T w e n t y S i d e d

I’ve been finishing up preparations for Christmas, and I’m guessing a significant portion of the readers are, too. The Christmas Life Day decorations have gone live on Star Wars: The Old Republic, as well as a graphics update that has utterly wrecked what I perceive as a fairly small minority of the user-base, but I don’t know that for sure. I, sadly, have not been able to watch any Christmas movies, yet; although I’ve come across a fair number of rankings of such films on YouTube this year. Specifically, I’ve seen multiple rankings of Rankin Bass Christmas specials (the company that did all the stop-motion films like Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer); comparisons of Peanuts specials, both Christmas and other holidays; and several rankings of the various major versions of A Christmas Carol. Oh, and a few talking about the Jean Shepherd universe movies that primarily rotate around the 80’s movie A Christmas Story. I’m gonna add to these and give my own favorite Christmas movies, and maybe some other holidays that I throw in. While I eat a chicken sandwich.

Continue reading ⟩⟩ “It’s Christmas Time Again”

Paige Francis He/him

Time to close out my argument (such as it is) and the movie. As the dance sequence ends the story transitions back to a more straight-forward growing up/coming of age aspect. Sarah has to make her final choice then prove that she has mastered the lesson. Jareth now will appear in black (see the screenshot in the previous post), representing his ultimate role as villain and adversary. And of course, having proved she is the master (drink), Sarah will be “rewarded” through ultimate understanding.

Continue reading ⟩⟩ “Dance Magic: Final Thoughts on Jim Henson’s Labyrinth”

Paige Francis He/him

We left Labyrinth at what I described as a transition point in the movie. Sarah is now stuck at the bottom of an oubliette (one of many in the labyrinth, Hoggle will inform us shortly), although Jareth will continue to refer to “the” oubliette and “it” as if there is only one. Was it a script inconsistency, or an intentional reference to the fact that Hoggle is a product of the story while Jareth is the storyteller? Much like many insane Kubrickian hypothesis, I don’t think it matters. As far as the story goes, she *is* in *the* oubliette, and that’s all we need to know. The labyrinth is “full of them,” according to Hoggle, and considering Sarah is dealing with more significant matters than the pedantry of the Goblin Kingdom…it is, after all, only the setting…they may as well all be the same oubliette. And as we have seen, they *could* all be the same oubliette, all leading to same possible outcomes.

Continue reading ⟩⟩ “More of Jim Henson’s Labyrinth; on the significance of Jennifer Connelly (Part Two)”

Paige Francis He/him