Jim Hensen certainly left his mark on the world during his time on the planet. He had a very unique way of approaching entertainment and I am still a fan of puppetry today.
Special effects for the most part were pretty limited in 1986 and CGI was all but non-existent. I sometimes wonder if puppetry was used because of this rather than in spite of it. As we can see from certain over the top examples like episodes 1-3 of Star Wars, CGI isn't better than puppetry. Hensen is likely one of the great masters of this, and Labyrinth feature a tremendous amount of this.
some would argue the puppets are a bit creepy in Labyrinth - I agree.
The story in Labyrinth isn't terribly important to me, all i needed to know was that it was a Hensen project and I want to see it. Sarah (a very young Jennifer Connelly)gets frustrated with babysitting her younger brother Toby and wishes the Goblin King to come and take him away. She is stunned when this actually happens and realizes she must immediately embark on a quest to rescue her baby brother - presumably to avoid being grounded when her parents come home.
She meets a bunch of characters along the way, some good some bad, and overall it stays entertaining if you like Hensen stuff. It is a bit more grown up than The Muppet Show but still is ok for most kids to watch except for a few creepy scenes.
The trailer is not very good but to be fair most trailers from the 80's a kinda crappy by today's standards.
While very favorably remembered now and definitely a cult classic, would you believe that this film was actually an rather large box-office failure? Well it was. It didn't even come close to recouping its $25 million budget and received some rather harsh criticism from professional critics of the time including both Siskel and Ebert, who were arguably the most important critics of the time.
While not as good as the Dark Crystal, which i find epic, this movie holds a special place in my heart and should be watched, just don't expect a terribly compelling story.