Pan's Labryinth

This one has been on my list for a while but I'll be honest, it was more because of the critical praise this movie has gotten since 2006 when it came out. There wasn't a whole lot about it that appealed to me, it just seemed like a critically acclaimed movie worth checking out sooner or later. 

The movie follows the story of a little girl named Ofelia (played by Ivana Baquero) in 1944 in the

middle of the Spanish Civil War. Her pregnant mother (played by Ariadna Gil) and her travel to a small mill in the mountains owned by a Captain (played by Sergi Lopez) in the Fascist Spanish military.  The Captain is in the middle of a campaign to root out freedom fighting insurgents in the mountains where the mill is located but he wants the new baby to be born with its father.

Ofelia is not pleased with the new circumstances but her time is soon occupied when she comes across fantastical fairies and a faun in the middle of a labyrinth near the mill. The faun (voiced by Doug Jones) tells Ofelia that she is Princess Moanna and daughter to king of the underworld. He wishes to bring her back to the underworld and have her sit at the side of her father, but he needs to give her three tasks to prove her worthiness.

Probably the biggest appeal of the movie is the juxtaposition between this high fantasy concept with fairies and fauns with a personal story of struggle against fascism, reaching levels comparative to Schindler's List or the Diary of Anne Frank.

The best part is the the movie is pretty vague on whether or not the fantasy elements are real or if they're just figments of a young girl coming of age in a very stressful and tragic time in history. I read something that compared it to a dark and twisted version of The Chronicles of Narnia and I sort of agree. I get why this movie was really beloved by some people because it contains some really unique imagery surrounding some really likable characters.

For real, I get why people enjoy Guillermo Del Toro because I almost came out of this movie wishing that they had focused more on the fantasy elements and we could have gotten some more creative creatures.

I mean look at that!

I saw this creature back in 2006 and it scared the shit out of me. It's still freaky but can you imagine what other creatures you could see from the mind of Del Toro if he had the budget?

The movie is in subtitles which shouldn't dissuade you. It's also centered in a world of basically Nazi's so expect some violence and torture. I just think its a really interesting backdrop for essentially a fairy tale for grown ups as I think Roger Ebert described it at one point.

The movie is well paced, its well performed, and you've got Del Toro's creativity as a backdrop for all of it. The mixture of practical effects and CGI is brilliant and its amazing that this movie came out almost 20 years ago and it looks this great.

There's not a whole lot bad to say about the movie. I can't say its my favorite movie of all time just out of personal preference but I do recommend you check it out if you haven't. It's on Netflix and is probably one of the better movies available there.

I guess one thing I could note is that the movie is pretty dark like the whole time. I get that it was the 2000's and everything needed to be dark and this movie was probably dark before it was cool, but when I say dark, I mean the lighting and tint of the movie with the exception of some scenes is always this dark greyish green color and its obnoxious at times.

I get that it adds to the ambiguity of whether or not the fantastical elements are real or not, and I assume that it was all an artistic choice. I just know that if I tried watching this at night, I'd probably fall asleep because everything is so dark.

But overall, I recommend Pan's Labyrinth. I don't know if I would have checked it out on my own if I hadn't heard the critical acclaim about it for so many years, but if you're looking for a dark fantasy juxtaposed with a really heart wrenching historical tragedy, I think you're in good hands with Pan's Labyrinth.

But those are my quick thoughts on the movie. What did you think? Have you seen Pan's Labyrinth? How does it hold up 14 years later? Comment and Discuss below! You can also send me your thoughts on Twitter @MovieSymposium as well as send me your requests for films I should review in the future. If you follow me on Twitter, you can get updates on future movie news and reviews coming out of this blog.

Thanks for reading!