Sam said...

((You like Labyrinth now, and you liked it when you were five. I'd be curious if you still like it when you are 20.))


I'm a couple of months shy of twenty right now and I still love Labyrinth. You're perfectly justified in not liking the movie yourself of course, but it would be unfair to say that Labyrinth isn't a film whose appeal lasts after puberty. It is and there's a large community of adult Labyrinth fans to testify to that.

Labyrinth is a complex movie that you can watch at different ages and take different things away from when you're done watching. It's rare that you'll pick up on everything first time. There are at least four "easter eggs" I know of that are only available in the widescreen version, which indicates the depth of the film-makers' attention to detail. There are so many things that aren't imediately apparent. The subliminal images imposed onto certain scenes. I've only found four of them so far and I know there are more. The milk bottles. The scrapbook. The mirrors. All the little subtleties that let you know there was more going on than was directly shown on screen. Discussing the film without knowing about these contextualising details and taking them into account is like discussing the Narnia chronicles without understanding their biblical basis. Your opinions will still be valid, but the discussion will be incomplete.

There are many themes in Labyrinth, especially the darker sexual overtones, which I can fully appreciate now, which I was unaware of as a child. Also, I'm a writer of Labyrinth fanfiction.
There are a wealth of stories available which explore avenues the creators were unable to because of the constraints of budget, medium and target audience which have added to the appeal of the film for me.

((Some movies aimed at children endure. "Mary Poppins" is a brilliant movie. Kids are enchanted by it, or at least many are, and adults can find just as much if not more in it to love. Why? Because there is more to it than kiddie fantasy: there is an artfulness in the story and dialogue, a purity in its gentility, and an earnestness in its characters.))

Now I haven't seen Mary Poppins in a while, so feel free to discount as much of my opinion as you like because of that, but I disagree. I suspect that what you are reading as "a purity in its gentility" I saw as an irritating amount of naivety.

I loved the movie as a small child because, (along with the rest of the planet, I suspect) I wanted to be able to tidy my room at a click of my fingers. Then I grew up a little and those click-your-fingers solutions became a source of annoyance. The film offers band-aid solutions to serious problems. It seems to be saying in a booming commercial announcer voice: "Family messed up beyond belief? Go fly kites and all will be well! Appalled by the way women are subjugated in your society? Protest, but be sure to hide your banners and placards from your husband if he won't approve!" I know it's a children's movie, but the original short stories didn't have these plotlines. So if Disney are going to introduce them, they should at least have the decency to resolve them properly. Once I was old enough to know what 1910 London was actually like, I started getting annoyed by the movie. It was entertainment with no real substance. (To me at least) calling Mary Poppins multi-layered compared to Labyrinth is laughable.

Anyway, like I said before I'm a Labyrinth fan and therefore biased. Also I haven't seen Mary Poppins in a while, so feel free to take these views with a pinch of salt.

S 'Or possibly a whole cellar...'E