It’s back to goblins for this week’s preview pic:
The goblins of Return to Labyrinth serve a very different role than the goblins in the film. For one thing, the movie goblins were mostly adversarial and their primary role, outside of the battle scene at the end, was to riff off of Jareth. There’s something very alien about them — they absolutely aren’t of our world. They aren’t just irreverent and incompetent — they have an air of indifference about them. Sarah’s core friends aside, it was a little scary the way the goblins she encountered really didn’t care if she lived or died. In Return to Labyrinth, as Toby was going to spend the majority of the series living amongst the goblins, I ended up humanizing them, giving them clearer roles and histories. In the Goblins of Labyrinth art book, Terry Jones weaves a rich nonsense history for the goblins that suggests that they are more than lackeys, and hopefully I captured some of that. With the final volume, though, I really wanted the goblins to, as I mentioned in a previous post, “return to their roots.” Not every one is as kind as Skub or as high-minded as Spittledrum, and it was crucial to remind readers of that.
Next week: Sarah!
I believe you captured the goblins’ separate sphere very nicely. There is definitely that shift from the movie’s dark take on the goblins’ mischief, to their somewhat organized society that we see in Return to Labyrinth. I can’t help but think, however, that maybe these simple goblins have begun to evolutionize due to the abscence of a strong leader in Jareth. I guess one way to fully convey this is to quote from Jurassic Park, “Life always finds a way…”
I also love the growing teamwork that the goblins have developed. Rather than meandering about and causing mayhem, like we can see in the “Dance Magic Dance” scene, they seem to work together, like when those goblins dealt with the schisms. It’s amazing that until now, I didn’t have much to say about the goblins…
And I’m looking forward to hearing about Sarah!
Watching Labyrinth as a child, my main laughs (having been blissfully unaware of the infamous Jareth-crotch back then) were derived from the goblins and how silly they are. I was glad to see that silliness kept in RtL and, as an older person, pleased to see that they were starting to gain some depth apart from just mindless cronies. You’ve done a great job with them, I can’t wait to see how they turn on in volume 4!
I actually like how you made the goblins have different personalities and aspirations. It makes them ‘people’ too, as I don’t entirely look at them as monsters of the sort. And I also agree with Maggie. But still, I wanted to see a tiny bit a mayhem somewhere along the lines. Nothing like crazy, little critters shouting insane things and throwing each other around like bouncing balls!
I still crack up when I watch the part of the film where Jareth throws the snake on Sarah, which turned into a scarf, THEN a dog-looking goblin! It’s laugh! Teehee! The way it laughed makes me giggle like crazy every time. xD I love that little guy!
I agree! I love the seperate identities you give the gobblins. It makes you love them more ;p
OMGosh! I am SO excited about Sarah!
And, omg, I’m excited to see Sarah next time!
(And hopefully a picture of her from the last volume?)