Continuity mistake: Hoggle wears a small orange jacket, and a brown leather belt (which has many objects attached to it, such as keys, a pipe, etc.,) which is attached to at the top, on the right side of his jacket, which runs diagonally across his body. However when Hoggle says "Me? I wouldn't go either way," the whole top portion of his body is visible, and you can clearly see that the leather belt is not attached at the top of his jacket. It seems to have gone in this shot. However after he says "You know your thing, you take to many things for granted," the belt is now back, reattached to the top of his jacket. (00:16:55)
Continuity mistake: When Hoggle and Sarah fall out of the chute that leads to the bog of eternal stench, between shots, the amount and position of leaves on the ledge changes constantly. (00:52:45 - 00:53:40)
Continuity mistake: When the Junk Lady says, "Well, what about this? This is not junk," as she hands Sarah the music box, Sarah turns in her chair, brings the music box close to look at it and the toys piled behind Sarah are higher than her head. After a close-up of the Junk Lady, in the next shot of Sarah, she is still bringing the music box a bit closer to her as she turns in her chair and the toys piled behind her are now only up to her shoulders. (01:13:45)
Continuity mistake: When Hoggle and Sarah climb out of the large pot, the table underneath the pot has dirt on it. The amount/position of the dirt changes in the following shots. (00:38:10)
Continuity mistake: In Sarah's father's bedroom, the rocking horse that sits near the back doors is seen throughout the shots in the bedroom and its positions changes several times. (00:10:30)
Deliberate mistake: When the rocks invade Goblin City, one Goblin runs into his home shouting, "I've had enough. I'm going to bed," in a close-up. His distinctive home and the one beside it, are the same homes seen near the large main gate, when Sir Didymus and the crazy riders squared off earlier (and other shots). However, in the close-up, things such as the long rope mounted to the pulley above the door disappear, and yet, pottery, baskets, etc., suddenly appear. (01:21:20 - 01:24:45)
Continuity mistake: After Jareth throws the snake at Sarah, the Goblins around the bedroom laugh, and the one at the headboard ducks behind the pillow changing the pillow's position. Yet when Sarah says, "But I have to have my brother back," the pillow is back in the exact same position, with the same creases as before the Goblin moved it. (00:13:35)
Continuity mistake: Throughout the film Sarah's clothes stay very clean, although she frequently falls into dirty places, such as the oubliette and the chute. (00:19:20 - 01:32:00)
Continuity mistake: In the tunnel as the cleaners approach, Sarah and Hoggle fall with the door as it slams to the ground near the ladder. The bottom of the ladder is surrounded by the broken door as well as other debris. When Hoggle and Sarah climb the ladder, one of the ladder rungs fall and there is a shot of the bottom of the ladder, but the debris at the bottom differs from the previous shot. (00:36:40 - 00:37:35)
Audio problem: When Sarah meets Hoggle, while exterminating fairies, she says, "You're horrible," but her lips do not move. (00:15:55)
Continuity mistake: After Sarah finally asks Hoggle the right question, the doors to the labyrinth open, beside the flower vines on the wall, and the dirt ground between the doors is clear. In the following close-up, when Sarah begins to enter, the flower vines on the wall noticeably differ. Then when Ludo walks out and slams the doors, the ground between the doors is covered in leaves. (00:16:25 - 00:18:00)
Continuity mistake: When Sarah is finally back in her room, she sees Ludo, Sir Didymus and Hoggle in the reflection of her vanity mirror. Her white dress that lies on her bed changes position when seen on the real bed, the close-ups in the reflection and the semi close-ups in the reflection. (01:35:00)
Continuity mistake: When Hoggle jumps off the huge metallic robot, we see him land parallel to the foot of the robot as he lies on the ground. When Sarah runs to him, Hoggle's head is now right up against the foot, while he lies there. Yet in the next shot as Sarah asks if he's alright, still lying on the ground, he is not near the giant foot. (01:17:50)
Continuity mistake: When Sarah places Toby back in the crib, the lipped door jamb clearly has a strike plate. After she says, "I wish the goblins would come and take you away..." she shuts the light, and walks out. When Sarah turns around in the hallway to go back and check on Toby, there is no strike plate on the white door jamb - and it should be visible. (00:09:40)
Revealing mistake: It is obvious when the owl, that attacks Sarah, is a puppet and when it is a real owl, in consecutive shots. It is also obvious when the snake, that Jareth tosses at Sarah, is real and is a fake in subsequent shots. It is also very apparent when Sir Didymus' dog, Ambrosius, is a real Sheep Dog, or is a puppet Sheep Dog, in consecutive shots as well. (00:11:50 - 01:21:25)
Revealing mistake: When Sarah defeats Jareth, you can see levitating arches in the background. If you look closely at them, however, you can see the wires holding them up.
Continuity mistake: When Sarah crosses the Bog of Eternal Stench, the bridge rails break, and then the bridge plank under her gives way and falls into the bog, while she clings to the tree limb. However, when Sir Didymus says, "It seemed solid enough," the left rail and the bridge plank are actually still intact. (01:00:25)
Continuity mistake: When Ludo calls the rocks in the Goblin city, there is then a wide shot of Sir Didymus standing by a house door, surrounded by soldiers. Between this wide shot, and the next closeup, the soldier's spears go from not being pointed at Didymus, to being pointed right close to him. The spears being pointed at him in the closeup also are different to the spears that belonged to the guards in front of him too (check the flags hanging at the end of the spears.) (01:20:35)
Continuity mistake: When Sarah sits down at her vanity table in her fake room, in a wide shot you can see her Labyrinth book laying on the table. The angle the book is laying at changes when Sarah picks it up in a closeup. (01:09:55)
Continuity mistake: When Sarah is talking to Jareth about entering the labyrinth, when she says "Don't you understand that I can't," Jareth is standing in front of a tall tree. But in the next shot, the tree has gone. There are just tree limbs and branches behind him, but the tree has disappeared. (00:13:32)
Answer: They are real. This is seen when Jareth turns into an owl and Sarah sees him fly out of the house. Further proof of this is when everybody that Sarah met were in her room and Jareth was looking into her room before flying off.