Labyrinth (1986)
Directed by: Jim Henson
Starring: David Bowie, Jennifer Connelly
This is probably one of my favourite movies of all time. I love the fantasy genre and Labyrinth is no exception. The plot is simple: 15 year old Sarah (Connelly) is fed up of having to look after her baby brother Toby, while her father and his new wife go out almost every single weekend. Life is just not fair for her. But that's all about to change, when she wishes away Toby to the Goblin King Jareth (Bowie). It is implied that Jareth is in love with Sarah and he sets her a challenge - she has to make her way through the labyrinth in order to find Toby. But, there's a catch - she only has 13 hours to do it and the labyrinth is a lot more complicated than Sarah thinks.
Pushing Daisies (2007-2009)
Created by: Bryan Fuller
Starring: Lee Pace, Anna Friel, Kristin Chenoweth, Chi McBride, Ellen Greene, Swoosie Kurtz, Jim Dale
This was one of my favourite TV shows as a teenager and still is one of my favourites. It was one which was cancelled too soon, Pushing Daisies was pulled from the air only after 22 episodes. The plot: A young man called Ned is a pie maker and runs a restaurant called appropriately "The Pie Hole." However, Ned has a special power. He can bring the dead back to life by just one touch. Like most things however there is a catch, bring someone back to life for more than a minute and something else has to die in its place. Things get complicated when Ned's childhood sweetheart, Charlotte 'Chuck' Charles is murdered. Ned finds Chuck in a morgue and brings her back to life, however he cannot bear to lose her again. So instead someone else dies in Chuck's place. With Ned's talent, him, Chuck, Olive (Chenoweth) a waitress who works at the Pie Hole and Emerson Cod (McBride) , a private investigator solve murders, which are set within a whimsical suburban world. The show is also narrated by Jim Dale, who explains every event in the series and when recalling a murder story often starts with the line "The facts were these..."
Pushing Daisies never really got a proper ending and the finale episode 'Kerplunk' was severely rushed (probably due to the 2008 Writer's Guild of America Strike). However, Fuller has said in interviews that their may be a follow up to the series, in the form of a movie or a Broadway musical/theatre show. We will just have to watch this space.