When ‘Labyrinth’ Was Snubbed by the Oscars

A Legacy of Puppets and Magic

Forty years ago, Jim Henson, the visionary behind the Muppets, released his final feature film, Labyrinth, a dark children’s fantasy that followed a teenage girl named Sarah Williams, played by Jennifer Connelly in her screen debut. Sarah had to rescue her infant brother Toby from the Goblin King, Jareth, portrayed by rock legend David Bowie.

Labyrinth did not perform well during its initial release in 1986, as it was a throwback adventure film filled with puppets at a time when action stars like Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone dominated the box office. However, over the years, the film has grown into a beloved cult classic, and it is now back in theaters for its 40th-anniversary celebration. While it’s heartening to see the film receive recognition, it’s easy to forget that Labyrinth was one of the most glaring omissions in Oscar history.

The Oscar Snub That Still Stings

It’s hard to argue that James Cameron’s Aliens didn’t deserve the Oscar for Best Visual Effects at the 1987 Oscars, but Labyrinth should have been in the conversation. At the time, only three slots were available for the category, and Henson’s film was overlooked in favor of Little Shop of Horrors and Poltergeist II: The Other Side. While these films had their merits—especially since some of the same artisans who worked on Labyrinth were involved—it’s clear that Labyrinth offered groundbreaking work through Henson’s Creature Shop. The puppetry and animatronics in the film were executed at an unprecedented scale, bringing a sense of humanity to fantastical creatures without relying on CGI.

In an era before digital effects became the norm, the team behind Labyrinth managed to create lifelike characters that felt real. Despite this, the Academy seemed to hold a long-standing bias against Henson’s work, having previously ignored the technical achievements in The Muppet Movie and The Dark Crystal.

Recognition Elsewhere

While the Oscars may have missed the mark, other award bodies recognized the artistry of Labyrinth. The British Academy of Film acknowledged the film by nominating it for the BAFTA for Best Special Visual Effects, a nod it had also received for The Dark Crystal. Additionally, the Saturn Awards honored Labyrinth with nominations for Best Fantasy Film and Best Costumes.

Though the film didn’t win any of those awards, the nominations proved that it deserved serious consideration. The Oscars have since expanded the number of nominees in the special effects categories, increasing it to five in 2010. Unfortunately, this change came too late for Labyrinth and its creators.

The Art of Puppetry

In an interview with Den of Geek for the film’s 30th anniversary, Brian Froud, the conceptual artist behind the puppets in Labyrinth, explained what made the creations so unique.

“The great thing about puppets is that they do nothing! They actually do very, very little,” said Froud. “And so the trick is, for me when I was designing things in Labyrinth, is to define creatures that whatever they do they do it really well so you imagine it’s doing a lot more than it really is. All the shapes and the forms are telling their own story, they’re giving you information about the character and what it’s doing, what it parses in the world that I designed.”

“All the creatures in Labyrinth are made of stuff! They’re made of dead things,” added Froud. “We make you believe they have life and personality, and that comes from creating shapes and forms that respond to a puppeteer, a person on the inside or at the edge, they are giving it life. So humanity shines through the puppet because it’s coming from a human.”

A Visionary Approach

“It was Jim’s idea to mix puppets with people in Labyrinth,” recalled Froud during a separate interview with Forbes. “When we came up with the idea for the film … the first thing he said is that he wanted to put some people in it. What I saw immediately was a vision of a baby surrounded by goblins, because in folklore goblins steal babies and that’s what fairies do as well. Visually it’s just a great image.”

In a behind-the-scenes video from the film, puppeteer and actor Ron Mueck dons an oversized costume as Ludo, one of Sarah’s allies in the film. The clip also features Connelly sharing her thoughts about acting against her puppet co-stars.

“I love working with puppets,” related Connelly. “In the beginning, it was hard because … it’s just strange thinking about the fact that you really are talking to a puppet. But it completely wears away and you just … completely forget that they are puppets and that they’re not just some kind of creatures or something which are real. Because they are so real. The puppeteers make them so lifelike and you can really learn to relate to each one of them.”

Timeless Appeal

Because of the passage of time, it’s easy to overlook that many of Labyrinth‘s special effects were achieved in-camera rather than via CGI. The only CGI in the movie is the owl at the beginning of the story.

There is a certain campiness to the film, particularly with Jareth’s singing and dancing with the goblins inside the Labyrinth. But the staying power of Labyrinth is truly impressive, and it’s just waiting for another generation to discover what a magical piece of filmmaking that it turned out to be, even if the Academy didn’t quite get it back in the day.