An original small-scale Worm puppet from Jim Henson’s 1986 fantasy classic Labyrinth, starring Jennifer Connelly and David Bowie, executive produced by George Lucas, and the final feature film Henson directed.
In the film, sixteen-year-old Sarah has thirteen hours to solve the Goblin King’s labyrinth and rescue her baby brother. Exhausted and convinced the endless stone walls have no openings, she is greeted by a tiny voice with one of the most beloved lines in the film: “‘Ello.” The Worm, a cheery little fellow with a Cockney accent, tufts of blue hair, and a jaunty red scarf, lives in a crack in the labyrinth’s wall. When Sarah asks if he said hello, he famously corrects her, “No, I said ‘ello, but that’s close enough,” before inviting her in for a nice cup of tea with the missus. He then reveals the maze’s first secret, that things are not always what they seem and the walls hide openings, and sends her off in the opposite direction to keep her away from “that castle,” unknowingly steering her wrong.
The Worm was designed by Brian Froud, voiced by Timothy Bateson, and puppeteered by Karen Prell. According to Prell, the character was built in two scales: a finger-sized rod puppet for wide shots, and a larger hand puppet for close-ups. This is the small version, the one that reads on screen as a genuinely tiny creature perched on Sarah’s wall. Small enough to fit in the palm of a hand, he remains one of the film’s most quoted and best-loved characters, proof that in Henson’s world even the littlest resident could steal a scene.
