The Influence Of Jim Henson’s Film "Labyrinth" On Cinematography
Jim Henson’s 1986 film ‘Labyrinth’ was classed as a box office failure however in the recent decades it’s become a cult classic with a worldwide following. It met with mixed reviews from the box office and Henson’s son Brian referred to his father as being “the closest I’ve seen him to turning in on himself and getting quite depressed.”. It is the last feature film that Henson directed before his death in 1990. Only bringing in $12.9 million in the US box office, compared to the budget of $25 million, it was a significant loss for Henson and Lucasfilm.
It was clear that there were expectations that bringing in a current "rock star” of the time would boost the viewing and revenue. David Bowie plays the main antagonist in the film and helped to create most of the soundtrack as well, releasing a music video for one of the songs: “As the World Falls Down.” There are seven hidden Bowie faces throughout the film, some of which were only just discovered recently. Henson described his thoughts of casting Bowie were that he “embodies a certain maturity, with his sexuality, his disturbing aspect, all sorts of things that characterise the adult world." Labyrinth has a multitude of interesting filming aspects, both pre and post-production.
One of these was the first use of a realistic computer-generated animal in the opening credits, a second being the filming within a bubble for the ballroom scene to create a more dream-like atmosphere and the use of a black screen, instead of a green screen, to film the moving of limbs in the Fiery sequence. The Goblin City set has the largest panoramic back-cloth ever made attached to it. It was originally more story driven, instead of the musical it was released as. In recent years, however, it has steadily become a 'cult classic' film, ranked 72nd on Empire's list of '80 Best 80s Movies'. Labyrinth has an increasing fanbase and many of them are requesting a sequel or remake, however, this has been denied many times by Lucasfilm and many screenwriters/directors.
Because of its rise in culture, many films have used Labyrinth as an inspiration and the film MirrorMask (2005) was released instead of a direct sequel to Labyrinth. This growth in fame was able to be seen by Henson before he died and has been rumoured to have surpassed his other film, The Dark Crystal, with audience popularity. Jennifer Connelly was once recorded mentioning that "[I]... still get recognized for Labyrinth by little girls in the weirdest places. I can't believe they still recognize me from that movie." Labyrinth has just passed its 30th anniversary and released a special art book and figurine set, matching a novel of the film that was released earlier this year.
