Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1089 in DVD
• Released on: 2004-04-19
• Rating: Universal, suitable for all
• Number of discs: 1
• Formats: Collector's Edition, PAL
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: English, French, German, Spanish
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 97 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
Sarah (a teenage Jennifer Connelly) rehearses the role of a fairy-tale queen, performing for her stuffed animals. She is about to discover that the time has come to leave her childhood behind. In real life she has to baby-sit her brother and contend with parents who don't understand her at all. Her petulance leads her to call the goblins to take the baby away, but when they actually do, she realises her responsibility to rescue him. Sarah negotiates the Labyrinth to reach the City of the Goblins and the castle of their king. The king is the only other human in the film and is played by a glam-rocking David Bowie, who performs five of his songs. The rest of the cast are puppets, a wonderful array of Jim Henson's imaginative masterpieces. Henson gives credit to children's author and illustrator Maurice Sendak, and the creatures in the movie will remind Sendak fans of his drawings. The castle of the king is a living MC Escher set that adults will enjoy. The film combines the highest standards of art, costume, and set decoration. Like executive producer George Lucas's other fantasies, Labyrinth mixes adventure with lessons about growing up. --Lloyd Chesley

Amazon.co.uk Review
There are only two human actors in Jim Henson's Labyrinth: a teenage Jennifer Connelly and glam-rocker David Bowie (who performs five of his songs). The rest of the cast are puppets, a wonderful array of Henson's imaginative masterpieces set within a film combining the highest standards of art, costume and set decoration. Henson gives credit to children's author and illustrator Maurice Sendak, and the creatures in the movie will remind Sendak fans of his drawings, while the castle of the Goblin King (Bowie) is a living MC Escher set that adults will enjoy. Like executive producer George Lucas's other fantasies, Labyrinth mixes adventure with lessons about growing up. --Lloyd Chesley

DVD Description
Frustrated with babysitting on yet another weekend, Sarah - a teenager with an active imagination - summons the Goblins from her favourite book, Labyrinth, to take her baby step-brother away. When little Toby actually disappears, Sarah must follow him into the world of the fairy tale to rescue him from the wicked Goblin King! Guarding his castle is The Labyrinth itself - a twisted maze of deception, populated with outrageous characters and unknown dangers. To get through it in time to save Toby, Sarah will have to outwit the King by befriending the very Goblins who protect him, in hope that their loyalty isn't just another illusion in a place where nothing is as it seems!

Customer Reviews

A little disappointing ...
You may be wondering why such a classic as this only receives three stars. For a synopsis of the story itself, there are many fine reviews and testimonials extolling the wonders of this Jim Henson/George Lucas production. I too loved the movie when it first came out and think that it is a must see for children of all ages.

However, my main reservation is that the quality of this so called "Collector's Edition" did not meet my expectations. Unlike the earlier 1999 release, this edition is not optimised for the new standard TV format of 16:9 screen ratio (as opposed to the more squat 4:3 format). This means that the signal produced by the DVD fails to take full advantage of modern TVs and as a result reduces the picture quality. In addition — and to my mind a more serious flaw — it seems as if the producers failed to take the opportunity to remaster the film stock and digitally grade the colour. As a result, the conversion to the digital format looks somewhat faded if not a little flat. In addition, there really isn't much more by way of "extras" that you would normally associate with a "Collector's Edition" such as deleted scenes, out-takes, commentary tracks and the like. There is an old documentary and the theatrical trailer, plus a few static text-based pages, but nothing that you might not otherwise see in a common or garden variety release. To be fair, the "superbit" print (which I have not seen) may have taken the chance to increase the quality of the image, but the point with a "Collector's Edition" is to provide you with features above and beyond the original digitised print!

My advice: If you, like me, simply cannot live without a copy of Labyrinth in your DVD collection, this may well be adequate. However, the lack of refinement might tarnish your enjoyment of what is otherwise a marvelous production.

"A Low Point in Bowie's Career" - A Foul Untruth
'Labyrinth', Henson's 1986 masterpiece is a modern classic for our generation, one of the best pieces of fantasy to grace our screens since 'The Wizard of Oz'.

Revolving around the main character of Sarah (Connelly), an over-imaginative teenager who struggles to find meaning in life beyond her dolls and dressing-up box, the film is essentially a existentialist study of teenage fantasy.

The boundaries between fantasy and reality become dangerously blurred one night, when a desperate Sarah calls on the imaginary king of the goblins to take away her relentlessly screaming baby half-brother, Toby.

Unfortunately for Sarah, Jareth the Goblin King (Bowie) has ceased to be merely a figure of her imagination, and appears in the bedroom in place of the child, whom he has transported to his castle in the centre of a giant labyrinth, where goblins and monsters (sometimes friendly, sometimes not, often very comical!)haunt every corner.

It is then up to Sarah to fight her way through the twisting and ever-changing labyrinth to find her young charge, whilst making friends and resisting temptation along the way. Will she manage to overcome her childish, spoilt instincts and learn to think for herself to help others? Or will she succumb to the temptation of having her fantasies fufilled by the charismic Jareth? Only one way to find out - BUY THIS MOVIE!!

Once described as, "a low point in David Bowie's career" this is a great film for adults and children alike, and contrary to narrow-minded belief, is a classic addition to any Bowie fan's collection. Worth watching for the fashion statements alone - "well, laugh!"

a magical film
This is a magical film. It has incredible puppetry, great music and a fun storyline. This film captivated me as a child and still does so now as an adult. It is one that can be truly described as timeless. The characters are fantastic to watch and the additional disc (make sure you buy this version and not the single disc version) with making of documentary is interesting to watch. Buy it and enter the world of The labyrinth and become spellbound.