Another Jareth's Realm exclusive, this time all the way from the Netherlands.

Thank you again to my lovely assistant :p Solea for loaning this Dutch mag for me to scan. This one's a doozy -- how often do you get two pix of Sarah looking intelligent in one article?!

Click on a thumbnail to view the full-size page.

Jim Henson: His successful career started with the creation of Kermit the Frog, a simple green hand puppet. In his latest film Labyrinth, the fifty-year-old “puppet man” tackles something a bit more spectacular.

The film took up three years of his life. He had to consider so many things about the film: the characters, the settings, the plot points. And he had to find the best technicians and actors for the projects. Eventually he did the initial test filming. And at last the film Labyrinth was complete.

So is the film’s maker, Jim Henson, now a happy man? Yes, he is. “If you make a film, there is always a thing or two that doesn’t go the way that you want,” he says. “In Labyrinth, that was not the case. It appeared on the screen exactly as I envisioned it in my head. It’s the best film I have ever made.” That sounds rather boastful: “the best film.” But he says it questioningly, jokingly.

Jim Henson does not want to come across as egotistical or arrogant. But he doesn’t need to be worried about that. Even though he stayed in the very best hotels and Presidential suites during the film’s European promotional tour, he remains humble. His corduroy pants, striped socks and geeky clothes don’t really reflect the amazing success and wealth he has achieved with “The Muppet Show.” The man is still friendly, lively and obsessed with puppets…understandably, since they play a large role in his latest film.

The plot of Labyrinth isn’t anything special. Sarah, played by the then 14-year-old Jennifer Connelly, gets so pissed at her petulant little brother that she wishes that the goblins would take him away. This promptly happens. Sarah, scared for her brother, goes in search of her brother, who’s in the hands of Jareth (David Bowie), the Goblin King. Just like Alice in Wonderland, Sarah encounters strange, comic figures in her way through the weird and beautiful fairy-like labyrinth along her way to the castle of the Goblin King.

And it’s really these characters, from talking worms to monsters and goblins, that make the film so striking. “They see; they have human characteristics, and they move themselves in a lifelike way,” says Henson. “In the film we used some hand puppets and marionettes. Little people sat inside some puppets, while other puppets were radio-controlled. Working on this film was so fun. It was such a challenge. With any film, you start with just a script. There are so many things that you have to figure out how to do. It’s great when you’re working on a project that always meets you with new problems to solve.” 

Real people

In a deviation from Henson’s previous films and TV shows, the main characters in Labyrinth are played by real people. “I changed my practice from The Dark Crystal,” explains Henson. “In that film, the main characters are puppets, but the viewers couldn’t identify with the puppets. As a result, they couldn’t really suspend their disbelief for the film.”

“Jennifer was 14 when this film was shot, and I think she did a fantastic job,” says Henson. “She had the most important role and, if that hadn’t been done well, the entire film would have rung false.” 

“I asked David Bowie to do Jareth because the character must have something attractive and menacing about him at the same time. David Bowie has that quality; he is positive and negative at the same time. He also did the music for the film. I thought it would be interesting to put rock music in a fantasy film. It would be something new. And David Bowie thought that way too.”

“Working with actors is very different than working with puppets,” says Henson. “A puppet can do lots of things, but even the simplest movement is a challenge. You work really hard to create the impression that a puppet can do anything, but actually it’s people that are doing everything. Since people are controlling the puppets, you are limited in what you can do. I’ve had to adjust my expectations when working with actors. It’s fun, but my specialty is working with puppets. Of course, working with actors takes less time and preparation. I’m not sure if I’ll do people-only films in the future. Maybe I’ll work with much better puppets.”

Henson finds that there’s nothing easy about working with puppets, especially because they require a lot of manpower, and the puppets’ movements have to appear realistic. So it’s no ordinary technician who operates the puppets, but a specialist. For example, there is one man whose sole responsibility in the film is nothing more than the ugly mug of character Hoggle. “It’s a type of acting,” Henson says. “The same applies to people who sit inside the puppets. You can’t just pick such people off the streets. I mean, if you make regular films, you don’t select just anybody to play the roles. In fact, the people in Labyrinth are actors that have trained for at least three years to be able to do this sort of work well.”

The exclamation “Oh no, a film with puppets, that’s for children!” annoys Henson. “With puppets you can make just as many films as with human actors,” he says. “Well, I don’t do Shakespeare with my puppets, but they are perfect for creating dream-like worlds…just like puppets were used in prehistory…the same way that they are still used to this day in Indonesia. And puppets aren’t really only for kids. My own kids range in age from 26 to 16, and I bet that the youngest enjoyed Labyrinth just as much as the eldest.”

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