Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #5607 in DVD
• Released on: 2007-03-12
• Rating: Suitable for 18 years and over
• Aspect ratio: 1.78:1
• Formats: Anamorphic, Box set, PAL
• Original language: Spanish
• Subtitled in: English
• Number of discs: 3
• Running time: 310 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
If you're after something a bit more magical than the current crop of gory, torturous horror movies, this Guillermo del Toro Collection might be just what you're looking for. Del Toro weaves together dark fairy tales with bleak reality in each of these three movies, creating films which are clever, beautiful and incredibly haunting. Although del Toro has made more high profile movies--Hellboy and Blade 2, specifically--his Spanish language movies are clearly his real passion. More personal than his superhero movies, each of these films has something to say.

The earliest of the movies is Cronos. Released in 1993, it's a story of family loyalties as well as alchemy and vampirism. 2001's The Devil's Backbone sees a group of orphans battling for survival in a world populated by bullies and ghosts, with war torn Spain providing a stunning background; while Pan's Labyrinth, released in 2006 to critical acclaim, mingles real life politics and social drama with fantasy and magic to create a masterpiece. Pan's Labyrinth won three Oscars, though it also deserved the other three it was also nominated for.

With each successive film, Del Toro's filmmaking has grown ever more mature and powerful, and this boxset perfectly showcases an incredible talent.--Sarah Dobbs

Synopsis
Mexican director Guillermo Del Toro is recognised as one of the world's most visually creative filmmakers, balancing a career torn between blockbusters such as HELLBOY and BLADE II with smaller, personal projects such as the three films brought together in this collection – THE DEVIL'S BACKBONE, PAN'S LABYRINTH and his debut feature, CRONOS.

Customer Reviews

Brilliant And Original.
Despite not usually liking fantasy, I watched this because of Mark Kermode's recommendation on The Culture Show. Previous reviewers have already praised the film and provided more than sufficient analysis. I don't disagree with any of it. I would like to point out, though, that the DVD is worth buying for the extras alone. Guillermo del Toro is an engaging character and his interview (with Mark Kermode), knowledge of his background, beliefs and film making techniques made a second viewing of the film even more enjoyable.

One note of warning. Parents may be lulled by the cover and marketing into believing that this is a straightforward fantasy film. It isn't. It contains a few scenes of extreme, quite shocking violence. Quite fortunate to get away with even the `15' rating and certainly not suitable for young children. That apart, great film, worth several viewings.

Fantastic
This was not what I expected, and why this movie has not swept the world by storm is beyond me. This film entwines a few different aspects on civil war and human nature through the imagination of a girl, a brutish soldier and father, and a number of revolutionaries. The story is based around the girl who uses her wonderful fantasies to deal with her depressing surroundings. It is not for the faint hearted and has a touch (for me) of asian type cinema. The film comes together so well on many levels and finishes exactly the way it should.

Into the labyrinth
If anyone wants to know where the dark, creepy fairy tales of old went, here's a hint: Guillermo del Toro is doing a pretty good job with the fairy tales for adults.

"Pan's Labyrinth" ("El Laberinto del Fauno") is a sequel of sorts to "The Devil's Backbone," a magical realism film about the Spanish Civil War. But this movie takes us deeper into a world that is half real, half ominous fairy tale, with a unique and imaginative story and some really excellent acting -- in short, a triumph.

Time and place: 1944, Spain. Ofelia (Ivana Baquero) and her very pregnant mother travel to meet her new stepfather, the brutal and murderous Captain Vidal (Sergi López). Ofelia loathes her new stepfather, but is transfixed by the eerie forests around them -- and one night she is visited by a fairy, and encounters a giant faun who tells her that she is Princess Moanna of the netherworld, and must return there.

To do so, he tells her that she must do three things, and gives her a strange book. Ofelia menages first task, but is frightened out of her wits by the second task, which involves a hideous monster with eyes in its hands. Even worse, her mother's pregnancy is getting more dangerous. As the guerillas and the fascists clash, Ofelia faces being trapped outside the netherworld forever...

Fairy tales have become cleaned-up and cutesy over time, so that children can read them without nightmares. But del Toro knows that the best fairy tales are the eerie, bizarre ones for adults, that are connected somehow to the real world. That is what makes "Pan's Labyrinth" so brilliantly dark and heartfelt.

Del Toro obviously crafted this with care, directing it in a dreamlike style and brilliant visuals. The eerie atmosphere of Ofelia's wanderings -- the delicate yet menacing faun, the chalk doors, the monuments, and the pasty nightmare with eyes in its palms -- is both a contrast and a parallel with the everyday world, which Ofelia hopes to escape.

At first, it seems like the post-Civil War and fairy tale stories don't mesh, until you see that the "real world" story is Ofelia's motivation to escape from all the fear, pain and sorrow. But Del Toro's biggest triumph is an ending that is beautifully bittersweet, and which turns out to hinge on Ofelia's newborn brother.

But del Toro's biggest triumph is in the instant connection we feel to Ofelia, with her love of the fantastical and her desire to go somewhere "safe." Baquero is absolutely wonderful in this, as a girl who isn't entirely of this world -- in her heart, she belongs somewhere beyond. And López is the ideal villain -- you spend the whole movie wanting to see him gruesomely killed.

Half "Mirrormask" and half gritty war story, "Pan's Labyrinth" is one of the best fantasy stories in years -- dark, passionate and beautifully made. Definitely a great movie.