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Labyrinth marks the final feature film of the late great filmmaker, Jim Henson. Filmed just 4 years before his death, it marks the end of a generation of puppet created wizardry that is incredibly loved to this very day. While not as deep or introspective as “The Dark Crystal”, or as intrinsically childlike and goofy as “The Muppets”, Labyrinth is still one of his most famous movies. My wife has seen the stinking thing so many times that this is now the 5th edition of the movie that has graced my humble shelves. Her love is so much so that her 30th birthday party was a Labyrinth themed costume party, wherein she played a gender bending version of the Goblin King herself. My love is not AS strong as my lovely bride’s is, but I still have to say that the movie holds a special place in my heart, as I grew up as a young child watching it over and over on VHS and TV.
Young Sarah (Jennifer Connelly) finds that her life is not exactly what she wanted it to be. 17 years old and living with her father and stepmother, she selfishly longs for the days when she was the center of attention. Loathing the focus that her baby brother Toby (Toby Froud) gets, Sarah, in all her overly dramatic ways, wishes that the Goblins (characters in a fantasy she’s obsessed with) would come and take him away. Low and behold, her wish is granted. Only she finds out that maybe, just maybe, she really didn’t want him gone. Now the only thing she can do is follow the Goblin King Jareth (David Bowie) back to his world and make her way through the giant Labyrinth surrounding his castle in order to bring Toby back to her world before he’s turned into a goblin himself.
But getting through the Labyrinth isn’t as easy as it looks from the outside. The maze is gigantic and fully of traps, not to mention the fact that it changes its patterns seemingly at whim. The only way through the maze happens to be Sarah letting go of her arrogance and pride, and actually trusting a few friends along the way. Meeting up with a grump dwarf named Hoggle (Brian Henson), a “thing” called Ludo, and a posh British sounding fox named Didymus, she just might make it to the Goblin King himself before its too late.
While the love for Labyrinth is strong, it also is the least polished of all of Henson’s work. Although that is not in any way diminishing the fantastic work that it is. The movie has a decidedly dated feeling to it, especially for those of who grew up in the 80s and looking back can acknowledge the fact that many of the elements that made the film so great to us were relevant mainly IN the 80s. The constant use of David Bowie as a walking music video was something that was very popular back then, and seems kind of cheesy nowadays, not to mention the coming of age story was also something that thrived in that past decade as well. The movie is simple and sweet, but simple nonetheless. Still, despite the obvious 80s tropes and dating, it is a fun movie that still is a blast to watch some 30 years later, and I love introducing new people to the film and watch them fall in love with it the same way I did as a kid.
Rated PG by the MPAA, Parental Guidance suggested
4K Video:
![4.5 Stars :4.5stars: :4.5stars:](/styles/default/xenforo/smilies/4.5_stars.png)
![4.5 Stars :4.5stars: :4.5stars:](/styles/default/xenforo/smilies/4.5_stars.png)
Now the only real change to this disc's video from the one 5 years ago is the addition of Dolby Vision vs. just "plain" old HDR. As we all know Dolby Vision is slightly superior, technically speaking, to HDR, but the differences are usually slight. The same goes for this release which looks REALLY similar to the previous release, but upon really closely scrutinizing the two discs back to back you can see the differences. Most of the differences are in the black levels, which pop just a bit more and seem just a tad richer. Primary colors can look slightly deeper as well. It's more natural seeming in my personal opinion, but isn't a massive change from the already stunning 30th Anniversary Edition either, but rather a slightly more refined edition of the same disc for those who are Dolby Vision capable
Audio:
![4.5 Stars :4.5stars: :4.5stars:](/styles/default/xenforo/smilies/4.5_stars.png)
What is really a nice addition is that Sony has preserved the 5.1 mix (this time just put in a DTS-HD MA encoding wrapper vs. the Dolby TrueHD of the old Blu-ray) AAAAAAAAAAAAND for the first time has given us the original 2.0 audio in lossless!! I can't tell you how excited that makes me feel as people have been begging for the original audio for years, and usually when studios put the original audio track on a disc as an option it's lossy dolby digital instead of lossless. Bravo Sony, Bravo
Extras:
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• Dolby Vision Presentation of the Film
• NEW: Deleted & Alternate Scene Oubliette
• NEW Over 25 minutes of never-before-seen lost and alternate scenes, with all-new commentary from Brian Henson!
• NEW: Sarah's Screen Tests
• A collection of rare, original screen tests for the role of Sarah! Featuring Molly Ringwald, Trini Alvarado, Tracey Gold, Claudia Wells, Jill Schoelen, Maddie Corman and Danielle von Zerneck
Blu-ray
• "The Henson Legacy" Featurette
• Labyrinth Anniversary Q&A
• "Remembering The Goblin King" Featurette
• The Storytellers (Picture-in-Picture)
• Commentary by Conceptual Designer Brian Froud
• Original Making-of Documentary "Inside The Labyrinth"
• "Journey Through the Labyrinth: Kingdom of Characters" Documentary
• "Journey Through the Labyrinth: The Quest for Goblin City" Documentary
• Theatrical Trailers
Final Score:
![4.5 Stars :4.5stars: :4.5stars:](/styles/default/xenforo/smilies/4.5_stars.png)
Labyrinth is a product of the 80s, but it is a welcome product for those of us who grew up in that era. Filled with wonderful glitz and glamour from the king of style himself, Jim Henson created a cult film that has an ENORMOUS following, even to this day. I reviewed the 30th anniversary 4K UHD back in 2016 and it was a FANTASTIC upgrade from the aging Sony Blu-ray, and while I hate to double dip, this one is an impressively tempting upgrade from the previous 4K UHD as well. The inclusion of Dolby Vision doesn't make the new encode head and shoulders better than the HDR presentation of the 2016 disc, but it adds some nice fine tuning to the image that is appreciable. The real pull for this release is the sheer luxurious nature of the packaging. The leather (like) flip case just looks and feels amazing, and the included art booklet is incredibly well done. I'm usually one to roll my eyes a little bit as special edition packaging like easily damaged steelbooks, but this digibook combined with the new Dolby Vision addition, some brand new extras AND the original 2.0 audio on the disc for the first time? Well, that really REALLY makes this an obvious upgrade for those who bought the 4K UHD 5 years ago. For those who haven't, then this is obviously the best edition to get. Great Buy
Technical Specifications:
Starring: David Bowie, Jennifer Connelly, Toby Froud
Directed by: Jim Henson
Written by: Jim Henson, Dennis Lee, Terry Jones
Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1 HEVC
Audio: English: Dolby Atmos (TrueHD 7.1 Core), English DTS-HD MA 5.1, English DTS-HD MA 2.0, French, Italian DTS-HD MA 5.1, Czech, German, Hungarian, Korean, Polish, Russian, Spanish (Castilian), Spanish (Latin), Turkish DD 5.1
Subtitles: English, English SDH, Arabic, Chinese (Simplified), Chinese (Traditional), Czech, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hebrew, Hindi, Hungarian, Icelandic, Italian, Korean, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Slovakian, Slovena, Spanish, Spanish (Latin), Swedish, Turkish, Thai
Studio: Sony
Rated: PG
Runtime: 101 Minutes
Blu-ray Release Date: August 17th, 2021
Recommendation: Great Buy
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