Labyrinth appears in an aspect ratio of approximately 2.35:1 on this Blu-ray Disc. Within the constraints of the source, the movie offered a good transfer.
Sharpness appeared fairly good. A few minor instances of softness crept into the presentation, but these remained infrequent.
As implied, some of the less defined elements appeared to reflect the original photography, especially due to all the effects photography. The majority of the flick looked concise and accurate.
Jagged edges and moiré effects also created no concerns, and I detected no signs of edge haloes either. Grain seemed natural and I saw no print defects.
Earth tones abounded here so the film didn’t exhibit an abundance of vivid colors. When those did appear, they most came via costumes donned by the various characters.
The garb worn by participants such as Sir Didymus and the Worm showed bright colors. Overall the hues appeared well-rendered.
Black levels seemed deep and rich, while shadow detail was appropriately heavy but didn’t appear overly dense. Ultimately, Labyrinth exhibited a nice presentation.
Downconverted to Dolby TrueHD 7.1, Labyrinth included a Dolby Atmos soundtrack. The soundfield presented a fairly active affair where the forward spectrum offered a good sense of presence.
Music showed nice stereo imaging. Effects meshed together well and made the environment come to life pretty solidly.
Beyond the forward spectrum, the other channels featured prominent use of music and accentuated various effects at times. I thought the rear speakers probably made the score too dominant but this nonetheless became a fairly involving track.
Audio quality leaned somewhat erratic but usually remained solid. Speech mostly came across as reasonably natural and distinct, but some poor dubbing caused a few distractions.
That seemed particularly noticeable early in the film, as the shots between Sarah and her family suffered from awkward looping. A little edginess crept into some of the lines as well, particularly those spoken by Hoggle.
Effects showed a little distortion on a few occasions, but usually those elements came across as nicely detailed and accurate. The effects boasted fairly good clarity as well as decent depth. Ludo’s voice and other loud pieces demonstrated nice bass response.
Music varied a bit, and some of the Bowie songs were a little dense. However, they usually sounded pretty good, and the score appeared fairly rich and vibrant. Overall, the audio of Labyrinth didn’t dazzle me but it seemed fine for a film from 1986.
How did the 2016 “30th Anniversary” Blu-Ray compare with the prior BD from 2009? The 2016 disc’s Atmos audio felt a bit more expansive than the prior release’s 5.1.
That seemed like both a positive and a negative. Effects felt more involving but I thought the Atmos track overdid the music.
Visuals seemed fairly similar. The 2016 release might come across as a smidgen better defined but overall, I didn’t see notable changes in picture quality.
The 2016 Blu-ray mixes old and new extras, and we find an audio commentary from conceptual designer Brian Froud. He provides a running, screen-specific chat.
Froud discusses the project’s origins and development, his character and visual design work, puppet-related issues, working with Jim Henson and David Bowie, costumes, influences and inspirations, his son Toby’s work as Sarah’s brother, sets and locations, and a few other film elements.
Froud offers a very engaging look at the film, as Froud covers all the different technical topics in a warm, inviting manner. He gives us detail but never becomes pedantic or boring. The commentary examines the flick in a satisfying manner and remains a pleasure to hear.
Next comes a 56-minute, 28-second documentary called Inside the Labyrinth. Created at the time of the film’s theatrical release, this show features movie clips and interviews with all the main participants.
We hear from Froud, director Jim Henson, actors David Bowie, Jennifer Connelly, and Shari Weiser, puppeteer coordinator Brian Henson, production designer Elliot Scott, special effects supervisor George Gibbs, writer Terry Jones, goblin armor designer Mike McCormick, puppeteer Ross Hill, and director of choreography and puppet movement Cheryl Gates McFadden.
“Inside” also features lots of great "behind the scenes" footage. Many documentaries show this kind of material, but not to the extent we see here; most of the running time is devoted to these kinds of candid shots.
Considering the technical nature of the movie - most of the characters are puppets, after all - the program easily could have become dry and lifeless, but it doesn’t. It goes through a great mix of subjects, from various design issues to casting to the script to executing all the technical bits.
Each topic is covered thoroughly enough to satisfy but not to the level where it loses interest. One fun section shows how they achieved the effect where Bowie twirls a glass ball on his hand; I loved this, because I'd always been curious how it was done. “Inside the Labyrinth” provides a terrific documentary.
Two featurettes appear under the banner of Journey Through the Labyrinth. We find “Kingdom of Characters” (27:57) and “The Quest for Goblin City” (30:03).
These present notes from Froud, Brian Henson, McFadden, executive producer George Lucas, puppeteers/performers Karen Prell and David Goelz, puppet designer/builder Jane Gootnick, Jim Henson’s assistant Mira Velimorivic, and actor Toby Froud.
The shows look at character design and puppet creation, performing the puppets, some thematic and character issues, sets and visual concerns, working with Jim Henson, Terry Jones’ screenwriting and some character/story topics, the integration of songs into the film and Bowie’s involvement, cast and performances, costumes, influences, and other general thoughts.
Though it repeats some information from the commentary and vintage documentary, “Journey” offers plenty of fresh information as well. I like the insights about puppet performance, and a lot of behind the scenes footage spells out the challenges well.
We do find more movie clips than I’d like. Nonetheless, I think we discover more than enough useful facts to make this a good pair of featurettes.
Next we find a Picture-in-Picture feature called “Storytellers”. Across these, we hear from makeup artist Nick Dudman, creature workshop artists Rollin Krewson and Cheryl Henson, assistant puppeteer coordinator Kevin Clash, creature workshop supervisor Connie Peterson, and actor Warwick Davis.
They discuss the film’s inspirations/influences, working with Jennifer Connelly and David Bowie, various puppets, performances and related subjects. On the negative side, we don’t get a lot of these PiP clips, as only 12 appear through the film’s 101 minutes.
On the positive side, the disc’s chapter encoding allows us to skip to each snippet with ease, so you don’t have to sit through the whole movie to see them. The information provided is generally pretty good. I’m not sure why the material couldn’t have appeared in a more user-friendly featurette, but the segments are still worth a look.
With that, we head to material new to the 2016 Blu-ray. In addition to three trailers, we get four fresh featurettes.
Looking Back at Labyrinth runs nine minutes, 31 seconds. It comes with info from Jennifer Connelly, Brian Henson, Jim Henson Company CEO Lisa Henson, Jim Henson (from 1986), Center for Puppetry Arts founder Vincent Anthony, and Cheryl Henson.
The reel gives us general thoughts about the Labyrinth production and its impact. Nothing revelatory emerges, though I like that we got modern-day remarks from Connelly.
After this, The Henson Legacy spans 10 minutes, 36 seconds. With it, we find notes from Connelly, Brian Henson, Cheryl Henson, Anthony, Lisa Henson, Jim Henson (from 1986), exhibitions director Kelsey Fritz and conservation technician lead Russ Vick.
“Legacy” examines family life with Jim Henson as well as the Jim Henson Collection at the Center for Puppetry Arts. Much of this leans toward praise for Jim and it also feels like an ad for the Center.
David Bowie died early in 2016, so Remembering the Goblin King reflects this. In the four-minute, 48-second reel, we locate comments from Brian Henson, Connelly, Cheryl Henson, Jim Henson (1986) and Bowie (1986).
We get info about Bowie’s casting and work but it mostly acts as a tribute. Don’t expect much real info but the piece seems decent.
Finally, Anniversary Q&A fills 41 minutes, 24 seconds. Accompanied by moderator Adam Savage, the live panel involves Brian Henson, Prell, Goelz, and Weiser, though Henson needs to leave after about 12 minutes.
Though this session, we get info about the participants’ work on the film. This turns into a lively and informative program.
Labyrinth will never be one of my favorite films, and if it didn’t star my all-time favorite performer, I’d probably never bother with it. Still, it has enough going for it that kids should enjoy it. The Blu-ray presents very good picture along with pretty positive audio and a strong set of supplements. This turns into a fine Blu-ray rendition of the film.
