It's all junk!
May 26, 2016 7:27 PM   Subscribe

When Jen (of Cake Wrecks fame) and her husband John learned DragonCon was planning a Labyrinth Ball, they decided to get to work on a costume -- to re-create the junk lady from Labyrinth. Finished costume. posted by fings (29 comments total) 33 users marked this as a favorite
 
Man. That junk lady scared the everloving daylights out of me when I saw that scene (you know the one, and I won't spoil it for you if you don't) in the movie. Worse than the Helping Hands, worse than the Fire Gang. There are some creepy moments in that movie, but that's the only one that genuinely terrified Little Me.
posted by Anticipation Of A New Lover's Arrival, The at 7:34 PM on May 26, 2016 [4 favorites]


Holy smokes.

I love all of Jen and John's builds. I wish I had inherited that high-end Maker gene - my mother has it; if she was 30 years younger she'd be making and selling pro-grade cosplayer costumes, and I would have my dream Steampunk house.
posted by Lyn Never at 7:50 PM on May 26, 2016 [2 favorites]


Wow. Just...Wow.
posted by SecretAgentSockpuppet at 8:10 PM on May 26, 2016


they should be the guests of honour at the ball.

though the junk lady (of course) wasn't attending ...
posted by jb at 8:36 PM on May 26, 2016


Oh my word. That is amazing.

Also amazing: Picturing dozens of people wearing that poofy white dress I coveted when I was 11 (to 30).
posted by mochapickle at 9:10 PM on May 26, 2016


Labyrinth is such a weird movie because the story's not very good, the acting is often bad, without Bowie it would probably be a forgettable Henson footnote, and the labyrinth isn't even much of a labyrinth. But Bowie and the puppetry (and maybe the fart rocks) were enough to turn it into a thing that would live on. It's a confusing joy to watch a work of art somehow transcend itself.

The junk lady was my favorite puppet, and this is gorgeously executed.
posted by middleclasstool at 9:12 PM on May 26, 2016 [8 favorites]


Such a pity they couldn't get tickets to the ball!
posted by tavella at 11:12 PM on May 26, 2016


Labyrinth is such a weird movie because the story's not very good, the acting is often bad, without Bowie it would probably be a forgettable Henson footnote, and the labyrinth isn't even much of a labyrinth.

Um ... no?

When I was a kid, it was the only movie we could all agree on. We didn't have a lot of movies - maybe a dozen, mostly filmed from TV. But this was the one we watched almost weekly. We knew the lines, could sing the songs. And it held up to that frequent watching.

When I was adult, it was one of the first DVDs I bought. And - unlike a lot of children's films - it still held up. (Sadly, better than The Dark Crystal, which was my favourite when I was a kid.)

"don't go that way!"
...
"if she'd gone that way, she'd have gone straight to the goblins' castle!"
posted by jb at 4:40 AM on May 27, 2016 [9 favorites]


Really great. It would be impressive enough without the impression to detail, but they have really gone all out. Bravo.
posted by Rock Steady at 5:30 AM on May 27, 2016


That is amazing work! I love it when people can obsessively pull together something so detailed.
posted by xingcat at 5:46 AM on May 27, 2016


Whatchutalkinaboutwillis!! The story is great! Young woman stands up to Charismatic Man and comes into her own power. With puppets!
posted by St. Peepsburg at 6:05 AM on May 27, 2016


Exactly. You have no power over me!
posted by kersplunk at 6:17 AM on May 27, 2016 [2 favorites]


Holy shit, that's fantastic. Thank you for sharing it!
posted by Stacey at 6:53 AM on May 27, 2016 [1 favorite]


Sorry, didn't mean to poo. Just that the whole thing was less a story to me than a series of setups to show off puppets. Which Is totally valid entertainment, but the actual plotting seemed a little thin to me.

The labyrinth isn't a labyrinth for most of the movie, (the beginning and the M.C. Escher room are, though), it's just a weird world. They keep threatening to take her back to the beginning, and they never do. The whole thing plays more like a series of short films strung together than a single coherent story.

But that's the thing for me: Somehow the film rises above all that and becomes something memorable, and I find that fascinating.
posted by middleclasstool at 6:59 AM on May 27, 2016 [2 favorites]


I suspect David Bowie's penis is a contributing factor, but then I usually do.
posted by middleclasstool at 7:00 AM on May 27, 2016 [6 favorites]


The whole thing plays more like a series of short films strung together than a single coherent story.

I think the word you're looking for is picaresque, in which the episodic nature of the story is a feature rather than a bug. The same could be leveled against Don Quixote, Huckleberry Finn, and (arguably Labyrinth's biggest influence) Alice in Wonderland.
posted by Strange Interlude at 7:17 AM on May 27, 2016 [4 favorites]


Never saw the movie (or Bowie's penis), but the talent they have is amazing. I can't even draw a stick figure. I marvel at this level of talent.
posted by AugustWest at 7:19 AM on May 27, 2016 [1 favorite]


As impressed as I am by this, I'm still more partial to John's Dreamfinder.
posted by radwolf76 at 7:20 AM on May 27, 2016


I love all of John & Jen's stuff - I look forward to seeing their new costumes at DragonCon each year.

We did get tickets to the Labyrinth ball and are super excited - now we just have to work on our costumes. I'm thinking about adding a fairy in a jar to mine, from their tutorial.
posted by needlegrrl at 7:30 AM on May 27, 2016 [1 favorite]


@middleclasstool trying to figure exactly whether we were watching bouncing genitals or a codpiece as the Goblin King sang and tossed around Toby Froud definitely kept the movie fresh in the years between watching it as an awestruck wee babe and a sentimental old fart, when I was such an entirely up-my-own-ass teen that I was even cynical about David Bowie being an overhyped product of my parents' generation (although I was never cynical about Henson or the Muppets, they were with me from day one)
posted by elr at 7:34 AM on May 27, 2016 [1 favorite]


Oh god this character. There's something about the way she says "OHHHHH, there you go" that goes straight into my spine exactly like the Skeksi Noise does. I can't really explain this but it's like both those movies found and captured this perfect note of grotesque wrongness that's as creepifying as it is because everything is just _slightly_ off. Slightly too high-pitched, just off key, faces that are somehow just slightly too pointy, things that shouldn't feel wrong but ARE (gelfling arms)... it's all like the uncanny valley of reality. This stuff doesn't even frighten me, it just feels _wrong_ in a way I wish I could explain better. It's a testament to how awesome Labyrinth is that I'm able to watch it at all, although since the age of 8 I have hidden behind the couch whenever the firies show up.
posted by Dormant Gorilla at 8:06 AM on May 27, 2016 [5 favorites]


Oh, see also those cream puffs and the hat rack that comes to life in Young Sherlock Holmes. Same damn thing.
posted by Dormant Gorilla at 8:08 AM on May 27, 2016 [1 favorite]


The junk lady scared me as a kid (though not as much as the Firey Gang not understanding that if they took off Sarah's head she'd die). But man, with adulthood and its accompanying too-much-stuff-I-can't-throw-away, she's definitely the most disturbing part now. And if you look closely at the beginning of that scene, she's only one of many.

This project and blog are fantastic, and also, the adorableness and obvious compatibility of this couple is delightful.
posted by Nibbly Fang at 8:51 AM on May 27, 2016


Wow. That is impressive.

I'm on the Labyrinth Doesn't Really Hold Up train though. watched it last year for the first time in maybe two decades and... no. Incredible work, but just doesn't translate, for me, to rewatching as an adult. Which gave me a sad.
posted by feckless fecal fear mongering at 9:16 AM on May 27, 2016


The Suck Fairies are cruel and capricious in their visitations.
posted by zamboni at 3:07 PM on May 27, 2016 [1 favorite]


I think Labyrinth has a really solid thematic core that people don't acknowledge, which elevates it above stuff like The Dark Crystal and Willow. Maybe it's not made perfectly clear, but it's there and I think it rules. Jareth is the embodiment of Sarah's imagination, and he's fighting to keep her in his thrall, but she has to grow up. He throws spectacular adventure and then even romance fantasy at her, but she bucks him in the end, to be self-possessed and responsible. That's a really amazing, sophisticated message for a kids fantasy movie. It's kind of meta, and pretty apropos for the cosplay level of dedicated fandom.
posted by Ambrosia Voyeur at 12:02 AM on May 28, 2016 [2 favorites]


They won Best in Show at MegaCon. I am so happy for them!
posted by Lokheed at 6:14 AM on May 29, 2016 [3 favorites]


The Fieries and the Junk Lady really made a nightmarish impression on me when i was a kid. Same with the Skeksis. Froud was a visionary in the same league as Bluth, del Toro and Jeunet. His Pressed Fairy books are fantastic as well.

I think he sells wine now on the internet.
posted by ostranenie at 10:38 PM on May 29, 2016


the epbot post about winning!
posted by 5_13_23_42_69_666 at 1:48 PM on May 31, 2016 [3 favorites]


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