The Acting in Labyrinth

[baby sinclair]

Now, i know i'm not very good at acting.But was any one else annoyed by the cruddy acting in the first few scenes of this film.I mean sarah was over reacting about lancelot.She also gave me the impression that this was a silly movie.But when jareth kicked sarah started to loosen up and the acting became better.What do you guys think about my opinion.

 

[gfarkwort]

I think they meant for it to have a little overeacting in the beginging....the story is about Sarah growing up and maturing after all..........it makes sense to me anyway.

 

[baby sinclair]

Heh i never saw it that way i guess that answers my question.

 

[Buck-Beaver]

I dearly love Labyrinth but the strength of the film is definately not it's acting. I don't think that it's not terrible, but it's not superb either.

 

[alorindanya]

I'm with gfarkwort on this one. It's all about growing up. Think of how melow-dramatic teenagers are, especially when they have to do something they don't want to do. Over-reacting is a way of not only dealing, but also a way to punish your parents.

Also, I think alot of 80's movies with young actors had bad acting and yet are still COMPLETELY loveable/memorible, Goonies being one of them.

 

[Buck-Beaver]

Completely off topic, but how many people knew that Sean Astin (Sam in LOTR) played 'Mikey' Walsh in Goonies?

 

[baby sinclair]

ya i knew that, i find it interesting to watch one of favorite classic movies and find out one of the actors is in a newer movie that i like.Its funny how life turns out.

 

[Fozzie Bear]

Labyrinth Critique

http://www.suntimes.com/ebert/ebert_reviews/1986/06/65575.html

LABYRINTH

**
Date of publication: 06/27/1986

By Roger Ebert

"Labyrinth" is a movie that obviously was made with infinite care and pains, and it began with a real inspiration: Why not create a fantasy out of some of the drawings of M. C. Escher, who is famous for visual paradoxes such as a room with staircases that go "up" in every possible direction? The movie is an impressive production that is often good to look at. Some real thought went into it and the David Bowie soundtrack is fine, yet there's something missing. It never really comes alive.

The film takes the form of a nightmare that visits the heroine, an adolescent girl named Sarah (Jennifer Connelly) who lives in a dreamworld of magic and legend and fairy princesses and enchantments. She's left to baby-sit for her baby brother, and when she teasingly wishes the goblins would take him away, she gets her wish. She is visited by Jareth (David Bowie), the ruler of the mystical world that is just out of sight of ordinary eyes. He sets her a task: She can get the child back, but only by finding her way through an endless labyrinth to the castle in the center.

Our first view of the labyrinth is impressive. Indeed, all the special effects in the movie are impressive, showing the director, Muppets creator Jim Henson, working at the top of his form. Inside the labyrinth, Sarah faces a series of horrific challenges and meets a lot of strange characters. We are reminded a little of "Alice in Wonderland."

I have a problem with almost all nightmare movies: They aren't as suspenseful as they should be because they don't have to follow any logic. Anything can happen, nothing needs to happen, nothing is as it seems and the rules keep changing. Consider, for example, the scene in "Labyrinth" where Sarah thinks she is waking up from her horrible dream and opens the door of her bedroom. Anything could be outside that door. Therefore, we're wasting out psychic energy by caring. In a completely arbitrary world, what difference does anything make?

"Labyrinth" is intended as another extension of Henson's muppetry, in which the creatures he creates are more scary and real than ever. But they are still Muppets, and I think the Muppet idea works better when humans visit the Muppet world (as in the Muppets movies), rather than when Muppets turn up in the human world.

One of the key characters in this film is Toby (played by Toby Froud). Froud is a midget who has been given a Muppet head to wear. And although the head is a good special-effects construction, I kept wanting to see real eyes and real expressions. The effects didn't add anything.

One other problem is that the movie is too long. Without a strong plot line to pull us through, all movies like this run the danger of becoming just a series of incidents. There's no structure to the order of the adventures. Sarah does this, she does that, she's almost killed here, almost trapped there, until at last nothing much matters. Great energy and creativity went into the construction, production and direction of this movie, but it doesn't have a story that does justice to the production.

Labyrinth (STAR) (STAR)
Jareth David Bowie
Sarah Jennifer Connelly
Toby Toby Froud
Stepmother Shelley Thompson
Father Christopher Malcolm
Fairy Natalie Finland

TriStar presents a film directed by Jim Henson and produced by Eric Rattray. Screenplay by Terry Jones, based on a story by Denise Lee and Jim Henson. Edited by John Grover. Photographed by Alex Thompson. Score by David Jones songs composed and sung by David Bowie. Running time: 113 minutes. Classified PG. At local theaters.

====================
I highlighted the area above about Toby because that's what I want to discuss an opinion on:

Was Ebert just an alcoholic? Toby was a real baby in those shots! A midget in a Muppet head? Gimme a break.

Anybody else wanna comment on anything in this article?

 

[Infinity Sirius]

I highly respect Ebert in many of his opinions concerning the movie world, but I believe Labyrinth is one of the best movies ever made by the Henson Company. The whole key to Labyrinth is the series of events that make Sarah grow up and forget the childish antics. At the beginning she is a a five year old stuck in a thirteen year old body. She cries, whimpers, and even throws a temper tantrum, thus proving her immature attitude. As the movie progresses, with each turn Sarah learns about important things that will help her enter the adult world. And the end of the movie she has matured into a young woman who will be able to make the transition between childhood and adulthood with success.

 

[gfarkwort]

I think he meant Hoggle's performer not Tobey.