THE ARTS

CCinsaa/Anabl moerse Crotchety goblins and hyggable monsters

Labyrinth (U) Odeon Leeicester Square and general release Malcolm (15) Cannon Tottenham Court Road, Cannon Bayswater Kangaroo (PG) Cannon, Haymarket, Odeon Kensington The Passion of Remembrance (15) Metro Real Genius (15) Cannon Panton Street, Cannon Chelsea Eat the Peach (PG) Plaza Regent Street, Cannon r Chelsea. Cannon Tottenham 4 Court Road. Once upon a time, not so long ago, a reluctantly babysitting teenager impulsively wished her grizzling baby brother Toby could be taken away by the goblins. And he I was. This pilfering sets adolescent Sarah in search of . what? Toto or Toby, a white rabbit or her own elusive I sexuality? The fairy tale is a naturally self - perpetuating 9 genre, so no matter that Terry Jones's script for Labyrinth borrows heavily from old savourites, the important element is that the film is the creation 1 of a team led by puppet genius Jim Henson which has not only designed the fantasy characters but made living entities of the ( labyrinth and city Sarah must

Colin Friels and Hugh Keays-Byrne in "Kangaroo"

penetrate. Crotchety goblins, huggable monsters and sentinels that outCarroll Carroll, talking doors, a fantastic shaft of hands which propels Sarah up and down, wells that move, staircases inspired by Escher, all are so brilliantly conceived and realised that it is disappointing to see the energy lost in Hanson's overill direction. His work with humans cannot match his ability with the inanimate and any one of his creatures has more vitality than Jennifer Connolly as Sarah, as prettily perfect as a commercial for teen cream and looking a bit too old to be messing about with fairies. In spite of potentially better casting, David Bowie as the goblin king is too aloof, too androgynously costumed to be the sexual threat or promise he...