PERFORMER	Ron Mueck lead puppeteer/voice
	Rob Mills puppeteer
DEBUT	1986

Ludo is a gigantic beast in Labyrinth, whom Sarah found being tortured by goblins. After she rescued him, he became one of her traveling companions.

Ludo looks monstrous, but has a gentle and playful nature, and is one of the few residents of the labyrinth who is not under Jareth's control. He speaks rudimentary broken English and refers to himself in the third person.

He also has the ability to summon rocks, from small stones to boulders capable of defeating an entire goblin army. This ability proved quite useful several times during the group's journey.

His name is likely derived from the board game, as a copy of it is stored on a bookshelf in Sarah's room.

As of February 2024, Ludo was on display at the National Film and Sci-Fi Museum in Milton Keynes, England.

Production background[]

From the production notes for Labyrinth:

“Performing Ludo was a challenge shared by puppeteers Ron Mueck and Rob Mills. Ron developed Ludo's character and served as the major performer and Rob alternated. Ludo, basically, was a very large and magnificent costume with a lot of very sophisticated equipment and either Ron or Rob inside.

Once there, the puppeteers view of the outside world was mostly obtained from the screens of two tiny TV monitors strapped to their stomachs. One of the monitors showed the action on the set that was being seen and filmed by the movie camera. The second monitor carried a picture transmitted through the lens of a tiny camera hidden in Ludo's horn. It was this picture that mainly kept Ludo from walking into things. Three puppeteers operated remote radio control devices that controlled Ludo's facial expressions and movements.”

Gallery[]

Ludo sketch by Brian Froud