Original subtitles

[Music]

You're him, aren't you? You're the

goblin king.

[Applause]

[Music]

Get me out of here.

[Music]

[Applause]

I'm on the

ground

[Music]

again. Get me out of

here. I'm on the

ground. Just

the take me down.

on the ground.

[Applause]

David Bowie and friends hard at work at

2 a.m. in the Atlantic Studios, New York

City.

[Music]

They're laying down a new Bowie

composition, Underground, the title

track for the latest Jim Hansen, George

Lucas film adventure, Labyrinth.

[Music]

Is that the castle beyond the goblin

city? Turn back,

Sarah. Turn back before it's too late. I

can't. Don't you understand that I

can't?

What a pity.

It doesn't look that far.

It's further than you think. Time is

short.

You have 13 hours in which to solve the

labyrinth before your baby brother

becomes one of us

forever. Such a piss.

The labyrinth.

[Music]

But to begin at the

beginning, it was here at L Street

Studios England that a journey through

the labyrinth had begun some months

earlier for director Jim Hansen. When we

first started to write this film, we had

this evil goblin king. And then

somewhere quite early on, we said, "What

if what if he were a a rock singer, a

contemporary figure?" And uh and then we

said who? And we said Michael Jackson

staying David Boy. See I mean there only

a few people that you would think of and

David was immediately the one we wanted.

He first brought me the concept on the

1983 tour that I did in America um and

asked me if I'd consider doing the part.

and he showed me Brian Fra's artwork and

he showed me a cop copy of The Dark

Crystal which I found a fascinating

piece of work and I could see the

potentiality of making that kind of

movie with humans with songs with a a

more of a lighter comedy script. I said,

you know, if you like the script on

something like this, would you consider

being uh Jarth and singing and writing

the songs for him and so forth? And and

David liked the whole thing from the

beginning. What's the word on uh David?

He's not going to be every age group

really has a whole thing about David and

he himself is a very normal

well-grounded straightforward person

that is absolutely professional. And if

he says hoodoo

and you

do the page, it's sometimes better just

to make the jump look not like jump as

opposed to, you know what I mean? Cheed

out. So you can place it. You can place

it. We brought in Charles Auggins to

choreograph a couple of the numbers and

he worked with David on dance magic.

Get there. What we wanted was that very

vibrant dynamic sort of black movement.

It's what Charles does all the time.

Jump. You know what I mean? Then they

can start to think, right? Just like

that. And then Yeah. Then you know, and

then when you then you won't have

Okay.

And action. One, two, three, four. Jarth

is the goblin king. one feels that he's

rather reluctantly inherited the

position of being goblin king as though

he really would like to be I don't know

down in Soho or something but he's not

his his thing in life is to be goblin

king and he runs the whole place as well

as he can and he's kind of spoiled gets

everything his own way he's a big kid

what has happened is that the goblins

without his command have just gone off

and taken another baby brother from

another

And he's got to sort out the whole

situation. You remind me of a babe. What

babe? Babe with the power. What power?

Power of voodoo. Voodoo. You do what?

Remind me of the babe.

[Applause]

[Laughter]

Jim gave me a complete free hand.

Allowed me to say what I wanted and

write the things that I wanted. Dance

magic gave me a bit of a problem. It's a

song for the goblin king and the baby.

I saw my

baby crying hard as babe could cry. What

could I do?

My baby's love had gone and left my baby

blue. Nobody

knew what kind of magic spell to use.

Oh, puppy dog.

in the recording studio. The baby I

picked, one of the backing singers, uh,

Diva, had this cute little baby,

um, who couldn't put two gurgles

together and it wouldn't work for me. I

mean, it just it wouldn't go. I kicked

it. I did everything to make it scream,

but it wouldn't it was going to it

really buttoned its lips. So, I ended up

doing the gurgles. So, I'm the baby on

that track as

well. I thought, what the hell? I've

done laughing gnome. I might as well cut

all the way. We're back. I never thought

in 20 years I'd come back to working

with moans.

Janice Chambers was a a very very big

puppet scene. There were 48 puppets on

that set and 50 probably 52 53

puppeteers working at one time. It's one

room packed with puppets. It was quite a

feat actually getting that scene done.

It was great fun.

But real crazy. Real crazy. We had so

many people in it. When you get all the

puppets out of that set, it just looks

like Swiss cheese. You know, there's no

set left. There's holes everywhere.

People were walking around saying, "Any

minute the set's going to fall

down." In the planning, it was always

supposed to be 20 characters in that

scene, 20 puppets. Went on and looked at

it and realized it needs a lot more than

that. We had to run auditions the the

week before. We had to find an

additional 20 people, I think, to how

many people we already had worked with.

To add to all the mayhem, we had 8 to 12

little people in costumes running

around. And then at one point in the

song, we actually put them all on flying

rigs on wire

harnesses and had them jumping up 8 ft

in the

air. It was just a crazy scene. Nobody

was really told anything in particular

to do, especially when the song wasn't

going on. They were just told to be

goblins. Dance magic dance. Dance magic

dance. Dance magic dance on me.

Jump magic jump. Jump. Magic jump. Magic

jump. Jump. Magic jump. Magic jump on

me. That baby

[Music]

dance magic dance. Dance magic dance

magic

dance magic

dance magic jump jump magic

jump mag

[Applause]

I was uh in in the very early stages Jim

and I discussed what the film might be

about and and um we decided it'll be

about

goblins. From there I started to create

pictures and drawings and setting a feel

and a mood for the film. And I filled

sketchbook upon sketchbook just doodling

in corners and creating these creatures.

I sat at my desk with Brian's drawings

stacked on one side of the desk and

writing away sort of to see what would

happen. And every time I came to a new

scene and I needed another something to

happen, I looked through Brian's

drawings and found a character who was

kind of speaking to me already. And

suddenly there was the scene. It was

wonderful. It was um it was a strange

way of collaborating because although

Brian and I never sat down and worked

together, it felt that that's what we

were doing the whole time. I never like

to create fully finished designs because

that I feel that pins you down too much.

We have a workshop in which we use many

different talents to develop these

creatures that involve a lot of

technical

processes and I like the characters to

emerge slowly. I feel that my role is to

nurture that to bring out the different

qualities that are happening. Maybe just

latch on to the happy accidents and push

those a bit further.

Working with Brian, it becomes more of a

creative dialogue than than sort of

being given a design and said make this.

We have the incredible freedom of range

of uh of creative expression to uh

pursue something ourselves and Brian

incorporates it with his designs comes

back to us. Something else is done to

it. It goes back to him and so it

becomes quite literally a dialogue of

creative intensity. There's no firm

directive. The whole thing sort of

evolves in a in a wonderful provocative

and very satisfying kind of way.

Well, these are an organic stuff called

lychen or lichen, which in real fact is

very, very small. But, uh, Brian, the

conceptual artist, wanted eyeballs on

the end of each one of these little

things, and they have to follow Sarah.

Sarah's the little girl in the story

that as she walks by. So I had to invent

a cabling system that would uh control

all the eyeballs and uh slightly

separately too so that I've got five

separate circuits to control about 30

eyeballs. So they start off in one place

and then as they're shifted they all

move over to follow Sarah in a different

direction.

Can you see that, Ron? Can you see that?

No, she her face is right about here.

So, he wants to be able to look from her

to him.

Say something, worm.

Is the big worm have a mouth that red?

I don't know. Uhhuh. Okay. Yeah, that's

probably pretty good. Then that one has

just come on there behind you. You got a

chip down on the other one.

There is on rehearsal bell.

Okay. Jos, when you're casting a part

like Sarah, which is the part in the

film, you hope someone walks in the door

and is the right person. And when Jenny

walked in, she was the right person. And

it was one of those great little

moments. She did a wonderful reading and

she's a bright, intelligent actress who

takes direction well and everything was

just right.

[Music]

A Hello

Did you say hello? No, I said hello. But

that's close enough. You don't find a

chance to know the way through this

labyrinth, do you? Oh, me? No, I'm just

a worm.

I have to solve this labyrinth. But

there aren't any turns or any openings

or anything. It just goes on and on. And

Well, you ain't looking right. It's full

of openings. It's just you ain't seeing

them. Well, where are they? There's one

just across there. It's right in front

of you.

No, there isn't. There isn't an opening.

Of course, there is. You try walking

through it, you'll see what I mean.

What? Things are not always what they

seem in this place. So, you can't take

anything for granted.

Hey, it hasn't been one of my

aspirations to be an actress. I sort of

wanted to be a vet or I wanted to be a

carpenter or something. I didn't know

what I wanted to be, but I never thought

of being in films. So, I just really

started with modeling because friends of

my parents asked me if I wanted to. Then

I started doing commercials. Then I went

on a film audition which was for Once

Upon a Time in America. I think it was

my first one actually. I don't know. It

just sort of happened.

It comes down slowly into your hand and

the moment it's coming in. I found I

could talk very straight to her. We talk

about her performance. I didn't have to

tiptoe around her feelings or anything

like that. She could talk, you know,

just as an adult.

Apart from being quite beautiful, she's

a really good actress and she's a

pleasure to work with. one forgets that

she's just 14 years old and she's really

very

mature and it's a big strain a film like

this and every day without foul she was

on form and she's absolutely terrific.

[Music]

between you and thrill.

Here's a picture that we've been working

on and building the characters for about

a year and a half before we begin

shooting. But everything all comes

together in the last couple of weeks.

And then even if you have the characters

together, puppeteers start working with

them. They find problems or they try to

figure out what they're going to do with

these characters. So there's a a great

deal of sort of lastm minute adjusting,

figuring out what it's all going to be

before you start to shoot it. Get used

to this.

Then you can take your act on the road.

[Applause]

a little bit looser. Let's Let's see the

feet, too, I

think. One foot is backwards. All

right. And

uh Okay, good. Hey, Rob. In fact, as you

come down, we're getting too much of a

head on.

[Music]

[Applause]

[Music]

One bunch of characters that Sarah meets

in the labyrinth is called the fire

gang. When we first came up with them,

we didn't know how they were going to

move.

These came straight out of a drawing of

Brian's. It was these characters going

like

this and they were obviously sort of

very wild things, you know, and uh I

kind of uh just imagined they came in at

one point when uh she was really lost

and they they came on really helpful

things, you know, but she's not quite

sure how wild they're going to

get. And

then they sing this song saying, "Lift

your feet, lift your head." And I

thought, "Oh, it' be a good idea if they

lifted their heads up off their

shoulders as they sang that." So then

they went on singing a bit more. They

the more they got into their song, they

always ended up saying, "Ain't nobody as

wild as me." Which this one would lift

his head up and sort of roll it down his

shoulders and start tossing it around

and playing it like a basketball and

lobbing it around.

That was part of the original problem of

how to do that, creating this whole

thing that would come apart and be put

together in different ways. Back then he

pulls forward and then we go back.

[Music]

When we first came up with these

characters, we didn't really know how

they would move. We had to put a series

of puppeteers working with them just to

figure out how they would move, what

they were capable of.

We tried manipulating them in different

ways. Uh attaching the feet to the

puppeteers's feet, working the feet with

rods, and we found each way of operating

them would create different kinds of

movement. Ah, the clap might be a

problem. A lot of the decision was how

were they supposed to move? And what we

ended up with, of course, was a great

combination. And so the rehearsals were

quite useful because they discovered a

lot of different configurations and

movements.

[Music]

Oh yeah. Yeah. We we'll redistribute

them. Obviously to shoot the fire gang

we have to hide the puppeteers. So we

had them all wearing black velvet. Now

velvet is probably the blackest fabric

that you can use. And so that's what

they had to wear.

The set itself had to also be covered

with black. And we had to get rid of

anything reflective, any any little

white dots or anything like that would

show up.

2

[Music]

We shot the puppets first with a

computerized camera and then we removed

the black velvet and shot the background

using the computer to make the camera

move at exactly the same speed and so

forth. And all of these elements were

put together later in the laboratory.

[Applause]

So when things get too tough and your

chin is dragging on the ground and even

down looks up down looks up. Bad luck.

We can show you a good time.

The thing about puppets is they're

really kind of liberating things. You

can have extraordinary creatures doing

anything you like. For example, I

remember the first time I saw the Empire

Strikes Back and I saw the Yoda. I

thought, "What on earth is that? It must

be a little man because he's wiggling

his ears and his eyes move and

everything." I just I came out of the

theater cinema thinking, "How on earth

did they do that?" Couldn't believe it

was a

[Music]

puppet. Well, Hoggle is certainly the

most complicated puppet creature we've

ever built. It's the most technically uh

elaborate face because we've we've put

about 18 motors in there to control all

the different portions of the face with

these 18 motors and four people

operating that from outside by radio

control creates enormous problems in

just trying to figure out how to make

that into one expression.

The Hoggle

crew are five performers. Five

performers. One of which is really an

actress Sherry. She's inside the

costume. She does the whole all the body

movement and her head is inside the

head. However, the jaw is not connected

to her jaw. Nothing that the face is

doing has any connection with what she's

doing with her face. The other four

members of the crew are all radio crew,

myself included. A head doesn't just

speak. It it moves while it speaks. and

and the body has to have the right

attitude, the right breathing and the

right, you know, stance, body position

and stuff like that. So, it was it was

very important to really act out and

know what transitions were going on. Um,

just as much as the people doing the

head, you monster. I breathe as fast as

I can spray. Five performers trying to

get one character out of one puppet is a

very tough thing. That makes it worse.

That makes it basically what it takes is

a lot of rehearsing and getting to know

each other. Getting to know each other's

timing so that when I go, you know,

something like that, the eyes go, you

know, and Sherry goes and, you know,

everybody does it at the same time and

they all know that it's going to come

and they know exactly what it's going to

sound like and all that. That took a lot

of rehearsal, ain't

it? Now, I do that. Would you go left or

right?

We both stayed open to him.

It's Hog and don't because he was the

most complicated character. We were

trying to do more with him and he had to

be virtually the second lead in the

film. His hands were always a problem

because Shie has very small hands and we

had to build these sort of large hands

over her. Vera, do we have the little

hanky? Yeah. Oh, great. Wonderful. Let's

see what you can do. Can you get that?

It's tough.

Almost. How long is this movie going to

be?

Okay, now here we go.

Two of them. Oh, all right. Great.

Tell you what. You give me the bracelet

and I'll show you the way out of the

labyrinth. You were going to do that

anyway. Yes. Well, that's what would

make it a particularly nice gesture on

your part. No. I I'll tell you what. If

you won't take me to the center, take me

as far as you can, and then I'll do it

on my own. What needs that anyway?

Plastic. Now, don't promise nothing, but

uh I'll take you as far as I can. Then

you're on your own, right?

Right.

Right.

Plastic. I can't bring myself to call

them puppets because I don't feel what

Jim Henson does is puppetry. I mean,

it's I don't know what there's no name

for it. It's just sort of some other

kind of magic really. Um, but I suppose

we we're going to call it puppetry, so

I'll call it puppets then. Um, I mean,

Jim's things, I mean, they're just so uh

they can do anything. For a graphic

artist, creating a two-dimensional

optical illusion is difficult enough.

But creating an optical illusion in

three dimensions was a real challenge

for our production designer Elliot

Scott. Scotty designed it so there's

nothing that tells you what's up or

down. And everything intercuts. In other

words, it's all lit so that there's no

giveaway as to what's top and what's

bottom. This means that you can never

orient yourself to what you're looking

at.

be nice if you could wait a little bit

longer cuz I'd love the picture clear.

You know, the middle point of my cut

should be on things. There you go. Five.

Five points. Take four.

You turn my world. You precious

near

exhaust everything.

It's a nice one. Let me do one just a

touch slower on the Okay.

All right. All right, let's take a

moment to put on the zoom and do

we very carefully storyboarded this

whole sequence and followed it closer

than we ever did anywhere else in the

film because there were sequences in

here where we wanted David to do things

which couldn't you couldn't really do

but by the addition of a mechanical

effect uh we could actually make it look

like David was actually doing all of

this stuff and this worked because we

were able to turn the camera in

different angles because the set would

allow us to do that.

Playback.

Ready and

[Music]

action. How you turned my world, you

precious thing.

You staring nearly exhaust

[Music]

me. Everything I've done, I've done for

you. I move the stars for no

one. You've run so long. You've run so

far.

[Music]

Your eyes can be so

cruel. Good. Good.

[Music]

I've known Michael Motion's work for

several years and he does this

incredible act and what he does is as

close to real magic as anything that I

really know. We had this design for what

Jarth was and we wanted him to have

certain kind of magical powers and

something to express these magic powers.

And so then we thought of the idea of

using Michael to do that. I've brought

you a gift.

What is it? It's a crystal.

Nothing more.

[Music]

Got it.

For the occasions, we wanted to use

Michael's right arm to be David's arm.

We set it up with a standin for David so

he could rehearse and rehearse and

rehearse and try to get this move. We

had to have Michael down behind David

and he had to be leaning down so that he

wouldn't be in the camera shot. He's now

working totally blind.

372 take six. When we shot that scene

with David, he was incredibly patient.

Action. Wait, I have a better plan.

You going? Ready.

Wait. I've got a much better plan.

I don't know how many takes we did, but

it was lots and lots. Wait, I have a

much better plan.

I had fun. It was Frank. It was very

abusing. Um I don't think Michael

Michael Motion the juggler had much fun.

It was it's agonizing for him.

Excuse me.

Wait. I've got a much better plan.

Hoggle.

Give her

this. What? What is it?

It's a present. It ain't going to hurt

the little lady, is it? Oh, now why the

concern?

I won't do nothing to harm her. Oh,

come, come, come, hog brain. I'm

surprised at you losing your head over a

girl. I ain't lost my head. You don't

think a young girl could ever like a

repulsive little scab like you, do you?

Well, she said we wen

companions, friends.

Don't matter. You'll give her that

hoggle or I'll tip you straight into the

bulb of eternal stench before you can

blink. Yes,

right. The whole trip through the

labyrinth is like a voyage. And so to

create the feeling of a voyage, you have

to go through many different places.

[Music]

I think the film does have a lot of

different looks and that's due to the

combination of Elliot Scott's set

designs and Alex Thompson's lighting.

[Music]

Can you line up the bolts? Just like

straighten up the bolts. They're all

over the place. Just going to do this,

Dino. Thanks,

[Music]

Frank. One you can see there, Ash needs

to go well over to the right. Ash, go

and have a look.

First, I want to see that. Okay, that's

fine. It's good.

Dean put it

on even more.

You ready?

143. Take one. A&C cameras.

3 2 1

Action.

Pluto.

Pluto. Pluto.

What's going on, Moto?

I love working with puppets. In the

beginning, it was hard because I don't

know. It's just strange thinking about

the fact that you really are talking to

a puppet, but it completely wears away

and you just I mean completely forget

that they are puppets and that they're

not just some kind of creatures or

something which are real because they

are so real. The puppeteers make them so

lifelike and you can really learn to

relate to to each one of them.

Ludo is one of the biggest things we've

ever made for a single person to

operate. You're going to have to lead me

out there.

Is a very large figure and we had to

make it as lightweight as possible and

that was one of the big

problems.

About halfway through the build on that,

you know, I was beginning to get worried

and I said, "How much is this thing

going to weigh when it's finished?" And

they did a lot of calculations and they

came back and they said, "Well, it looks

like it'll beund and some pounds. Piece

of cake." And I said, "That's really too

much." So, they had to just start from

the very beginning and just redo

everything just to cut the weight down.

The final weight is still well over 75

lbs. Noodle friend.

Well, I knew it would be too much for

one person to operate all the time, and

so we designed it for two guys to work

interchangeably.

Rob Mills and Ron Muick are just about

the same size and shape physically. So,

they were able to trade off in the

party. As well as all the physical

demands that this character put on them,

they also had to give a performance.

Good. Watch

them. Step

back. Very good, Sherry. Really? After

working on the film Dark Crystal that

was just pure puppets, Jim and I decided

that we'd like to introduce a human

element. We felt that a baby would be an

ideal thing to play off against the the

creatures. I sat down and started to

paint this picture. About 6 months

later, my son Toby was conceived. And

the strange thing was that he turned out

to look just like the baby that I'd

drawn. And he was the baby that we used

in the film.

Hi. You know who's in the hall? Toby.

Your mommy. Toby. Toby.

Toby.

Don't look at the light. Hi gay.

Mike. Let's shoot it.

Where you going? Am I

Toby? Come on. Oh, Toby, come here.

Toby, where are you?

Oh, me. Ready, Toby? People say that you

shouldn't work with babies, puppets, or

animals. And of course, we work with

puppets all the time. And I have worked

with animals a little bit, but this is

the very first time I've ever worked

with a baby. So now I understand why

people say that. So this is your big

chance. So go for it. All right. Let it

first in the eyes and then feel it with

everything.

But not the Yeah, I think he Yeah, you

know, I think he can do that. He

believes it. And project.

It wasn't just a question of getting

Toby to look in the right direction, but

he also had to have the right expression

on his face. And this was not easy.

Okay. And action, Nick. And Carol, want

you

go to Carol. Okay,

[Music]

there he goes now. Wendy.

Damn, he's Yeah.

Okay. It's a complicated thing. And cut

it. Working with a baby had its

problems. But then I tried directing

chickens. That's That's where I want

them. But I only want I really only want

one in the shot.

Have you got that?

Colin doesn't want it going down his

back in the middle of the shot.

Leave me a nice scrawny

one. This is a great one. Who's left

here?

Just let this guy quiet down if you

will.

[Laughter]

That chicken is not going to be a star.

In 3 2 1

[Music]

action.

[Music]

Got it. Hold it.

When we were planning the film and even

casting it, it hadn't occurred to me

that the film had any dangerous

situations because everything is fairly

normal. And it wasn't until we were

actually shooting that I realized that

there were scenes that were difficult

and uncomfortable and not exactly

dangerous, but slightly risky or they

would feel dangerous. It wasn't until

Jenny was doing these things that I

realized how terrific she was. She's

such a good support about all of this

stuff and she's very brave.

[Music]

the shaft of hands. It's a slimy green

substance and it has these hands

sticking out from all over the place and

tons and tons and tons of them and it's

really high. It's about 40 ft or

something. One drop.

[Music]

I suck. I had this idea of all these

hands just sort of coming out. They all

grab her. Um, I thought it sounds pretty

spooky. And then I thought it would be

very nice if the um hands started

talking to her. I remember seeing people

doing those things where they paint

lipstick on their hand like that and

then two eyes and then they and so I

thought one of the hands gets some

lipstick and does that and it starts

talking to to um her and then I think um

Jim liked the idea of the shaft of hands

and he suggested that the hands actually

should just form faces. probably can be

done, but Jay, it's hard. And actually,

one person doing

Oh, both eyes doesn't work because you

get the wrong side. Yeah, they're on the

wrong side and they're they're shattered

by your fingers. That's what I mean. I'm

facing the wrong way.

Do the mouth like this with me.

If I'm leading,

it's not terrible.

It certainly can be done. I think at

some point

[Music]

all the puppeteers had to wear latex

gloves designed to look like gnarled

arthritic hands. We ended up making over

a 100 pairs and the foam latex people

were working day and night to get them

all ready on time. If it's like that,

the eyes are done by two people. See,

I'm I'm the eye on this side. You see?

Yes. Okay. So, there's an eye. There's

there's a pair of eyes there, you know.

Does this come with live focus or to me

the easiest mouth is one person in front

doing like that? You know, that's a very

easy mouth.

Yeah. Now, that I would particularly

like with another fist in there to

create a nose, you know.

Like like

[Music]

so. All

[Music]

right. Those of you who haven't seen any

of these faces before,

uh, Brian, Mac, Ron, Cheryl, some of you

all have tried this already. So, just

show some of the faces and the way

bodies

orient which one was the smiling. Oh,

that that was that.

Yes. Yes. Which way? Come on. Which way

would you like to go? Oh gosh. When

you've had an idea which you thought was

pretty good idea, um, and then you see

it done and it's it's so much better

than you ever imagined. It's sort of

taken your original idea and sort of

leapt a quantum leap. It was one of

those magic moments I think when I

actually saw it. Stop it. Help. What do

you mean help? We are helping. We're

helping hands. Well, then come on. Which

way? Come on. We haven't got all day.

Well, it's a big decision for her. Which

way do you want to go? Well, since I'm

pointed that way, I guess I'll go down.

She goes down. She goes down. Was that

wrong? Too late now.

[Music]

Well, the ballroom scene is Sarah's

fantasy and so I wanted it to have sort

of a dream translike quality and that's

what I asked Cheryl McFadden to convey

in the choreography. What has to happen

is Douglas that you can't leave until

Graham, you see him getting closer.

Yeah, it was probably the most free time

for me in terms of just exploring my own

ideas and and working with people and

trying to come up with a style for that

sequence.

[Music]

This is just about the only crowd scene

in the movie where they're only people.

There are no puppets there. So, it was

pretty straightforward to shoot and we

all had a lot of fun doing it. Take it

very

slowly. A little bit more.

I'm awful at ballroom dancing. I've

never done it before. I've never been to

a ball. So, I had to take lessons for

that.

I felt so strange because the rest of

the people in the in the ballroom were

all sort of professional dancers and

everything and here I was this kid who's

never danced before in her life.

The ball really was meant to be within a

bubble and we felt we really couldn't

cope with just inside a bubble because

how do you build inside of a bubble as

it were practically? We got to be

practical after all. So rather than

build a straightforward ballroom, I

tried to put together the essences of a

ballroom. That's to say a ballroom to me

means columns. And so we didn't have

columns. We had huge caps. Uh it means

chandeliers. So we devised masses of

chandeliers. And there was mirrors. So

you saw mirrors and reflections of

mirrors in mirrors and things like that.

And the the general costumes which Brian

Fer designed were I would say vaguely

18th century Venetian ball type things

with distorted masks and things like

that. And the people in the ballroom

were meant to be vaguely depraved as it

were.

I found designing costumes for a bubble

an interesting problem. And I decided

that the bubble was actually like a

marquee or a tent, that everybody was in

fact at some sort of garden party, that

they were the gentry dressing up and

they were playing at being goblins. And

I tried to reflect that in the masks I

designed. Although they have this

Venetian influence, they're actually

supposed to be parodies of the goblins

themselves. I wanted everything much

larger than life as it was a fantasy.

Turn

over speed and play back.

[Music]

We were trying to create a kind of an

adult world. You know, the cast is is

are real people here. Sarah is still a

child and she's walking into a very

adult situation where she knows she's

too young to be there. It's something

that's attractive to her and it's also

repellent. of

love deep in your eyes and kind of held

you open and close within your eyes.

I'll place the

sky within your

eyes. There's such a fool heart beating

so fast and such a move.

The love that will last within your

heart. I'll place the

moon within your

heart. As the pain sweeps through makes

no sense for you. Everything has gone.

Wasn't too much fun at

all. But I'll be there for you.

as the world.

I loved shooting it myself. It was a fun

kind of thing to to try to weave

together. I think we got it.

[Music]

It seemed like right late in the story,

what we wanted was for our heroes to

come up against some huge obstacle,

something worse than anything they'd

encountered so far. And we came up with

the idea of building the largest puppet

we'd ever built. Jim asked

us about last January. He said, "Uh,

boys, I'd like a 15t high giant." So, oh

yeah, very interesting. Lots of people

have tried to make 15t giants that walk

and throw their arms around. Haven't

been very successful. So, it's a

challenge, you

know. So, we decided that we were going

to make it and we went ahead and we made

all the mechanics and everything worked

wonderfully. when the body was produced

in fiberglass, um, it just wouldn't work

because the fiberglass wouldn't flex.

Fortunately for us, we had our foam

expert, David Chakori, and he developed

a polyurethane foam for us with a skin,

and the skin would flex without looking

rubbery. It made the polyurethane foam

look like steel armor.

He weighs I don't know how much. lots.

Uh, with all of the rig and all the

hydraulics, the thing has to be several

tons. And so, this was the largest, most

complicated thing we'd ever built. He

didn't have very long to build it.

Probably 2 to 3 months.

One man could operate the whole thing.

In the old days, we'd have probably had

five or six guys all at different levers

working hydraulics. One man operates a

whole of Humongous all by himself. He

makes it walk forward, makes its body

spin round, makes it bow down, and makes

its arms swing the ax. And that's all

done with servo

hydraulics. Every movement is arm makes.

The arms on Humongous make exactly the

same movement. When George first showed

me humongous in action, it was really an

amazing thing. To just stand there and

have this large thing walk towards you

is one of the most awesome sights in the

world.

[Music]

on the left. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Hulk. One,

two. Ready for the rope drop and drop.

Ready for the attack. And one, two,

three, and

a film like this sort of needs a major

climax. And one of the best major

climaxes is a battle scene. So, we

wanted to do a great battle scene. And

at the same time, we didn't want to end

up killing a lot of people. We didn't

want a big gory battle where people got,

you know, their heads chopped off and

things like that. Uh, so we were looking

for how can we have the fun of a battle

and make it fun without, you know, being

terribly violent and, uh, being the kind

of film that we didn't want to make. So,

uh, we decided to do a silly battle.

Yeah. So, not everything goes. Okay. So,

red light.

Stand

by in 3 2 1

[Music]

[Applause]

[Music]

requ this way. All right. Charge.

[Music]

We're going the wrong way.

[Applause]

If you don't turn around this second, I

will never feed you again.

[Music]

That's better.

Don't worry, Ambroious. I think we've

got them surrounded.

[Applause]

[Music]

[Applause]

Tell 3 2 1 action.

Where's Denimus?

[Applause]

I hit something. Yes.

You're all connected up now.

Let's clear the set. Unless you're a

goblin with a rock attached to you.

We're going to try rehearsal in the

right hand lane first. This lane I'm

pointing to. And three, two, one,

action.

Good.

[Music]

Steady

man. Steady man. Hold your ground.

Okay, I take it back. Run for your

lives. You can run.

It's all yours, right?

Forward. Stop

180°. Which way? Anyway,

[Music]

how's it going? Now you don't.

[Music]

[Applause]

Hey, no problem.

When I go see a film, when I leave the

theater, I like a few things. I I like

to be happier than I was when I went in.

I like a film to leave me with an up

feeling and I and I like a picture to

have a sense of substance. I like it to

be about about life, about uh about

things that matter to me. And so I think

that's what we were trying to do with

this film is trying to do a film that

would make a difference to you if you

saw it.

[Music]

No one can blame

you for walking

away for too much

protection. No love

injection. Life can't be easy.

It's not always

well. Don't tell me truth hurts, little

girl. Cuz it hurts like

hell. We're down in the underground.

[Music]

You'll find someone true.

Down in the underground.

A land of green of crystal the

[Applause]

moon. It's only

forever. Not long at

all. Lost and

lonely. That's

underground. Underground.