Coming-of-Age
The central overriding theme of the film is the good, old-fashioned one of how the time comes when one must push away childish things and become a grown-up. Sarah starts out as something of an immature, selfish brat who makes the mistake of wishing away her brother and winds up going through the labyrinthine process of maturity into a more responsible young woman in less than a single day. Not too shabby a day’s work for a girl pretty girl going up against a surprisingly fey Goblin trickster.
Fantasy is NOT Reality
The film opens by subverting expectations as Sarah appears to be stereotypical young princess in a stereotypical fairy tale setting. This appearance is subverted with the revelation that she is actually just a normal teenage girl in a normal every day world practicing lines for a role as a princess. And then that appearance is itself subverted with the revelation that she is lost in her own one-person fantasy world of playing the role of a princess. Later, when Jareth extends the opportunity to Sarah to actually, genuinely and truly become a princess, she rejects it in the blink of an eye.
These subversive qualities seem to suggest quite strongly that people need to realize there is a distinct separation between fantasy and reality and that the two can exist simultaneously and equally within a child’s mind without necessarily bleeding into one another. In other words, just because a young girl fantasizes about becoming a princess, it does mean she either desires or expects that fantasy to come true. The same holds true for an infinite number of fantasies. Sometimes, the film insists, fantasies are just fantasies and kids know the difference even if adults think they don’t.
Life isn’t Fair—or Easy
One of the simplest themes of the film is paradoxically one of the most complex. In order to return home, Sarah must navigate the labyrinth and to do successful requires the assistance of the population therein. To suggest that their help is often less than helpful is to understate the issue. Sometimes, her interactions accidentally send her down on the wrong path. At other times, receiving the correct information become transactional. Some assistance winds up being no assistance while some instructions are just plain bewildering. The whole point of getting through the labyrinth becomes less about successfully winding one’s way in and out than understanding that everything is hard in the adult world. Like The Princess Bride, the message is ultimately that life isn’t fair, but the film takes things one step further by also insisting that once one becomes an adult, nothing—absolutely nothing—is ever easy.
