Continuity mistake: When Sarah leaves Toby's room, just after saying the Goblin wish, you can see two paintings hanging beside Sarah's bedroom door. They have a wooden frame, but when the shot changes, and Sarah walks towards her bedroom door, the paintings have changed, and the frame of the painting is now metal. Then when Sarah enters Toby's room again the paintings have changed back to the wooden framed ones.The bottom picture itself also changes.In the 1st shot there seems to be a bouqet of flowers but when Sarah is outside of the room the picture is of a long bare landscape. (00:09:35 - 00:10:20)
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)
Continuity mistake: When Sarah walks into the darkened bedroom, in the shots facing the double back doors the hanging light fixture over the crib, the mobile, and picture beside it are all visible. When Jareth appears, in the first shot facing him, the mobile hangs lower (note the archway), the picture is closer to the floral trim around the archway; and solely for Jareth's dramatic entrance, the light fixture is gone - though it should easily be visible in this shot, and the crib is now at an angle. (00:10:25 - 00:11:55)
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)
Continuity mistake: When Sarah walks towards Toby's cot before pulling back the sheets, just before approaching it, there is a shot of the cot. Then in the next shot it shows Sarah reach down then pull back the covers. Between the two shots the covers and pillow have moved and changed their position. (00:10:45)
Continuity mistake: When the goblins are roaming around and sneaking about in Sarah's father's bedroom, in one shot when we see a small, black, furry goblin jump out of the chest which sits at the end of the double-bed, the rocking horse, which sits next to the green chair, by the double doors, has actually disappeared. It's clearly back, once the owl has burst through the doors. (00:11:10)
Continuity mistake: When Sarah approaches the empty crib, the pillow is semi-upright at the corner of the bars behind it and she pulls away the blankets letting most of the mattress show. However, as Jareth's shadow is seen on the floor entering the doorway, the blankets cover more of the mattress and the pillow is now flat and centered. (00:11:20)
Continuity mistake: The twin doors in the bedroom fly open, and as a result the curtains are opened and pulled behind each of the doors as the owl flies through. However in the close-up of the owl attacking Sarah the curtains are visible and they are now blowing in front of the open doorway. Then as Jareth's shadow is seen on the rug, it's clear that the curtains are pulled apart by their shadow, which is also the case in the next shot of Jareth standing in the doorway with the curtains indeed pulled behind the doors. (00:11:45)
Continuity mistake: When Jareth's shadow menacingly appears on the rug beside the crib, Sarah's legs face the doorway on the rug - which has light stripes parallel to the doorway. However, in the close-up of Sarah's legs, when the snake/scarf turns into a Goblin, her legs face the doorway and the rug stripes run perpendicularly. (00:11:50)
Continuity mistake: As the white owl flies in and around the room, it is flapping wildly, but the owl's shadow is flapping at a considerably slower speed. (00:11:50)
Continuity mistake: When Jareth first appears at the open bedroom doors, the branches and leaves are seen outside behind him on both sides of the doorway. As he and Sarah start to speak, the shrubbery changes between the following close-ups and semi close-ups of Jareth. (00:12:00)
Continuity mistake: When Jareth throws the snake at Sarah, from a back shot the snake goes over her shoulders and crosses over by her neck, but in the next front shot the snake is only in front of Sarah and isn't over her shoulders anymore. (00:13:00)
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)
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: When Sarah is running, just before she reaches the pond Hoggle is peeing in, you get a wide shot of her running. You can see that the Fairy spray beside Hoggle's feet is not there at that point, but appears a few shots later. (00:14:25)
Continuity mistake: When Sarah first meets Hoggle, he's going for a pee in a pond. In one wide shot, the water in the pond is moving vigorously, but in the next wide shot, the water has pretty much settled. (00:14:30)
Continuity mistake: Sarah goes to pick up the fairy that dropped right by the wall. But in the next shot, you see Sarah stand up with the fairy in her hands, and she is now standing quite a way from the wall. (00:14:55)
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: 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 Sarah first enters the labyrinth, and is running down the passage, the branches, bits of log and wood etc., change, disappear and reappear between different angled shots as she runs. (00:17:45)
Answer: To add to that, the other door was supposed to lead her to certain death, and technically the oubliette wasn't exactly certain death.