Labyrinth [1986]

by Steven McDonaldTrevor Jones' music for this elaborate and ambitious Jim Henson/George Lucas production was filled with synthesizers blended cautiously into orchestral ensembles to provide a suitably ethereal tone -- one echoed very well by David Bowie's Goblin King singing the haunting "Within You" while stalking the film's heroine. This variant on the Persephone story, however, was treated as a half-hearted musical, with the Goblin King and his minions breaking out into raucous pop every so often, a tactic that undermined the tone of the entire film and upended the score. While "Underground" is a more than adequate Bowie entry, "Magic Dance" and others have a tendency to fall flat. A curious hodgepodge indeed.