Product Description

Following a bloody civil war young Ofelia enters a world of unimaginable cruelty when she moves in with her new stepfather a tyrannical military officer. Armed with only her imagination Ofelia discovers a mysterious labyrinth and meets a faun who sets her on a path to saving herself and her ailing mother. But soon the lines between fantasy and reality begin to blur and before Ofelia can turn back she finds herself at the center of a ferocious battle between good and evil.Running Time: 119 min.System Requirements:Runtime: 112 minsFormat: DVD MOVIE Genre: ACTION/ADVENTURE/THRILLERS Rating: R UPC: 794043108877 Manufacturer No: N10887

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #2846 in DVD
• Brand: Warner Brothers
• Released on: 2007-05-15
• Rating: R (Restricted)
• Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
• Formats: AC-3, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DTS Surround Sound, DVD-Video, Special Edition, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
• Original language: Spanish
• Subtitled in: English, Spanish
• Number of discs: 2
• Dimensions: .35 pounds
• Running time: 119 minutes

Amazon.com
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 humor of Hellboy, Pan's Labyrinth represents Guillermo Del Toro at the top of his considerable game. --Kathleen C. Fennessy

Customer Reviews

Incredible Movie!
Fairy tale for adults - extremely well told. Story is predominently built on the extreme contrast between how innocent a child can be versus how incredibly evil a man can be: Good versus Evil set in the battlefields of the Spanish Civil War and in the imagination of a little girl (and how the little girl tries to use that imagination to escape the cold realities of the world). Excellent performances by actors in all featured roles. It's the kind of movie you'll want to see at least twice...and this even though it's subtitled (though the story is so strong that the subtitles don't distract that badly).

Having said that, I do wish that there was a dubbed version of the film. I know that is a sacreligious thing to say in the art film world... but hey - "Life is Beautiful" has a decent dubbed version that works pretty well!

Never would be made by Hollywood...
Can you imagine a director/producer approaching the powers that be in Hollywood and saying "I'd like to make a movie set in an foreign country, during an obscure civil war that involves a little girl, her evil step father and a host of characters straight out of greek mythology..." Yeah...me neither....
Regardless, this film did get made and has found a relatively wide audience here in the U.S...I do not consider myself desensitized to violence or gore and am not a fan of films like SAW, etc., so it shocked me when some reviewers here said they could not take the violence in this film and found it over the top...Anyone remember the REAL story of Red Riding Hood?? Or how bout the REAL Hansel and Grettle?? And yeah...civil wars ARE brutal...I think the more realistic in this case the better...Violence SHOULD disgust and bother you...
As for the actual film itself I found it to be quite enjoyable and different from the normal pablum served up in theaters...The only part I found overrated were the creatures and "special effects" I really didn't find them THAT great or jaw dropping...the faun seemed a bit stilted--too much like the bugs in del Toro's previous film Mimic...and the other creatures while strange looking were not that different from others seen recent films...Del Toro just put them side by side with a child instead of in a horror film...If you want to be able to talk up an interesting film at your next coctail party...this is it...

Spanish Fairytales
This is a superb film from director Guillermo del Toro. Set in 1944 when a last band of rebels are still holding out after the Spanish Civil war has long since finished. Ofelia is a young girl who brought by her mother to see her stepfather a Captain in the army with a sadistic streak. He is leading the fight against the rebels.

All this is interesting and mapped out from the start. However within a short space of time the film takes a huge turn into the world of fantasy. Ofelia is taken by a fairy to a fantasy world under the maze of the films title. On a simple level this is just a young girls escape from the nightmare happening around her, and if you just accept it as that you will still see a great movie.

However Toro uses the fantasy world as a chance to make a movie that works on another level. There are clear references to the holocaust in the film (piles of shoes for one) and the Captain/Stepfather is remarkably similiar to the camp commandant in Schindlers List, both because of his brutal actions, and even visually Toro has picked an actor who looks like Ralph Fiennes. This may be pure coincidence...

This isn't a film I could recommend for small children. Firstly it has some quite unpleasant violence, which in context is completly justified. Secondly some of the imagery is a little too disturbing for youngsters in my view. But at the right age (and I wouldn't like to say what age that should be) its a film for everyone.

Unlike many Hollywood films this resolved without the need for tons of overt sentimentality, people cheering etc. Indeed I thought the ending got the balance just about right. Its a film I shall be watching again. Hopefully next time in HiDef as I imagine this would be a stunning film to see in that format.