Muppet Wiki

READ MORE

Muppet Wiki
Advertisement
Muppet Wiki
46,943
pages
Eye lichen
PERFORMER Ron Mueck
DEBUT 1986
DESIGN Brian Froud designer
  Ross Hill, Wendy Froud, John Priest builders
Eye Lichen and worm
Eye Lichen Underground music video

"Underground" music video

Eye Lichen Underground storyboard

"Underground" storyboard: "Eyes on tentacles like a manic plant turn to watch him go."

Eye Lichen Marvel comic

Marvel comic adaptation art by John Buscema

Eye Lichen storybook

Labyrinth: The Storybook Based on the Movie illustration by Bruce McNally

Eye Lichen are a foliaceous organism that grow on the walls of the Labyrinth. They consist of a cluster of mossy tendrils tipped with fleshy eyeballs that move about in response to their point of interest.

They can first be seen on film in Labyrinth when Sarah initially parts ways with Hoggle. As she makes her way down an endless corridor, the Eye Lichen emote with a squeaky, rustling murmer. They appear again in scattered clumps when a frustrated Sarah submits to exhaustion, watching intently as she makes acquaintance with the Worm.

Although they can't be seen in the film, the lichen are present in the novelized version of the scene in which Sarah is pursued by the Fireys, desperate to scale a wall to escape decapitation.

The novel also clarifies that their incoherent whispers are in fact a means of communication among itself, expressed as gossip, and later, sympathy. "Most of it disapproved of the direction she had taken. You could tell that from the way the eyes looked meaningfully into each other. Lichen knows about directions." When the Worm warns Sarah not to go "that way" in the book, it's the lichen he speaks to in Sarah's absence, "That was close. If she'd gone the other way, she'd have walked straight into that dreadful castle." The lichen sigh with relief.

The Labyrinth Bestiary paints a different picture of the lichen's role in the story: "These keenly observant creatures watch over the maze, carefully studying everything around them and reporting their findings back to the King. They alert Jareth when travelers bypass an obstruction, and they warn him when a resident is working against his best interests." In this respect, they serve a similar role to the Crystal Bats in The Dark Crystal, able to observe an environment from a diverse mix of locations as a crucial asset for their masters.

Labyrinth: The Adventure Game adds another aspect to the Eye Lichen, appropriate for the setting of a role-playing game. During the "Stone Walls" chapter, an infestation of lichen cover a twenty foot stretch of the walls that cannot be passed without falling immediately asleep. These lichen project a sleeping spell from their eyes as they observe approaching parties. The aftereffect has subsequently resulted in a dense stack of goblins that fill the floor of the corridor, snoring indefinitely unless someone pulls them out. The spell has no lasting effect, leaving the subject with no memory of having fallen asleep or the passage of time. The game also describes patches of Eye Lichen that can be used as a hiding place, and also as a secret ingredient for a goblin chef cook-off. As in the Bestiary, the Eye Lichen are also used by the Goblin King to observe those who infringe upon his kingdom.

Appearances[]

In addition to the film and novel, the Eye Lichen has also appeared in the music video for "Underground," Labyrinth: The Storybook Based on the Movie, the Marvel comic book adaptation, Return to Labyrinth v1, Labyrinth: Masquerade, the Jeremy Bastian variant cover for Labyrinth: Under the Spell, and the RPG Labyrinth: The Adventure Game.

Behind the scenes[]

Brian Froud describes the conceptualization of the Eye Lichen in Labyrinth: The Ultimate Visual History as the result of "playing around" in the tradition of the Muppets:

We'd put a couple of bits of Ping-Pong ball on a stick and wiggle it around. Suddenly it's a creature. It's alive. So we were always thinking about, "Well, what sort of creatures could we make?" And then it's "Well, we could use an eyeball on something." And then someone will say, "Whoa, what if we have lots of eyeballs!" And you go, "Great!" And then you think, "Oh. Right. Now we've gotta make 'em!"

That's how we wound up making that lichen creature that follows Sarah with its eyes as she passes down the corridor. That was an engineering feat. The eyeballs were all real, and they all moved. They were all on wires, and could all be manipulated. That came from having a great team of people who are mechanically savvy and understand how to build these things. What was great about it was, we all had fun making stuff. Because we were playing.

Although the Eye Lichen is a fictitious creation, its final design resembles a gold-eye lichen, or Teloschistes chrysophthalmus.

Advertisement