This of course is just my opinion but I am still surprised that the collective genius of Henson, Lucas and Bowie made such a lame movie. I ended up watching on fast forward stopping at times thing that maybe it would get better but it didn’t.
This remains a marvellous family film full of magic, strange creatures and some average songs by star David Bowie. Directed by Jim Henson who created The Muppets this has all the hallmarks of that iconic TV show and written by Terry Jones there is the added dark edge that makes it a great children's film, as it's funny but slightly scary too. Teenager Sarah (Jennifer Connolly) is ordered to babysit her baby brother and resents the job so she casually wishes he be taken away by the Goblin King and whadda yer know? Yep he does just that. Played perfectly by David Bowie he takes the baby to his castle and Sarah is given 13 hours to navigate a labyrinth and reach the castle or the baby gets turned into a goblin. Inside the maze she meets creatures that either help or hinder her journey and she has to cross the Bog of Eternal Stench. Henson's use of puppetry mixed with actors still works wonderfully even in these days of CGI (indeed this film boasts an early experiment with CGI in the form of an owl). The film is littered with clues from the outset and it's a lovely film for modern children who love Harry Potter etc to discover and adults, like me, can still secretly enjoy it too.