Who Has the Most Toys?
Every Labyrinth site has a section for all the crap in Sarah's room, because most of the main characters are
inspired by some article of crap or another. Sarah has a pretty cool room, but some of her stuff really is just
Life Debris that should be streamlined. That's one of the few lessons in this film that are actually valid.
Sarah learns that she has too much crap, and should give her older, worn out and less-desirable articles of it to someone
who has no taste (Toby).
But there is some interesting stuff in here that she should keep. Personally, when I watched this movie as a child, I missed all of these things: the scrapbook with her mom's stuff in it, the way the toys mirror the characters, everything. It seems obvious
now that we all have DVDs and photo editors to capture these details, but back in the day, Labyrinth was confined to
a grainy VHS copy tape that wasn't even mine. (I had to go to a friend's house to watch it.) Only now do I get to enjoy
it fully and appreciate all of Sarah's crap.
Hoggle
This Hoggle figurine is part of a bookend. Surprisingly accurate, even to the proportions and posture of the
actor who played him.
Ludo
This is a stuffy version of Ludo. It sits on the bookshelf next to Sarah's door.
Fiery
This simplified version of one of the Fire Gang is one of the most obvious Labyrinth characters.
He appears very clearly in the pan over Sarah's belongings.
The Cleaners
This is an obscure one on the bookshelf next to the door. It looks like a book? Or maybe an LP cover, and is lined up with a
bunch more of similarly shaped things. It seems to depict a metallic spacecraft with jagged blades that says "Slashing Machine." This seems like a weird name (or maybe a prophetic comment on Tin Machine) but this was how The Cleaners were referred to in an early
version of the Lab script.
MC Escher
This picture is huge and right next to Sarah's bed; at one point she even looks at it deliberately for no reason.
Very obvious, but somehow I even missed this one and its connection to the final scenes in the film.
This artwork is cited in the credits. (Contrary to Stewie Griffin's guess of "Crazy Stairs," it's called "Relativity.")
Sir Didymus
This is another obvious one, though he looks more like a squirrel here than the fox-like version in the film.
Otherwise, he's one of the more accurately rendered toy versions of the characters; even his eye patch is on the correct side.
The Labyrinth
This is a scaled-down version of the hedge-maze part of the Labyrinth, right before Sarah meets Ludo. It even has similar design and decorations.
Sarah!
This music box plays "As The World Falls Down" and depicts Sarah in her white gown at the Ball.
Jareth
Most importantly, Sarah has a Jareth figurine on her desk.
He's somewhat accurate and even holds a crystal in his left hand, as though offering it to Sarah. Overhead, he's waving the riding crop (or the swagger cane), apparently in frustration. He doesn't look happy; this might be his response to Sarah's rejecting his proposal. This Jareth is also wearing a crown.
Other Stuff
Robin Hood!
A cute shoutout to Disney's version. These guys appear in Sarah's Scrapbook.
Robin will be obvious to any self-respecting moviegoer, but the others are Friar Tuck and
the Church mice.
David!
Bowie actually got two roles in this movie, as Jareth and as Sarah's Mom's Archival On-Again/Off-Again Squeeze. These pictures are found in Sarah's scrapbook and on the mirror at her desk. They show Bowie and an
anonymous actor (?) who got to snuggle with him for these staged shots.
On what the film provides, Sarah's Mom (Linda) might be dead. Or she could have just divorced and gotten on
with her life. If so, she's done well for herself, dumping the Ex and making face time with King David.
By the novelization of the movie, Linda is actually alive and well. And the guy in the picture is her co-star named Jeremy. Probably not coincidence, Jeremy = Jareth, and the novel describes these guys similarly. (Handsome blondies who both wear a gold necklace.)
But this all has tremendous implication for Sarah's relationship with Jareth. As is clear from the scrapbook, Sarah idolizes Linda
and wants to have
her life. Linda is/was dating a guy who looks like Bowie, and Sarah becomes involved with Jareth who looks like the guy who
looks like Bowie. This is all Classic Transference in a modified Elektra Complex where they both dump Sarah's Father
because he's a total dud, and it ends with Bowie nailing everyone.
There's also random stuff in Sarah's Room, like this CATS Poster, and this Globe that is set to Australia.
CATS was all the rage at the time. People were wearing shirts of it and it was constantly being advertised - -
Dude, you could not get away from CATS in the late 1980s!
Australia was like that, too, come to
think of it.
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