So I recently had the chance to catch Jim Henson’s Labyrinth on the big screen and I made sure to use that opportunity to get a really good look at all the cool stuff in Sarah’s bedroom. I’ve know for awhile that there are a lot of neat items hidden in the room, specifically there are versions of most of the main characters she meets while trapped in the labyrinth laying about her room in one form or another, but I was surprised at how many of them there are. So for this new Awesome Bedrooms piece I wanted to focus not just on some of the cool real world toys, but these character specific pieces as well…
I want to preface this by admitting that I know I’m gonna miss some stuff as there seems to be a lot of interesting things in Sarah’s room that I just couldn’t get a good enough look at (specifically some board games and books on her shelves), so if anyone has spotted anything else, please let me know in the comments. Alright, let’s dive into the bedroom…
1). Slashing Machine Record (reference to the Cleaners)
2). Songbird Mini-Market Sweet Shop play set
3). Ludo plush doll
4). Montgomery Moose plush doll from the Get Along Gang
5). M.C. Escher Relativity print (reference to the inside of Jareth’s castle)
6). Porcelain Hand Sculpture (reference to the Helping Hands)
7). Evita Poster
8). King Kong Manhattan Bank toy
So, I never noticed the Slashing Machine album on Sarah’s shelf (my friend Kevin pointed it out after we saw the flick in the theater.) Though it’s not a real band (sadly!), I think the album cover is supposed to be in the vein of some of the early Journey or Boston album covers and it’s a reference to the scene with the Cleaners that chase Sarah and Hoggle through one of the labyrinth’s tunnels. In the above screen capture you also get to see references to Ludo, the layout of the Goblin King’s castle (via the M.C. Escher print), and what I assume is a reference to the Helping Hands (considering the amount of items that reference stuff in the film, I have to assume that hand sculpture was intended.) I also wanted to point to the Evita poster since Sarah is a theater buff (as her real mother is a theater actress as seen in clippings around her room.)
9). Where the Wild Things Are book
10). Sir Didymus plush doll
11). Labyrinth marble game (reference is hopefully pretty obvious ;) )
In the end credits of the film Henson tips his hat to the works of Maurice Sendak and how much they inspired him, so it’s cool to see a copy of Where the Wild Things Are on Sarah’s desk (and there’s a much more specifically influential book seen later.) WtWTA certainly points to the idea of a human child transported into a fantasy world, which is the main conceit of Labyrinth. Speaking of books and fantasy inspiration featuring characters transported to another world…
12). Classic fairy tale/fantasy story books
13). Hoggle statue/bookend
A way more influential Sendak book can be seen on Sarah’s desk than WtWTA which is Outside Over There, which tells the story of a girl who has to rescue her baby sister from Goblins. This is placed next to other classic works which also feature characters who transverse into the realm of fantasy such as Lewis Carroll’s Through the Looking Glass and L. Frank Baum’s Wizard of Oz books. There is also some of the Grim’s & H.C. Andersen’s fairy tales there as well as a copy of Disney’s version of Snow White (which the amnesia peach is most likely a reference.)
14). Jareth the Goblin King statue
15). Firey plush doll
16). CATS poster (more broadway ephemera)
17). Music box (reference to the amnesia ball sequence)
18). Dungeons and Dragons Expert Level box set
I was so happy to scope that D&D box on Sarah’s shelf during the sequence where the hoarding goblins were trying to trap her in a variation of her room after she ate from the poisoned peach. For one it’s neat to spot some role paying stuff in a bedroom finally, and two it’s really cool to see it in a girl’s room. Maybe when Toby gets a little older Sarah will introduce him to the world of RPGs…
The last thing I wanted to point out was that there are a lot of hidden images of David Bowie’s profile throughout the movie. Finding these is a game in and of itself, but I’ll point to the most obvious one that is a series of rocks in a portion of the labyrinth that when viewed from the right angle form everyone’s favorite androgynous glam star…
Speaking of Bowie, one of his unintentional contributions to the film is his, um, wealth of crotch real estate (yeah, that’s subtle enough right?) Let me just say that seeing this on the big screen for the first time, well, Bowie’s well-endowed stature is very, very hard to avoid. Do not make direct eye contact, it just angers his crotch…
Other Awesome 80s Bedrooms I’ve covered…
Sara’s Room from Adventures in Babysitting
Eugene’s Room from The Monster Squad
David’s room from Flight of the Navigator
Robbie’s room from Poltergeist
Pee Wee’s room from Pee Wee’s Big Adventure
Elliott’s room from E.T. Part 1 Elliott’s room Part 2