laby-oz

Okay, now, I've never been a big fan of the movie "The Wizard of Oz." Well, I guess I was when I was younger, but in recent years I've come to, oh, I don't know...hate it? My reasoning is simple. My favorite film in the whole wide world is "Gone With the Wind" starring the fabulous Mr. Clark Gable. Now, GWTW and WOZ were made the same year (1939) directed by the same guy (Victor Fleming) and produced by the same company (MGM). Now, at that year's Acadamy Awards, who walked off with most of the major awards? That's right. "Gone With The Wind" (Unfortunetly, Clark didn't win. The injustice of it all!!) Anyway, so we have this epic love story set during the Civil War that takes away tons of awards and then we have this child's movie/musical set in the fictional world of Oz. Right. Well, what movie do you hear more about? The award winner? Nooooooo. You hear about the kid's flick. When I went to Las Vegas three years ago, we stayed at the MGM Grand Hotel. Now, I was pretty psyched about this! I mean, MGM produced GWTW. Well, we walk in there and I swear, the entire casino is decorated with a WIZARD OF OZ theme. The walls are decorated with paintings of the poppy scene and paintings of munchkins. There was a "Flying Monkey Bar" at the back of the casino and a huge glowing rainbow over top the casino. There was also a restaurant with a Wizard of Oz theme and an entire STORE dedicated to Wizard of Oz. Now, our room at the hotel was suppose to be a GWTW theme, which was cool. Were there any pictures of Clark or Vivien? No. What they SHOULD have said in the brochure was that it was a "Southern" theme, because that's al it was. Needless to say, I was not a happy camper.

All of this aside, though, I can make more connections with The Wizard of Oz then I can with Gone With the Wind, so that's what I'm going to do.

Crystal Balls:
       ~Obviously, in "Labyrinth" the idea of crystal balls is a little more obvious, but don't forget that in the beginning of "The Wizard of Oz," Dorothy goes to see the fortune teller and he uses a crystal ball.

Speaking of the beginning, both of the girls are seen running in the beginning of their movie. Dorothy's running from Miss Gulch and Sarah is running because she's late. But, in both instances, both the girls are running in the direction of the safety of their home.

Dogs:
       ~Okay, do I really need to explain this one? :)

Both characters have three people helping them get their way to the end:
       Dorothy- The Scarecrow, Tin Man and Lion
        Sarah- Hoggle, Ludo and Sir Didymus

In both films, items from the character's "real life" appear in her dream world:
        Dorothy- All her family appears as other characters
       Sarah- She has a stuffed toy of Didymus, Merlin appears as Ambrosious, the Escher poster on the wall          turns into the stair scene near the end, she has a labyrinth wooden game, her dancing ballarina turns into         the ballroom scene, Ludo looks like the character on the cover of "Where the Wild Things Are"                     (Another interesting thing to note: Sarah has a copy of the book "The Wizard of Oz"

Both stories use short people in the movie
       "The Wizard of Oz" - the munchkins
       "Labyrinth" -the goblins

Both heroines end up in a deep sleep
         Dorothy- the poppies
        Sarah - Jareth's peach

Both heroines have to pass through gates to get to the castles
        Dorothy - the door to the Emerald City
        Sarah - the gates of the Goblin City

Both movies have flying creatures
        "Wizard of Oz" -the flying monkeys,
         Laby -the fairies

I also just realized that when Glinda first appears in the WOZ movie, she's seen in that big pink dress and is in a bubble. In Laby, after Sarah is drugged by the peach, she sees herself in a crystal (that looks a lot like a bubble) wearing a big pink dress.