When Sarah enters her room in Labyrinth, the camera pans past objects that inspire the look of the Labyrinth. She's got the Escher print on her wall, a Sir Didimus stuffed animal, and the ballgown is on her bed. Watching Labyrinth the day after Where The Wild Things Are makes the book a lot more obvious. I never noticed it before but I hadn't really watched Labyrinth since I was a kid and I didn't really focus on the bits before the goblins show up. But now it just jumps out at me as something really deliberate. I also watched the credits all the way through. There's a special mention of Maurice Sandek.
    With all this evidence I had to assume that there was some connection between Maurice Sendak and Jim Henson's muppet making company that predated the 2009 release of Where The Wild Things Are. I'm clever that way. That's why I spend 2 days reading everything I could about Labyrinth.

  • Two documentaries on the making the Labyrinth called Inside The Labyrinth and Journey Through The Labyrinth.
  • A manga sequel that takes place 13 years later called Return to Labyrinth.
  • A book, The Goblins of the Labyrinth, which contains sketches of the goblins by Brian Froud and descriptions by Terry Jones.
  • The Amazing Labyrinth LCD watch
  • Firey Halloween Costume
  • Creepy Ziggy Stardust Muppet which wasn't made for the movie.
  • Lucasfilm game called Labyrinth: The Computer Game. There is a collection of the localized versions here: The LucasArts Museum


       

 

There's not really a lot of information about the Henson/Sandek connection. In my mind I can see the influence in the character design for Ludo. He's a yeti. With big horns and red hair. He doesn't really fit my internal image of a yeti but he would not be out of place in Where The Wild Things Are. The cool thing I learned is that the two guys operating Ludo had screens strapped to themsleves that displayed the main camera footage and the view from a camera attached to Ludo's right horn. I don't know Maurice Sandek's work at all, so I assumed that the designs for the monsters were inspired by Where The Wild Things Are because it was shown in Sarah's room. Because it certainly wasn't Little Bear.

It turns out that the plot of Labyrinth is very similar to Outside and Over There. "With Papa off to sea and Mama despondent, Ida must go outside over there to rescue her baby sister from goblins who steal her to be a goblin's bride." Which was published in 1981. And that Henson and Maurice worked together during the start of Sesame Street.

 

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