History YMMV / LABYRINTH

* FanficFuel: How did a handsome RealityWarper like Jareth, who looks for all intents and purposes human, wind up ruling a land of AdorableEvilMinions who steal babies to turn them into more of their kind? The AllThereInTheManual material has no answer, and even the ExpandedUniverse isn;t concerned with this question. Alternatively, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CwVqOs3Aess the video for the opening song]] suggests that he kinda fell into the job.

* BestKnownForTheFanservice: In this case, "Best Known For David Bowie's Pants". They probably exaggerate a little, but this is ''the'' reason most anyone remembers this movie if some fans are to be believed.

* BestKnownForTheFanservice: In this case, "Best Known For David Bowie's Pants". They probably exaggerate a little, but this is ''the'' reason most anyone remembers this movie if some fans are to be believed. Either that or Creator/JenniferConnelly looking very nice in that white princess dress she wears at the beginning. Or the PimpedOutDress from the ball scene later.

* EvilIsSexy: Jareth, as played by David Bowie.

* NightmareFuel: While ''Film/TheDarkCrystal'' has disturbingly realistic violence and alien creatures, Labyrinth goes into SurrealHorror UncannyValley with surreal David Bowie faces, BodyHorror Fireys, the eerie ballroom scene with the grotesque masks, and almost everything being alive. Even half of the soundtrack sounds like something out of a horror movie.

** The moral of the story is obviously about letting go of one's childhood. Not to mention that LifeIsntFair and complaining won't help your situation. However, fans seem to think there's something else there. Most fans seem to think it's about the one-sided love story of Jareth and Sarah. A lot of people have created fan works dedicated to this "romantic" movie. When you watch it, what really comes to mind? Do you view this as a man trying to make the girl he loves happy, but being constantly rejected? Or do you view this as a young girl trying to fix a mistake she made and growing up during her journey?

** ''Labyrinth'' came out the same year as ''Film/TopGun'', another huge favorite of '80s nostalgia. Three-and-a-half decades later, Jennifer Connelly was cast as Tom Cruise's co-star in ''Film/TopGunMaverick''.

* DracoInLeatherPants: Jareth stole a baby, tried to bribe its older sister into forgetting about it, and tried to stop her numerous times when she went into the Labyrinth to rescue him, but you'll be hard pressed to find any fangirl who acknowledges that (or, for that matter, anyone who doesn't treat the FoeYay subtext as canonical). He's a DracoInLeatherPants in the movie, too; VERY tight leather pants!

* FoeYay: There's some Jareth/Sarah subtext in the movie. By the end, there's not much ''sub''text about it, at least on Jareth's part. StalkerWithACrush indeed:

* DoNotDoThisCoolThing: There's no shortage of fans who willingly admit that if they were in Sarah's position, they would abandon Toby and fall for Jareth's seduction.

** The moral of the story is obviously about letting go of one's childhood. Not to mention that LifeIsntFair and complaining won't help your situation. However, fans seem to think there's something else there. Most fans seem to think it's about the one-sided love story around Jareth and Sarah. A lot of people have created fan works dedicated to this "romantic" movie. When you watch it, what really comes to mind? Do you view this as a man trying to make the girl he loves happy, but is constantly rejected? Or do you view this as a young girl trying to fix a mistake she made and growing up during her journey?

** Sarah's father and stepmother. The movie wants us to think that Sarah's just being a brat in need of some growing up, but in her short time on-screen the stepmother makes a few insensitive comments that seem to justify Sarah's resentment, and her father seems either oblivious or apathetic to her obvious difficulties (Marvel's comic adaptation portrays her more sympathetically). ''Return to Labyrinth'' seems to go with this in the case of the stepmother, given that the now-teenaged Toby is having his own problems with her.

* AngstWhatAngst: Sarah deals with TheReveal that goblins are real, her brother's been kidnapped by them, and Jareth showing up to offer her a deal with remarkable aplomb, and treats solving the labyrinth as a mildly annoying household chore she can't get out of. Either this is [[FridgeBrilliance a brilliant statement on it all being her imagination as she sits around the house bored]] or Jennifer Connelly thought her character should handle it as an UnusuallyUninterestingSight. Alternatively, Sarah is GenreSavvy and knows the story she's got herself into, so she figures she just has to play it out and there's no time for dilly-dallying. ''Alternatively'', it's AllJustADream and she's running with the absurdity the way we all do when we dream.

* CultClassic: The film grossed $12.7 million on a $25 million budget and was savaged by critics, but has since gained this status. David Bowie's presence also contributed to this status.

* FanficFuel: How did a handsome RealityWarper like Jareth, who looks for all intents and purposes human, wind up ruling a land of AdorableEvilMinions who steal babies to turn them into more of their kind? The AllThereInTheManual material has no answer, and even the ExpandedUniverse is concerned with this question. Alternatively, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CwVqOs3Aess the video for the opening song]] suggests that he kinda fell into the job.

** Creator/JimHenson was devastated by the movie's lack of success at the box office, because the project was so emotionally close with him. The fact that he never lived to see it become the beloved cult classic it is now only seems to rub salt in the wound. However, it's worth noting that his son did inform him, towards the end of his life, that this and ''Film/TheDarkCrystal'' were gaining appreciation in cult status.

* MagnificentBastard: Jareth the Goblin King is a charismatic, manipulative goblin. First summoned by heroine Sarah, Jareth kidnaps her baby brother to lure her to him, spending the film manipulating the rest of the cast and tricking Sarah into eating an enchanted peach to make her more susceptible to his influence. Jareth shows a genuine care for Sarah, even if he is not above ruthlessly manipulating her and everyone else in the film, but never loses his sense of charm, flamboyance and friendliness, who even seems to care for the child he kidnaps upon her sister's rash wish.

* SpecialEffectsFailure
** The scene with the "Fireys"[[note]]Which includes the "Chilly Down" number[[/note]] -- ya know, those fuzzy pink things that routinely decapitated and amputated themselves and others for fun -- is notorious for having unusually bad ChromaKey special effects, even for its time. This is weird considering how ''good'' the special effects were in the rest of the movie. Now wispy fuzzy semi-translucent fringes are about the most difficult possible item to chroma-key, but it hasn't been remedied at all in "remastered" DVD releases. (That said, though they were far from the awesome advances we have now, it's pretty good for a bunch of puppeteers in black velvet suits.)

** During the confrontation with Humongous (the giant robot guarding the entrance to the goblin city) Ambrosius runs off to hide behind a rock and brushes against the "metal" spikes behind the group that sprang up just beforehand. They visibly wobble indicating they are actually soft rubber.

** Jareth's strangely somber demeanor during his climactic confrontation with Sarah, which forms a huge part of his appeal as it seems there must be some kind of deep emotional issues behind it.

** The Fire Gang can be adorable if you can get past their grotesqueness and habit of taking themselves apart.

** This is perhaps the most 1980's of 1980's fantasy films: There's the extensive use of special effects techniques (matte paintings, puppets and animatronic costumes, bluescreen, early CGI) that were largely abandoned by Hollywood once CGI became high-quality and commonplace in the next decade, a synthesizer-heavy underscore, and a ''serious'' case of EightiesHair on the villain. Said villain is played by Music/DavidBowie, whose international popularity peaked in this decade, and he also wrote the musical numbers.

* UnintentionallySympathetic: Sarah is intended to be seen as a BrattyTeenageDaughter who's late home and thinks only of herself rather than the baby she's taking care of - and the story is about her redeeming herself for letting Toby be taken away. Except she wasn't asked if she'd babysit Toby; her parents just assumed she would, and they even see no problem violating her privacy by giving one of her toys to the baby. Add that to how her stepmother seems to try to make her feel bad for not dating (at only fifteen!) and some of her supposed 'brattiness' seems quite tame.

* VindicatedByHistory: A Box Office failure when it came out, and largely panned by critics over the {{Camp}}, convoluted plot and being all-style no substance. Even by the 90s, critics began re-evaluating it. Appreciation for David Bowie's performance, the technical brilliance of the puppetry, the synth pop soundtrack and a deeper story than it was given credit for has led to ''Labyrinth'' enjoying a better reputation. And of course nostalgic value from those who watched it when it came out or when it was shown on Nickelodeon frequently in the 2000s.

* WeirdAlEffect: The "You remind me of the babe" exchange has long since overshadowed the original "You remind me of the man" exchange from ''Film/TheBachelorAndTheBobbySoxer''.

* FanPreferredCouple: Jareth/Sarah. Not that there is any competition anyway but the devotion to the ship is really something else.

* AngstWhatAngst: Sarah deals with TheReveal that goblins are real, her brother's been kidnapped by them, and Jareth showing up to offer her a deal with remarkable aplomb, and treats solving the labyrinth as a mildly annoying household chore she can't get out of. Either this is [[FridgeBrilliance a brilliant statement on it all being her imagination as she sits around the house bored]] or Jennifer Connelly thought her character should handle it as an UnusuallyUninterestingSight.
** Alternatively, Sarah is GenreSavvy and knows the story she's got herself into, so she figures she just has to play it out and there's no time for dilly-dallying.
** ''Alternatively'', it's AllJustADream and she's running with the absurdity the way we all do when we dream.

* VanillaProtagonist: Like a classic fairy tale, this story is less about Sarah and more about the supernatural world she travels through and the supernatural creatures she meets.

* AlternativeCharacterInterpretation: Sarah's father and stepmother. The movie wants us to think that Sarah's just being a brat in need of some growing up, but in her short time on-screen the stepmother makes a few insensitive comments that seem to justify Sarah's resentment, and her father seems either oblivious or apathetic to her obvious difficulties (Marvel's comic adaptation portrays her more sympathetically). ''Return to Labyrinth'' seems to go with this in the case of the stepmother, given that the now-teenaged Toby is having his own problems with her.

* BigLippedAlligatorMoment: The Fireys' scene (though there was a ''very'' small reference to it beforehand, it was still unimportant to the plot). Alternatively, it is about adolescence -- a VillainSong and HakunaMatata rolled into one.
** According to the "Making Of" documentary, the scene basically came about because Brian Froud, the guy who designed all the goblins, doodled the Fireys in his sketch book, took a liking to them, and then wanted to see what they could get away with doing using BlueScreen technology.

* {{Narm}}: Those who aren't turned on by Bowie's costume choices are laughing at it instead. [[TakeaThirdOption Or probably both]].

* IAmNotShazam: Jareth's kingdom is not "The Underground", that's just a song. Except for a [[FanNickname big part of the fandom]].

* AlternativeCharacterInterpretation: Sarah's father and stepmother. The movie wants us to think that Sarah's just being a brat in need of some growing up, but in her short time on-screen the stepmother makes a few insensitive comments that seem to justify Sarah's resentment, and her father seems either oblivious or apathetic to her obvious difficulties. ''Return to Labyrinth'' seems to go with this in the case of the stepmother, given that the now-teenaged Toby is having his own problems with her.

** The scene with the "Fireys"[[note]]Which includes the "Chilly Down" number[[/note]] -- ya know, those fuzzy pink things that routinely decapitated and amputated themselves and others for fun -- is notorious for having unusually bad BlueScreen special effects, even for its time. This is weird considering how ''good'' the special effects were in the rest of the movie. Now wispy fuzzy semi-translucent fringes are about the most difficult possible item to chroma-key, but it hasn't been remedied at all in "remastered" DVD releases. (That said, though they were far from the awesome advances we have now, it's pretty good for a bunch of puppeteers in black velvet suits.)

** In that same scene, Ambrosius is clearly a ''puppet'' in some shots. (He's actually a puppet for most of the movie)

* WTHCostumingDepartment: What is with all of Jareth's costumes? Pragmatism. He's played by Music/DavidBowie. Bear in mind that before ''Film/TheLordOfTheRings'' shattered the Fantasy Movie Ghetto Age, directors and writers of fantasy movies were desperate for any PeripheryDemographic they could find. {{Squee}}ing {{Fangirl}}s were willing to pay to see David Bowie in tights. Also, it sort of went with David Bowie's style. If you're going to cast David Bowie, may as well use him in a way you know works. Funnily enough, Jareth's outfits were ''tamer'' than Bowie's usual stage attire.

** In that same scene, Ambrosius is clearly a ''puppet'' in some shots.

* RetroactiveRecognition: Creator/DannyJohnJules is one of the fire dancers.

** Jim Henson was devastated by the movie's lack of success at the box office, because the project was so emotionally close with him. The fact that he never lived to see it become the beloved cult classic it is now only seems to rub salt in the wound. However, it's worth noting that his son did inform him, towards the end of his life, that this and ''Film/TheDarkCrystal'' were gaining appreciation in cult status.

* AlternativeCharacterInterpretation: Sarah's father and stepmother. The movie wants us to think that Sarah's just being a brat in need of some growing up, but her stepmother doesn't seem to think much of her to begin with (implying she takes Sarah for granted because she's a loner, and tattling to Dad when Sarah objects to it), and her father seems either oblivious or apathetic to the obvious difficulties Sarah's having. ''Return to Labyrinth'' seems to go with this in the case of the stepmother, given that the now-teenaged Toby is having his own problems with her.

** Jareth apparently having the hots for 16-year-old Sarah, since, shortly after Bowie's death, accusations of him sleeping with underaged groupies resurfaced. Although this is not so much of an awkward and unfortunate problem in Bowie's native UK, where the age of consent is 16.
*** actually Sarah was 15 and that is underage in most places, including the UK.

-->'''Jareth''': You remind me of the babe.\\