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Sandman Creator Recreates Labyrinth for Christmas

This article is over 13 years old and may contain outdated information

Neil Gaiman plays the part of the Goblin King in a humourous holiday video, although thankfully, doesn’t try and replicate the overly tight wardrobe.

The man behind the award winning Sandman comics, Neil Gaiman, has teamed up with partner, Amanda Palmer, and a few of their friends to parody the cult 1986 Jim Henson movie Laybrinth.

For those who haven’t seen the movie – which is worth watching, if only for the cool puppets – Sarah, played by a very young Jennifer Connelly, wishes that goblins would come and take her baby brother Toby away. Naturally, she’s more than a little surprised when the goblins – led by their king, Jareth – actually turn up and claim him.

Sarah pleads with the goblins to give her back the child, so the King, played by David Bowie, sporting a mullet and some terribly tight tights, makes Sarah a deal. If she can reach the center of his labyrinth within 13 hours, she can have her brother back. If she fails, however, the baby becomes a goblin forever.

The parody video recreates Sarah fateful first steps into the maze, where a helpful worm showed her that she couldn’t make assumptions about the labyrinth, and had to look at things without preconceptions. Gaiman’s version is a teensy bit shorter, as the kindly worm is replaced with a villainous sock puppet, who leads Sarah to a rather messy end.

It’s always nice to discover that someone whose work you admire also has a sense of humor and isn’t afraid to make themselves look silly occasionally. I’m actually hoping this becomes a Gaiman/Palmer holiday tradition, as there are plenty of movies that could be enhanced through the use of villainous sock puppets.

Source: Twitter

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