The Development of Labyrinth - A Potted History

[Laszlo]

I'm less of a fan of the idea of Jareth transforming into a goblin, as he is somewhat sympathetic in the film and I like speculating as to why on earth a race of foot-high goblins would have a human (or, at least, human-like) man as their King.

Yes, thats true too. But this leads to another question: Why on earth would someone like Jareth would want to live with a whole folk of stupid goblins?
After all it is all about this fairy tale/magic feeling. It doesnt have to be logic.
Jim Henson once said it is all a dream, very much like Alice in Wonderland or Oz.

 

[Rachael]

That's a good point, and the question of why Jareth would want to become Goblin King in the first place is an interesting one. RTL says that he found them amusing to begin with and that’s why he took them as his subjects, and although it’s not a particularly compelling explanation it’s the closest thing to an explanation we have.

Jim is on record as saying the entire film was Sarah's dream, in an interview with Ecran Fantastique he said-

The heroine [Sarah] lives in her own little imaginary and fantasy-laden world. Dreams are very important to her. The Wizard of Oz means a lot to her. When she goes into the dream world, which makes up the whole film, she plays a role that recalls the way she feels about the real world. At the end, when she emerges from the dream, from the fantasy, she starts to renounce the foolishness of her childhood, and what the characters say is simply we’re here; we’re part of you, all of us as we are. You don’t have to give up your fantasies because you grow up; they’re part of you all your life.

Of course, this is backed up by hints in the film, such as Bowie appearing as the boyfriend of Sarah's mother in photographs, the toys in Sarah's room that resemble characters from the Labyrinth and so on.

In light of that, it's interesting that the JHC has officially sanctioned the view that everything that happened in the film is real with the Return to Labyrinth series. I imagine that must be for two reasons, a.) there aren’t many narrative possibilities if you’re starting from the view-point that Sarah dreamed the events of the film b.) the majority of the fan-base adopted the view that everything that happened in the film is real.

 

[RedPiggy]

Well, here's the problem: there are hints in the movie and in RTL that it's "kinda-sorta the way it happened," to borrow from Kermit.

It may be that the Underground is another dimension, much like Fraggle Rock and the lands connected to it (hence why I consider those lands part of a much bigger universal concept in my fics, with some justification if anyone's interested, LOL). Yes, there are hints that the Labyrinth is fueled by your imagination/heart/dreams/whatever ... but the Labyrinth isn't the entire area. Jareth/Owl is there way before Sarah even gets home. The rain only starts when Sarah feels irritable that her playtime is over? When she conquers the Labyrinth, she is in another room four hours after the start of the stuff happening in the house (IIRC). Even if she were sleep walking, that's a lot of travel and a lot of time spent wandering around. And how did the owl get in the house? If the dream started as she flopped onto her bed (which is what the junkyard version of the room wants to imply), she never went into her parents' room and she never wished Toby away and the owl never broke through the door. There's also no storm, not even a hint of one.

With the Labyrinth being made of Jareth's heart (more or less), it seems more likely that the dimension is real but the Labyrinth is a specific structure geared towards one's own psychological issues. As Skub notes in RTL, there is no "right" path, only the path you're on. If Jareth created the Labyrinth to keep Mizumi (or others) out, perhaps Sarah solved it precisely because she sympathizes with the idea that she just wants to be alone in her dreams. It resonated with her on an unconsious level and she managed to break free once she realized (kinda) she needed others as well, something Jareth secretly wants but has had a hard time finding.