Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #2751 in DVD
• Released on: 2007-03-12
• Rating: Suitable for 15 years and over
• Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
• Formats: Anamorphic, PAL
• Original language: Spanish
• Subtitled in: English
• Number of discs: 2
• Running time: 119 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Reviews
Inspired by the Brothers Grimm, Jorge Luis Borges, and Guillermo del Toro's own unlimited imagination, Pan's Labyrinth is a fairytale for adults. Ofelia (Ivana Baquero) may only be 12, but the worlds she inhabits, both above and below ground, are dark as anything del Toro has conjured. Set in rural Spain, circa 1944, Ofelia and her widowed mother, Carmen (Ariadna Gil, Belle Epoque), have just moved into an abandoned mill with Carmen's new husband, Captain Vidal (Sergi López, With a Friend like Harry). Carmen is pregnant with his son. Other than her sickly mother and kindly housekeeper Mercedes (Maribel Verdú, Y Tu Mamá También), the dreamy Ofelia is on her own. Vidal, an exceedingly cruel man, couldn't be bothered. He has informers to torture. Ofelia soon finds that an entire universe exists below the mill. Her guide is the persuasive Faun (Doug Jones, Mimic). As her mother grows weaker, Ofelia spends more and more time in the satyr's labyrinth. He offers to help her out of her predicament if she'll complete three treacherous tasks. Ofelia is willing to try, but does this alternate reality really exist or is it all in her head? Del Toro leaves that up to the viewer to decide in a beautiful, yet brutal twin to The Devil's Backbone, which was also haunted by the ghost of Franco. Though it lacks the humour of Hellboy, Pan's Labyrinth represents Guillermo Del Toro at the top of his considerable game. --Kathleen C. Fennessy

Synopsis
Accompanied by her parents, Ofelia moves from a large Spanish city to a more rural area in the North of the country. Faced with the upheaval of moving home, an abusive stepfather and the general unpleasantness surrounding Franco's victory in 1944, Ofelia enters an imaginary world of creatures and demons, in a bid to escape. From Guillermo del Torro, the visionary director of THE DEVIL'S BACKBONE and CRONOS comes this frightening, yet fantastical film.

Customer Reviews

Toro delivers one dark fairytale
Ofelia (Baquero) loves reading fairytales and during the 1944 Spanish war, she is asked by a faun to complete 3 tasks which will make her a princess.

Guillermo del Toro (Hellboy) uses his visionary genius to bring a dark and dramatic fairytale to life in this Oscar winning picture.

Filled with surprises, dramas and a dark twists upon fairytales, Pan's Labyrinth is both different and unique in its own genre and fills a viewer's watching requirements with stunning entertainment throughout.

The general surprise of seeing a fairytale told in such a dark and dramatic way is what makes the film so appealing. How many fairytales are realistic? How many are dark and reflect the true nature of their time? All run on the same format and offer no new thrills, but Pan's Labyrinth is unique and brilliant in achieving that diverse effect.

Toro's direction, plot and the costume design all come together superbly to achieve a dark and dismal reflection on Ofelia's life, and believe the plaudits, because this is one of the finest and imaginative films you will ever see. Toro is lining up to become the next Tim Burton with the use of dark materials and gothic imagery.

The writing is equally impressive with plenty of twists and turns and a strong focus upon each character's personal issues. There was slight confusion regarding the beginning in relation to the ending on the first watch, but it is well worth watching again.

The plot is driven by fantasy and escapism, with Ofelia desperate to escape the war and set things right. Baquero is excellent as central character Ofelia and will set your hearts racing with a brilliant young performance.

Each character is interesting, from the stubborn and violent Captain Vidal to the silent and professional Mercedes, the film portrays realism through the realistic characters and their lives. The writing and dialogue keeps the audience hooked as Toro delivers twist after twist in a highly dramatic plot.

The use of fantasy was a necessity and was pulled off tremendously well, through the use of unbelievable creatures. From a gigantic frog to a blind hellish creature, Toro gives viewers a variety and an image that will be cemented into anyone's memory forever after watching. The settings help achieve the graphic and dark imagination behind the creatures, none more so than the labyrinth.

Pan's Labyrinth simply achieves everything that a good film should need to, great direction, plot and characters.

9/10

Good, But Not Great
I'm afraid I'm in the minority here but after watching Pan's Labyrinth tonight I've got to say, I was incredibly dissapointed. I mean, there's nothing wrong with the film itself, it's an interesting, clever and dark story of how a young girl copes with her grief via fantasy's, set in the fascist Spain of 1944. What I found that let the film down was reading and hearing all these brilliant reviews of how this film was one of the greatest movies of the past 10 years, nay, one of the greatest films EVER created. And that was my problem - it was a good film, but it wasn't brilliant, and after expecting so much more, I felt hollow at the end of this film, like I'd been cheated out of an incredible movie.

The story follows 11 year old Ofelia, who's mother is pregnant and has recently married Captain Vidal, a brutal, cruel, abusive and unfeeling army man who is only interested in his new wife because of the baby she is carrying in her womb. Ofelia's mother is ill, and the country is in the middle of civil war, and Ofelia, to escape the brutality and cruelty of real life, creates a fantasy in her head where she is the princess and if she completes three tasks set to her by the faun, then she will be able to go to the world where her 'real' father is, and leave this horrible world behind. I've got to say, the imagination of the film is incredible - the story is beautiful -, the script is good (what was translated of it at any rate), and the acting is superb, but my issue was that I never really connected with any of the characters emotionally (the dramatic end didn't really move me at all), and that the world Ofelia creates for herself is too childish and silly for me to ever get drawn in to it's story. I feel like I have to mention Serji Lopez on account of his performance as Captain Vidal, which really was quite superb, and I also believe the director Guillermo del Toro did a great job with the film. Hence the three stars. But overall I didn't fall in love with this movie, and although I may watch it again if it is on the TV, I won't be recommending it highly to my friends, or rushing out to buy the DVD because I just HAVE to see it again. A good movie, not great, - just don't go in expecting a masterpiece. That way you may enjoy it far more than I have.

Extraordinary, profound, layered, beautifully uses cinema as art form
A riveting, beautiful, terrifying, soulful film. The overwhelmingly '5 star' reviews show most of us sharing a 'blown away by this film' response

I would describe this as an 'art' film, by which i mean, something which draws on painterly skills (from the visual arts) and literary/verbal skills ( finding a connection to deeply visceral, collective unconscious written and spoken narratives - commonly called fairy tales, myths, or folk stories)

This film LOOKS extraordinary, colour, shapes, images are beautifully constructed and FEELS extraordinary. Many reviewers have commented on Olifia's 'escape' from the cruel world of the Spanish Civil War into 'fantasy'. The true depth of myth and fairy story is that they are NOT different from 'reality', they are a reflection of 'reality', interpreted in a different way. There was SO much mirroring of 'reality' and 'fantasy' in this film - perhaps no where so sharply drawn as parallels between the sadistic stepfather and the 'blind' devouring monster.

And wonderful performances!