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June 27th 2013

Happy Birthday Labyrinth!! Did you know....

Twenty-seven years ago today, a Jim Henson-directed fantasy movie called Labyrinth was released and... well, quickly became a bit of a box office disaster. This strange movie, about a girl (Jennifer Connelly) searching for her baby brother who's been kidnapped by a goblin king (David Bowie), was maybe a little too weird for mainstream audiences at the time.

But thankfully over the last 27 years whether it was due to the amazing creatures and sets or to Bowie’s extraordinary wig and lunchbox, it's really gathered a strong following and you only need to see the popularity of our Labyrinth T-Shirts to know this movie has definitely become a cult classic, and for good reason. Labyrinth is one of the last non-animated films of the pre-computer age. Yes, there is probably a few computer effects used in the film, but when you consider that 1986 was also the year that Pixar released Luxo Jr., marking the beginning of a computer animation revolution, Labyrinth's props-and-puppets approach to imaginative filmmaking feels like something of an to an era in film making.

To celebrate this fantastic mile-stone (yes, it makes me feel old too) I thought I'd give you 10 interesting facts surrounding Labyrinth, so enough gas-bagging as we only have 13 hours to reach Goblin City, after all….

1 - The screenplay went through 25 drafts, mostly to inject songs and more humour to ensure legendary pop star David Bowie would agree to star as antagonist Jareth the Goblin King.

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