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• All There in the Manual: The novelization goes into detail on Sarah's backstory and her parents' divorce; it and other tie-ins also reveal names for the Junk Lady (Agnes) and other minor characters and locales.
• Expanded Universe: In OEL Manga form, there's Return to Labyrinth, which picks up the story with a now-teenaged Toby and adult Sarah, the latter now with a Literal Split Personality.
• Hey, It's That Guy!: The script was written by Terry Jones, of Monty Python fame. Another acclaimed comedian/scriptwriter, Elaine May, is said to have done a substantial rewrite; Jones has said that the final third of the movie was significantly different from what he had originally come up with (starting with the peach).
• Hey, It's That Voice! Two of the Fireys were voiced by Danny John-Jules of Red Dwarf. Another was voiced by Kevin Clash, aka Elmo from Sesame Street.
• He Also Did: Gates McFadden AKA Dr. Crusher did much of the choreography. (However, she's credited by her real name, Cheryl McFadden.)
• Old Shame: Despite the film's massive cult following, David Bowie did not and Jennifer Connelly does not like it that much. Bowie wasn't comfortable with his character's Memetic Sex God status and Connelly simply gets embarrassed by seeing her younger self on screen.
• Shout-Out
  • Amongst the books in the panning shot of Sarah's room are Where the Wild Things Are and Outside Over There by Maurice Sendak; the latter picture book (1981) is particularly significant because it's about a girl rescuing her sibling from goblins, though it's a much simpler and different tale. (According to Brian Froud in the Empire retrospective, "The link between his work and ours was only noticed well into production", as the concept of goblins stealing babies is well-established folklore.) Henson's "artistic debt" to Sendak's work is acknowledged in the end credits.
  • Sarah's dream is right out of "Cinderella" in more ways than one. Plus, it's the result of her consuming a bewitched fruit.
  • "You remind me of the babe" is a direct reference to the ending of The Bachelor And The Bobby-Soxer (1947). In fact, the entire "babe with the power" sequence echoes the almost identical "man with the power" exchange from that film.
  • As Sir Didymus rides through the Goblin City to rejoin his allies, he cries "Hi-ho Silver, away!"
• Squee: David Bowie as Jareth inspires epic amounts of rampant fangirlism to this day (and in-world, the goblins seem to react to anything Jareth says with intense cackles of delight and exuberance -- though they have problems with timing), while at the same time also provoking plenty of Squick for other viewers due to the age difference between Jareth and Sarah.
• What Could Have Been: Almost everything up until Sarah eating the peach was written by Terry Jones, with everything afterwards being rewritten by Henson and company; this and other changes over the course of production resulted in quite a few alterations and omissions, some of which appeared in the tie-in books.
  • The Wiseman and his Hat were intended to wander in and out of the good guys' journey, dispensing occasionally useful, accidental advice.
  • The Fireys offered to help Sarah find the castle, but not only were they easily distracted, but they didn't actually know what a castle was.
  • The Junk Lady (who was going to be revealed as a disguised Jareth) was part of a whole Junk City, complete with a bar where Hoggle went to drown his sorrows after his betrayal of Sarah.
  • The other door with a living knocker led to a Crap Saccharine World where no one could stop laughing.
  • The issue of Sarah's parents' divorce figured more prominently in early drafts; the ring Sarah gave the wiseman in the finished film was originally a gift from her mother that she was much more reluctant to part with.
  • Orignally, Sarah's plot-launching mistake was opening the door to a stranger who claimed to be the writer of the school play she was due to star in; he turned out to be Jareth, who proceeded to kidnap Toby (then called Freddie) For the Evulz. Jareth was indeed a much less charismatic, more lecherous character in early drafts -- in the climax Sarah had to physically fight him off to rescue Toby, and defeated him by saying she wouldn't love him if he "were the last goblin on Earth!" This caused him to shrink into a whining goblin himself.
  • In the project's early stages, the "real world" setting was the Victorian era. When the filmmakers found out about Ridley Scott's Legend, they decided to move it forward to The Present Day, which they figured was easier to sell to audiences anyway.
  • Helena Bonham Carter was a potential candidate for the part of Sarah...
  • The creators always intended for a popular musician to play Jareth, and while David Bowie was their first choice, another performer considered was Michael Jackson. This info is now a Funny Aneurysm Moment in wake of his Memetic Molester reputation.