectancy to begin with. Hell, they look like 5 and be 1000. So the fae part doesn't creep me out.
Edit: favorite quote...
"Things aren't always what they seem in this place, so you can't take anything for granted." From the Ello worm
And song lyric
"It's only forever, not long at all."
I originally watched this aged 11. I have seen it many times since and I don’t find it disturbing. Sarah isn’t sexualised in the movie and the male lead isn’t human. It’s coming of age side is subtle. It is literally Sarah’s fantasy. It’s frightening, it’s heady, it’s confusing, glamorous, sordid,dangerous etc. A book would hit different.
The impression I always got was that Jareth is meant to be her teenage fantasy version of her mother's boyfriend, whom she had a crush on, the whole adventure being a dream.
The entire analysis of the Ball Scene now reminds me of Sweeney Todd; how Mrs. Lovette explains what happened to Lucy Barker - Benjamin's wife. The fact that Beadle Bambford comes to her, claiming that Judge Turpin wishes to apologize for his behavior toward her. Beadle takes her to the Judge's house, where there is a Masquerade Ball going on, at which the Judge seizes the opportunity while under a mask, to force himself onto her; and the other attendees of the ball just laugh at the display.
This sends the idea that these Masquerades were done purely for promiscuity; it was most likely that in addition to wearing masks, recreational drugs were also used, and most of the attendees there probably assumed that Lucy and the Judge were just _hooking up._ So it could very well be likely that young girls could fall victim to such a thing at some of these parties.
But in a lot of ways, the book helps put things into perspective for me. Granted, I know that all of this is metaphorical cause it's Sarah's fantasy, but the trick is to figuring out how the jagged pieces fit together in the puzzle.
I like that they give Jareth his own character arc in that he fears he's getting old, which is why he takes Toby - I feel like its a reference to a Manga Sequel that Labyrinth received, that follows Toby as the main antagonist, now as a pre-teen boy. The idea being that in that story, Jareth has named Toby as his Heir and wants him to inherit the throne of the Goblin King. So in a sense, this story is doing the same thing; Jareth wants an heir to raise and mold in his image so that he can retire in peace.
Then there's Sarah. Jareth is intrigued by her because she can defy him. She's too old to turn into a Goblin like he can do with Toby, but she's also too young for him to seduce and keep her - whether it be as a consort or maybe even make her into his queen, so that she can produce heirs for him. It's like you said; she's so young that she hasn't really experienced those kinds of things as of yet.
So this explains the ball scene. It's fascinating to consider what Jareth is doing. In the movie, without the context, we can only infer that he's doing it to try and distract Sarah long enough to run-out the clock. But with this context, you realize that Jareth was trying to get them _both._ Not only was he trying to run-out time so that he could keep Toby, but also that he was trying to keep Sarah as well. The ball was meant to corrupt Sarah, and introduce her to the world of the lascivious, thus awakening those urges within her. If she had succumbed, then Jareth would have power over her and he would have won.
It doesn't really change how I view the ball scene cause I more or less saw it in a similar way already; but it gives me more context that I can appreciate. It also somewhat explains why Jareth seems forlorn when Sarah makes it to the castle and he confronts her in the MC Esher staircase room. He wants her to stay because he believes they can create something beautiful together, but at the same time, he knows that she can't stay; she is not corrupted and he is powerless to corrupt her. And I think part of his sadness comes from the fact that because he is so corrupt, he cannot entice her to stay. Therefore, literally, he and Sarah cannot exist in the same world.
Excellent analysis! Have you seen the official video of As the World Falls Down? I think it is a true fit for your ending sentence. 😊
His monologue at the end was very music a desperate last-ditch effort, especially as she's reciting the play's lines and ignoring him.
5:11 - I'm pretty sure that she says "You should have dates at your age." This is important because it keeps her age slightly more ambiguous.
Yup.
Meaning she is a teenager. Not a kid anymore but not adult either.
Connelly was what, 15 when she filmed this? I think they cast exactly the right person. Actually all the casting was great, admittedly mostly voiceactors.
@@zimriel Yes, but that's still not as canonical as a character explicitly stating her age would be.
@@zimrielConnelly was 14, actually.
A few months ago Cinema Therapy did a video on this movie. Normally their content is great, analyzing characters and stories in movies and relating them to things like therapy, self-worth, and self-growth. But their video on this movie wasn't very good. They didn't like the movie, so they just kept making fun of it. In particular, they kept going on about how Sara and Jareth's relationship was not real love, it was just creepy and illegal.
The backlash was significant, however. Everybody pointed out to them that was the whole point of the movie. Jareth is the villain. Villains do villainous things, after all. And everybody pointed out that the movie was about Sara's self-growth, learning that this was not a healthy relationship.
I'm glad that I stopped watching them before they did that movie. Can't remember which one it was, but it was so obvious that they uploaded the best parts only to Patreon, since the YT version was very bland and the analyze wasn't very analytic at all. Which was sad because it was a great movie/character which would be perfect for their type of analyzing.
Doesn't surprise me if they have gotten even worse, I'm sad to say. How could they miss the point of this movie that bad?
@@Elora445 actually, I feel like they've gotten much better since then. They took down their Labyrinth video, and issued a public apology for it. They still haven't taken down the apology, either. I haven't been able to watch every video they've released since then, but I've watched most of them, and I feel like they've improved.
You don't have to go back to them if you don't want to. Just because they've improved, doesn't mean they never crossed a boundary you felt should never be crossed.
Besides, that would make me a huge hypocrite. I've unsubscribed from a number of content creators for the very same reasons.
Surprising of them, how can you miss the point of this film?? 😳
Not to mention the "love" was only ever one way! Sarah didnt ever see him as anything other than a person who was making her life harder, and the only time she looked like she might be wavering, she was literally drugged. CinemaSins sounds like they were just going for straight rage bait!
I stopped watching them when they insisted that Better Help, a well-known sh!tty company at this point, was completely okay. Please click the link so we can get more money off a bad company who preys on people desperate for help. You can trust us! One of us is a licensed therapist!
It was just really gross.
Those magic pants held nothing back.
Pants! Magic pants!
Um, no, i've seen the movie.And they're definitely holding something back.
That accidentally sock really changed the vibe.
Did that thing have its own credit in the movie? 😮😅
@@SchizoGeniuspants magic, pants magic pants magic, pants magic put that magic spell on me!
As a kid watching this I understood why Jim Hansen did this. The Goblin King represented that weird combination of power and authority and danger that parts of our culture encourage young woman to be attracted to and instead of giving in and her love "changing him" (which is unrealistic) the young girl in the story rejects the allure, a healthier option. I get exactly why he would want that narrative told.
“You have no power over me.”
Also, I’d really like it if you were to consider a Creepy Origins video on “Bluebeard”, please.
Shes already talked about Bluebeard
@@RiveroftheWither , I know she’s brought him up, but I don’t think that she’s discussed his origins. Plus, she has read the original fairytale.
Guilles de Rais
You remind me of the babe (what babe?)
Babe with the power (what power?)
Power of voodoo (who do?)
You do (do what?)
Remind me of the babe
I saw my baby
Trying hard as babe could try
What could I do ?
My understanding is the goblin kingdom is a reflection of the real world - I haven’t read the book in a really long time but I’m sure there’s a description of Jeremy wearing essentially what wearing what we see Jareth in - the story is her essentially working through teenage stuff, her attraction to her mothers boyfriend etc
I always liked Sir Didymus and his cowardly steed Ambrosius
He reminds me of Basil Brush.
Me too! 😅
Of course, the name essentially means Sir Testicle
Our family dog reminds me of Didimus sometimes 😄💖
From what I have seen lately about the movie, David Bowie wouldn't allow things to happen in the movie that were just too creepy. One thing he was against was Jareth kissing Sarah.
The same guy that slammed a 13 year old called lori mattox?
And her friend, too.
I always found Sarah to feel neglected by her family in the movie, which probably makes her fantasize of someone who does everything for her, this being Jareth. In the film we see her father wont even 'break down her door even though he wants to talk to her', which is most likely why she hoards and lives so much in her fantasies, as an escape. But in the Labyrinth, Sara realizes she cant just escape constantly to this realm because people like Jareth will take advantage of that, so she learns to take her power back and matures in that way. By the end, she talks to her own fantasies to remind them that theyre not gone or broken up, but that shell only come back to them in times of need
It's creepy that Jareth's character blended protective and possessive behaviors in such a way that it is difficult for those who don't know to identify which it is, and easy to confuse possessive and manipulative with what is truly not protective behavior.
Particularly with the scene of Jareth's "owl form" showing up at the end, it always seemed to me that he did all of that to give her the gift of the adventure she craved from her books. He goes over that at one point when he confronts her about how he was exhausted with living up to her expectations.
I remember that line.
exactly. girls want to be seduced by older men its natural.
It was a warning to girls on the edge of adulthood, to be wary of older men (or even males their own age) who want them to make adult leaps before they’re ready.
Labyrinth is an insane coming of age/sexual awakening story. I'm happy I havent read the book. The ball room description reminds me of the Theater of Vampires scene in Interview with a Vampire and how the humans are so enthralled.
I'm surprised the weird sequel book series didn't have another Jareth/Sarah romance angle.
Interestingly enough, Jareth is (at least in my interpretation) much like Armand, who wanted Louis to be his companion because he felt disconnected from the world, being an old vampire or something like that... long lives tend to take a toll in the mind it seems...
If you mean the return to labyrinth manga yeah it did. Sarah just realized that they both had responsibilities and that if they ran off together Labyrinth would collapse in on itself. But it was still there, hence the kiss scene.
It also reminded me of vampires--the focus on blood, both the baby's and Sarah's.
@@jokerlyzermedia6603This movie has a MANGA ?
@@Nameless-ny8nk yeah! Its actually intriguing. Everyone returns! And Jareth LITERALLY crowned Hoggle prince of the land of stench 🤣
The book definitely adds a creep factor, but it was always there. You were just lost in Bowies charm, which is fitting, as his character was a Fae.
If you look closely, Sarah’s mom is dating a character played by David Bowie in the movie, you can see the photo on the mirror and some in the scrapbook.
I read the "romance" in this movie the same way as the "romance" in Phantom of the Opera. It’s not a good relationship, and you,re supposed to root AGAINST it.
I don't think "root against" is exactly how I'd put it?? Like, most of the women I know (and Andrew Lloyd Webber himself if you count the awful sequel) write and read Christine/Phantom fanfiction.
But the whole point of the story is that he's a bad evil man and it'd be very bad if she actually had ended up with him and we all know it? It's a hard feeling to explain. But that's dark romance/fantasy for you. I love them, but I'd have had a fit if the original story had them getting together because it would have been a bad story.
Labyrinth is a story about that critical moment right before adulthood. To where sarah tests her bounderies. Experiencing the possibility of advances from an older man is testing her. See if she's ready to be an adult.
Always stopping before anything ever got too far. Sarah always realized shes not ready on her own.
Jerrith made everything a choice and allowed sarah freewill.
I wouldn't put any more into the film than what is presented.
Ok but hear me out . . . If David Bowe shows up at my house in that outfit, I may have to go with him 😅
We are all going, and we know it, lol.
I was, like, 3 or 4 when my mom showed us this back in the early 90s and I remember her commentary on how she'd totally say "eff you all, I'm going with the Goblin King" and we just laughed our butts off cause it was the funniest thing we had heard. But we totally agreed. =P
The writers of screenplay novelizations often bring their own interpretations to the story, and I don't think you can get this one from the movie itself.
If you lay aside the distraction of Bowie's tight pants, the message is more that he is there as the opponent/guide that you find in some versions of the Hero's Journey. He is like Cerridwen in the tale of Taliesin, or Merlin in The Once And Future King, who provides challenges for the Hero/ine to encounter and grow through.
One part of the challenge may be sexual. However, there is another way of interpreting the ballroom scene. It is the false distraction of frivolous romance. Just because Jared is the masculine focus for this, it does not mean that he is interested in Sarah from a sexually predator's point of view. The words that he utters in the final conflict reveal that he is there to test her and he is at least partly aware of his role.
There is no love story in this movie; Jared exists as an archetype. There is no reward for him. If Sarah loses, he has failed, and she will go on into a future of insipid immaturity. This encounter is a sort of divine intervention, designed to deflect her away from a life of petty selfishness. Looked at from this angle, Jared is a heroic being, who seizes the opportunity of Sarah's cry to the goblins to teach her a valuable and life changing lesson.
so basically from this angle, The Labyrinth would serve a sort of ""modern"" variation of a Grimm fairytale. A dark challenge set to teach the protagonist (often a young, naïve child) a lesson to nudge them in the direction of maturity
@@itsClaptrap I think the 'Hero's Journey' aspect of this makes it less of a push towards conformity and more a source of empowerment. There is very much a sense of Sarah discovering her powers as she makes her way through the Labyrinth. In other tales, the ending amounts to rebirth. Most obviously with Gwyddion, who is consumed by Cerridwen and is literally reborn as Taliesin. And the hero/ine often comes forth as a person of special purpose after their transformation, even if in Sarah's case it is just a step towards becoming a more fully empowered woman.
"The Strange, hot, faery man." I cackled.
I just thought it was about growing up and letting go of childish things. One of those childish things is a mysterious stranger offering to take you away from your perceived problems. Also there could be some parallels to a poem called goblin market about goblins selling "fruit"
I've always seen the movie as following the "Man versus Self" plot; after all, everyone, from the Worm to Jareth does everything Sara ASKS them to do, even if what she ASKS isn't what she WANTS. It was a story of a little girl in a teenager's body maturing emotionally into a young woman in a teenager's body.
The book, from what I've learned in this video, sounds like it is a blend of "The novelization of the film" and "Rewriting Lolita into the fantasy genre."
The book was the original idea for the story before they changed it. There's a video of it online. Bowie even had a double role as the mum's boyfriend.
@@keanucool6723and it’s very clear in the photo on her vanity. It wasn’t a rewriting of anything, right? But it gave more explanation.
Its not re-writing lolita, it also explores that maturing comes with romantic and sexual awakenings; and that adult men are often predatory to young women and girls.
I wouldn’t say labyrinth re-writes Lolita at all, Lolita being written from the view of Humbert Humbert, where in that novel we read the distortion of the kidnapping and exploitation of Delores through her abuser’s eyes-he calling her Lolita, his ‘nymphet seductress’ not the person she really is, the 12 year old Delores. Very much not a coming of age story, as Humbert would want us to believe, but a cautionary tale showing the illusionary power of predators to hide behind pretty words to spin their abuse as conventional romance. What they do is so horrible to look in the eye that the people around them take their word at face value. And maybe the similarity lies in that what’s being presented to us is a fantasy, however the person constructing it wouldn’t be analogous to Sarah, actively wanting the reader to also take on his accounts of events.
The ballroom scene always scared me because I always felt the dancers were really screaming under their laughter 😮
it was meant to make you feel lost, confused, and helpless in a sea of mocking strangers who, you're right, might not want to be there either
You should do the never ending story book version. That is so much darker and I have been ruining childhoods with those revelations since I read it in middle school. I love the movie even more for having read the book even if it never reveals the true villian
The rock-biter's name has been randomly just inserting itself into my thoughts for decades now thanks to that book. I've literally worn out two copies. ♡
I agree 100%! I love telling people how much deeper and darker the books are. I read it at least once a year and I am 35! I always find something new to contemplate and debate about. Such a mind trip!
As a child, the Labyrinth was fun but filled with confusing themes. Watching it as a grown adult its all so clear, especially the masquerade scene. Its a brilliant movie to grow up watching bc you become Sarah in a way.
You should check out over the garden Wall. Trust me I think you would really enjoy it.
Lol yes
Omg yess such a lovely cartoon and love the storyline 🥰🎃🐦🐸
Every Autumn time I marathon this with a big cup of tea and a knitting project! Such a cozy show.
Oh yes, such a beautiful story, 😊 I know she's going to love it
bro i'm pretty sure she has
Finally, someone gets that it is a coming of age story and that the Labyrinth was created by Sarah's mind, which is why a sequel should not have any of the original characters, because she already grew up. We would need a new protaganist and their subsequent mind world to navigate. This is also my all time favorite movie ever. I love the Fierys.
I remember reading somewhere that she isn't the first Sarah. That the Goblin King is forever searching for a Sarah that wants to be rid of her little brother, but none of the other Sarah manage to get through the maze in time. That all the goblins used to be human children. The way she meets Hoggle, he's completely unsurprised to see her, and when she states her name, "that's what I thought".
David Bowie in this film... Hooo boi, is it hot in here for anyone else?
Oh he DEFINITELY made the temperature rise 🤭
his "ever expanding spandex" 😋 🍻
unironically my bi awakening frfr...
My favourite quote from Labyrinth: "Smell... Baaaad!"
"Rocks Ludo's friends :D"
Mine was when they break out into that song.
You remind me of the babe. WHAT BABE!?
The concept behind the labyrinth is simply that a young lady growing up does not want to give up her childhood. In the fit of rebellion she rejects her new responsibilities and wishes that her little brother would just go away.
The story is nothing more than the tale of a young lady growing up and turning away from her fantasy world. Although the ending allows her to keep a little bit of that nonetheless it was the moral point of the movie.
I previously thought the ending with Sarah inviting her friends to her room was a rushed metaphor for regressing into her childhood, rather than growing up. But your video gave me some deeper insight.
If what you say is true, Jareth and the obstacles he throws Sarah's way are a metaphor for the memories of her biological mother, and the glitzy glammy world she abandoned her family for.
By that logic, the friends Sarah made could possibly signify Sarah making peace with her stepmother, and understanding she's not the wicked step-parent she paints her as.
Yes, i think it's also that you can grow up and mature and still have childish joy and love but in a more balanced way
Sarah always loved fantasy and playing pretend. The Labyrinth friends at the end mean that although she goes through self maturation, it doesn’t mean she has to let those things go completely. 😊
I remember kid's movies being way edgier and scarier back in the '80s. In many ways, that's a good thing IMO, because many children are forced to grow up fast and often don't have friends their age to breach such grownup subjects with in order to explore, leaving them to feel ostracized from both their own age group and adults that may be able to help. But, much like the old fairy tales, the stories can delve into the unnerving aspect of things that kids don't always have the vocabulary or lived experience to frame into the kind of questions that they may or may not fell comfortable asking to their parents or other trust-worthy adults for answers.
Yes, some of the content for kids in the '80s was pretty dark, but still extremely tame compared to the original versions of the old fairy tales that were used to warn children about the real and disturbing dangers of the world around them, albeit in the form or shape of monsters. A good way to frame the real monsters of our lives. There are some good real-world comparisons to the baddies of those old stories. Some might find them a bit much for kids, but, then, so can be their own real day-to-day lives, out in the world, or sadly, even at home.
Aligory is a strong teaching tool for sensitive subject matter. And, some subjects are a litle too harmful to just come right out and explain outright. These illusive tales can help open some windows to let in the air, to see if the discussion needs to be had, now, or can be left to discuss at a later time.
And, the memories of these stories can linger, so that if a child finds themselves in a questionable situation in the future, they have something to compare and make some connections that might otherwise not click in a moment of judgment. The need to shelter kids from some realities of life can be a hindrance to their growth, ability to learn, and ability to protect themselves, and kids understand a lot more than some parents give them credit for. Letting them be a little scared is ok. Some kids need to learn a little fear to keep them from getting into situations they shouldn't be in.
I think The Labrenth did a pretty fantastic job of addressing some very adult concepts that are unavoidable for someone, especially young girls coming of age. One could argue that 15 is even a little too late for some girls to be warned about the intentions of boys and some men in this day and age. Knowledge is power, and girls need to know what to look out for by the time they're 11 or 12... sadly.
It's like we've fallen back to the olden days when young girls were married off to rich land owners at the age 10 or 12, only it's not only an arranged marriage, but, any random creep out there who might try to take advantage that they need to be afraid of today. Some humans have always been monsters. That's why such dark stories even exist.
Unfortunately in some cases, not even 11 or 12 is soon enough... I was being molested by the time I was 8. And you're right. Some humans have always been monsters... I lived with one until I was 17, sadly...
@@shadoewater I can't even begin to imagine what that must have been like for you. 8-years-old? My God!?! I am so sorry.😧
It angers the hell out of me to even think about.🤬
I'm glad, at least, that you were able to get away from that. And, I hope you've been able to heal from it in some way. 🥺
I think that people sometimes have a hard time understanding that "protecting" children means more than just shielding them from the world, and the harsh realities of life. The more a child knows, the better off they'll be when faced with bad situations.
Kids are way more clever and understand vastly more than most "grown-ups" hardly ever give them credit for. Shielding them, more often than not, makes it harder for them to adapt and deal with things.
I can't express enough how sorry I am that you went through such a thing.
My heart goes out to you. Truly.
💔❤🩹❤❣
@wirelesmike73 I appreciate it. :) Unfortunately the story gets worse before it gets better. The person was my stepfather, and I was 17 before my mom understood what was actually going on and how bad it was. I had to wait until she and I were actually, truly alone before I could tell her the full story, because he always found a way to stay near us and prevent me from telling her anything. I'm almost 30 now, and still working on healing... But making progress. I have a toddler son, and I love him to bits. ❤️ Working on trying to get at least primary custody of him, since my neglectful ex currently has that and I get visits... One stupid mistake on my part because I panicked while leaving, and the court ruled in his favor. 🥲 But we'll get there... He's 2 and a half and already showing signs that he prefers to be here with Mama. He RUNS to the door when he sees that I've arrived to pick him up for the weekend. He just stands there when my ex comes to get him.
@@shadoewater Abuse is all too often primarily about control over their target, and abusers always strive to maintain that control. I hate that it took so long to find your moment. I'm just glad that your mom, ultimately, believed you when you were finally able to get the full story across. Sadly, that is often not the case. I'm not even going to voice what horrible, heinous things I hope befell him. There is no punishment that could even come close to being enough.
As for the future, I wish you a speedy ruling in your favor. I hope you get your boy back. Best of luck to you, both. ⚖✊🖖
Never forget that we are our own worst critics. But, no mater what anybody else says, or how down on yourself you may sometimes feel, even at your weakest, you're stronger than you think.
@@shadoewater Just remember to tell yourself you were the victim. Live life the best you can and show he has no power over you and you will have been the winner. These are words my mom swears by. She had us 3 kids and says we made her world amazing despite the trauma she went through being molested by her uncle from the age of 2 until she was 5. We live in the PNW away from most our family cause they blamed her for being touched and took our great-uncle's side. She fought to keep him in prison and they let him out but last I heard he relapsed a 3rd time and hopefully this will be the last time they let him out.
In the scene when she is in the pit with all the hands holding on to her. Who else had the thought that maybe one of them might try something inappropriate with her? At first I thought I might just have a messed up head, but after hearing all these excerpts from the book, I’m started to rethink that.
One of them kind of does. One of the hands resides under or almost right on her breast
To this day that scene makes me uncomfortable. You are not alone. My daughter also feels the same way.
yes
as sadly we see foten when females surf a crowd: many take advantages.
Helping hands, or an eternal fall into the abyss. The choice is yours to make sweet child, & she chose down!! 😂
@@bryanmiller8604 I loved the behinds the scenes for that and Brian Henson explaining the idea they were going for. That and him explaining the intricacies of the eyes in the animatronic puppets.
I’m a linguistic anthropologist and I loved this analysis of labyrinth. Many don’t want to discuss such subject material in relation to children’s media so thank you for your courage and wisdom.
I once bought a really cringy book called Nerds, Geeks, and Dorks or something like that which explained movie and comic references as well as gave advice. (It was a weird book) I'll never forget that the section on Labrynth was about how being a female geek could be difficult (the book mostly referenced guy geeks). The quote I will never foregt was "like Sarah you have to remember your not just the babe your the babe with the power". I think about the quote a lot when in sketchy situations because while being female comes with challenges we can choose say no and remove ourselvesfrom dangerous or preditory situations (if other people respect that decision is another thing unfortunately).
Labrynth has always been a deeply feminist movie for me in that way. Sarah has power, but unlike other films its not a sword or spells but her right to choose, and that's so powerful.
Sorry for the rambling response I'm just glad someone else has seen this movie in the same light.
"You'll never see the infamous ballroom scene the same way again."
Me (in horror): Is it an orgy?
When the valse (waltz) was introduced to France, the joke was "why bother with the music?".
I'm dead.. 😂😂😂
I have so many thoughts about the movie. I've never read the book. But I think a lot of the insinuated scenes definitely make me feel differently as an adult than they ever did as a teenager who was mostly oblivious to the world and hadn't been subjected to the way older men can prey on young girls.
As a teen, I simply considered it a great dark fairy tale and swooned over Jareth like everyone else, because who wouldn't want a very powerful and hot fae king to lavish them with attention and promise them their dreams if they just feared them, loved them and did as they said?
As an adult, I find it to be an extremely well told story of a young girl wanting to be seen as a grown woman but also still just a child who isn't ready for that yet, and how she comes to terms with her life, her own naivete, and how others will use her innocence of both the world and physicality against her until she's willing to stand up for herself and take her power into her own hands. And using an imagined world where all the obstacles she encountered were her own machinations and she was never in any real danger was a great way to safely explore it while still getting the point across that growing up is filled with mixed emotions and perils that can have some very confusing and, often, unwanted experiences.
There is also the manga which explores the future of the baby in the movie being all grown up and brought back into the labyrinth to take over as Jareths replacement as the goblin king.
You should check it out as it's super interesting
My mum loves this movie so much, and it rubbed off on me to such a degree it made me a Bowie fan and it's a big nostalgic mood for me. Seeing the book passages certainly makes it more overt, I already had questions about the themes in the movie.
I'm still enchanted by the ballroom scene though, I even want to dance to the song when I marry my girlfriend. I think the fact it sold the fantasy to me makes me question a little bit about myself, but when viewed as a commentary of the fantasies of a teenage girl I suppose it on some level makes sense that I was at the time, and in some ways still would, be willing to accept it. It's a bit conflicting.
"Come inside and meet the missus" - Just a worm
Its been one of my all time favorites since I was 5
According to to Minty Comedic Arts video on the movie, there was an unused script in which Jared would give Sarah an ultimatum. She should stay and be his queen as he'd rather have that than a little goblin prince. Supposedly she called him a miserable creep, punches him in the face and kicks him in the shin. In this version Jared was actually a goblin and this loss of standing due to her resisting his charms causes him to revert into a snivelling little goblin form who says "why does everything happen to me".
Woo! Another Minty fan in the wild
Oh I was waiting for this, specifically as someone who watched it for the first time as a kid well after most people forgot about it (mid 00's).
Now i've got to rewatch it... Maybe also The NeverEnding Story and Flight of the Navigator while i'm at it.
So I've read the book too and I see it a bit differently as regards to Sarah & her step-monster. Sarah was not spoiled and selfish, she was mentally and emotionally abused by a step-monster and a father who didn't love her. Who saw her as trash. They wouldn't have noticed if she was gone. If I had been in her place and treated as poorly as she was, I would've told Jareth that I would stay under the condition he returned Toby since that was the only child step-monster and her "father" (and I used that term loosely since his one scene in the book proves he didn't care one bit about her) loved.
That's kind of how I saw it as well, when I saw the movie. But I haven't read the book yet. Still I think I agree more with your interpretation.
You realize that the point of the entire story is to be careful what you wish for? How each time Sarah complained that something wasn't fair, it was in fact very much fair, and usually the result of what she asked for? Aside from her mom walking out on her, Sarah's world only seems unfair because she is a teenager and therefore has little control over her circumstances, but that doesn't mean she's being treated unfairly (again, aside from her mom leaving.) Sarah was most certainly not abused in any way, either in the book or the movie. Not sure which Labyrinth movie you watched...
They really should’ve included that in the movie
@@reb9719 Neglect is a form of abuse.
@reb9719 they watched Disney movies where every stepmother is horrible. They are in the same fantasy world as Sarah.
Honestly, I never saw it like this till I got older. I had a massive crush on Jareth as a kid, but I guess it shows it worked. I still love Jareth so much. This was such a great video as I never read the book, but I want to. There's a really good fanfic called "That William's Girl" where Sarah is an adult with a toxic family and Jareth is more monster/fae-like. It's so good and I really recommend it!
There's a fan theory that all of the goblins the goblins are just children disfigured by age. They are past children given up by other "Sarah"s. His aging placed into the children but also magical lands keeping them alive perhaps even being kept alive by Jareth so the aging/disfiguration doesn't revert back to him.
Also Sarah being hebrew for Princess might be more important. So when Hoggle asks "Who are you?" She replies "Sarah" he responds "That's what I thought " could be more of a recognition of oh of course the mortal allowed in is another Princess. After all kings would be trying to court a Princesses and it's obvious she isn't his first target.
thank you for also catching the meaning in her name and Hoggle's reaction
That is a cool analogy
Strange, this must be one of those differences between men and women that kicks in from a very early age: seems like I hear this sort of thing from a lot of young women, not just about 'Labyrinth', that there's confusion about how romantic a character seems to them that, to me, was always pretty clearly predatory and creepy. As a guy, it never crossed my mind at any point of seeing this movie so many times since the '80s that the Goblin King was anything BUT exactly the sort of person people were talking about when they would say "Don't talk to strangers!"
Incidentally, there is no baby in the story: he's a metaphor for childhood innocence, which the girl is wishing impulsively would be taken away from her, only to have second thoughts as the story progresses and she matures a little more, escaping just by the "skin of her teeth" . I wouldn't quite have caught that much in my first few viewings as a kid, but I definitely understood there was a little more to what was going on than was being presented on the surface. I never noticed or remembered the "Jeremy" character, but yeah, the identification with "Jareth" fits!
I always understood the movie to be not a love story - that never crossed my mind - but instead a movie about two different roads toward growing up which the main character could go down, one of them far more tempting and pleasant on the surface than the other, but not at all a healthy sort of maturity - and part of reaching a more genuine maturity would come with realizing the difference, and the main character learning to tell the difference and make wiser decisions is the heart of the story.
Whatever - no, the Goblin King is NOT a misunderstood good guy in a romantic story, and he's not there to be rescued or fixed, he's absolutely the story's villain in direct conflict with the story's main character, and to be avoided and resisted or beaten by growing up and growing strong and independent enough to tell when he is being deceptive, manipulative, and seductive - it really surprises me how easy that apparently is to miss!
Girls and women are trained by society from a young age to be unable to identify toxic and abusive behaviour, and to even romanticise it. I am a woman who loves the film and watched it a lot as a kid, and I understood it and its warnings because I am fortunate to have had a very good education, especially in regards to learning predatory/grooming behaviours. Most women do not get this :( girls my age in high school would get mad when i told them they were being groomed by adult men, they just thought I was jealous. It wasn't until they were older that they realised what had happened. Look at twilight as a 'love story' for example; written by a woman in a cult, who has a weird crush on her brother, romanticising abusive controlling relationships with dangerous age gaps; teaching young girls this is exciting and desirable.
I never read the book, but my favorite line from that movie should be obvious:
"The Bog of Eternal-" no, no, no, no.
"You have no power over me!" With those six words, Sarah takes back control of her life, shames the Goblin King, and proves herself to be the girl-boss Hollywood wishes they could right. Old stories where the best.
without the novel, which i didnt know about til now, i always had the idea that not only is jareth old and bored, but that age and boredom are infecting the rest of the goblins as well and they're savvy to the fact that its because of jareth. but they're all still afraid of him at the end of the day because he's their king. even needing prompting to laugh during magic dance
i always kinda interpreted the final song of jareth's "within you" as him trying to hold on to power, to maintain the illusion, but at the end of the day he knows he's lost sarah.
I've always seen Jareth as learning from Sarah's rejection. By the end he throws the ball away and resigns himself that Sarah doesn't want him, and he has no power over her.
He is present as that owl at the end, amd os watching her celebrate her win, and I'd like to think that he learned what he was doing wasn't love. That the most loving thing he could do was leave her alone and sort himself out.
I always had a thing for Jareth (NOT David Bowie) and I feel no shame. But then again I always had a thing for older guys
I remember watching this movie as a kid and not taking in anything about the plot because it felt like I was tripping on experimental drugs.
0:30 I’ve only watched this far into the video so I don’t know if you’ve addressed it yet but Jim Henson NEVER intended for his creations to be for children. Even the name muppet means monster puppet. It just happened they worked better for things like Sesame Street than they did for things like American horror story.(I watched a documentary one time on a plane ride)
Oh, my favorite quote has always been "you have no power over me!"
Wait, a girl that wants to live in imagination and doesn’t want to grow up gets whisked away by a magic man who also kidnaps her younger brother??? Is Labyrinth the alternative to Peter Pan?
Peter Pan is its own can of worms. cripes
@@caucasoidape8838Don’t ever tell Peter you want to grow up! ☠️
i remeber first reading the book was such a wonderful experience for me because it completely enhanced the movie for me! i already loved labyrinth, but the content of the book gave me a new look into sarah's psyche and made me understand her so much better, solidifying her as my favorite character in the story!
As a 47 year old woman, it's easy to see that Jareth is a self-centered, creepy, childish man. But in my tweens and teens, he was profoundly sexy and alluring; the perfect representation of that period in a girl's life when she's getting curious about men and how they seem so much sexier and interesting than boys her age. The fact that Jareth openly is preying on a teenage girl is something that I think almost every teen girl has faced at some point, and even if you don't fall for it, there is often a temptation to do it. Labyrinth really hones in on that vibe
I have always loved Labyrinth, when I was a young child I did not pick up on a lot of the darker metaphors when it came to awakening sexuality. However, as I got older I started to think that the Labyrithth was about female puberty and the overwhelming, confusing, terrifying yet beautiful wonder that comes with it. I also picked up the feeling of accepting the changes from childhood to adulthood and how as people we want to grow up fast but also want to cling to the innocence of our childhood.
anyways loved the video.
A few years ago, I started looking back on this movie and realizing just how, well, strange it was. As a kid, I just thought it was a fairy tale kind of movie, but as an adult, I see it as more of a cautionary movie. Something isn't right about a fully grown man loving a child in a romantic way, and you should always say no to them and their offers because they don't truly have your best interests at heart.
*Neil Gaiman has entered the tub*
omg i was so excited when i saw you posted!!! i missed your videos✨️🫶🏼
I found the labyrinth a good metaphor for the twisting emotions of our lives, full of dangers or allies which weren’t always easy to tell apart. For a young girl an enticing older man could be either, and the only way to know are his methods… Which Sarah thankfully figured out.
I haven't seen that movie in so many years I've forgotten all the little details, but I've never once thought of the story as romantic and can't imagine what kind of twisted mind would. Seeing it as a kid I just thought of it as a fantasy adventure story. She either imagined or dreamt everything that happened in the labyrinth because she was sick and tired of her baby brother crying his little head off, and as a reader of so much fantasy she slipped into one as a coping mechanism. After all, she was left home to take care of her brother while the adults went out to play. I guess I'd just have to watch it again as an adult to really make a proper analysis of it.
The whole thing being a perfect example of how abuse victims escape into fantasy to cope with what happens makes me love the book even as I commit to never reading it.
I saw it when I was 20, and am ashamed to say that I left the theater thinking that I would have stayed with Jareth.
Return to Labyrinth said Jareth ruled the Goblin Kingdom for 1300 years, so at this point, Sarah could be a hundred years old and he'd STILL be way older than her.
i was wondering if anyone was going to mention Return to the Labyrinth! I loved those books.
In a way The Labyrinth is a very faithful adaptation of the way old fairytales were told. They weren't just fun stories to entertain or be churned for a profit (looking at you House of Mouse), they were used to teach children about the ways of the world, and the world does have very dangerous people like Jareth who would take advantage of a young woman's innocence for his own gain.
There was BOOK?! WHY DID I NEVER KNOW THAT THERE WAS A BOOK?!
I think the book only enhances it and makes Jareth's intentions that much more insidious and creepy. It's the age-old trope of feeding off youth to ward off mortality (as if doing so will stop it entirely).
"Middle-aged Goblin King"
The Goblin King have more than a thousand years old.
(I said Middle-ageless Goblin King" - as he seems a fae creature to me. Interesting thing, in the prequel this role has an age though!)
I love this video! P.s. sorry if everything I say doesn’t make sense I kinda ramble. i think it does good as a coming of age story, I think this was to show Sarah how horrible adults are, showing her growing up isn’t what she thinks it is, and how weird Jeremy was. Another thing is the movie has a few deleted scenes that are available on TH-cam where jareth smiles after she says he has no power, insinuating that he was proud of how much she grew.
We see pictures of her actress mother (instead of her stepmother she hates) with a guy that looks strikingly like Bowie (because it is Bowie - which is another interesting layer to this story). I love how it shows the very dangerous allure of the world of the fae or the Sidhe in Irish folklore - they make us mortals beautiful promises but the sacrifice is very dear indeed…”it’s only forever…not long at all”