Reviews of Pan's Labyrinth

''I've had so many names.''

Posted : 1 week, 4 days ago on 20 December 2009 10:25 (A review of Pan's Labyrinth)

''Me? I've had so many names. Old names that only the wind and the trees can pronounce. I am the mountain, the forest and the earth. I am... I am a faun. Your most humble servant, Your Highness.''

In the fascist Spain of 1944, the bookish young stepdaughter of a sadistic army officer escapes into an eerie but captivating fantasy world.

Ivana Baquero: Ofelia

Sergi López: Captain Vidal

Breath-taking. Simply breath taking, Pan's Labyrinth is without a doubt one of my fave films ever that captures the imagination and historical sides perfectly.

Amazing how it switches between fantasy and reality, and how the two merge together throughout, also liked how her step-father played by Sergi Lopez is depicted as this evil, fascist soldier.
His story is wonderful, detailed and he truly is what you may consider to be an evil man. He does some cold stuff that really has to be marveled at.
Ivana Baquero as Opheila is wonderful and a rising star, her sweetness and innocence couldn't be better portrayed by anyone.
Doug Jones really plays the creatures well with his body and movements, his roles in films such as Hellboy, Fantastic Four 2 are a rival to even Andy Serkis and his Gollum or King Kong.
The faun and the pale man are very impressive. Definitely one of Tel Toro's best films for sure. Such a powerful and visual yet brutal fantasy tale depicting fantasy mixed with reality both as harsh as each other!

The Spanish language is so similar to English in my mind having done it at college, you can hear how the same it is when you read the subtitles and compare.
Gripping and violent, loving yet tough, a girls journey who gets to her rightful place yet encounters death, despair, tragedy and the gritty truths of life and its harshness.
This isn't just a fantasy film but a war and historical one too. The music too is haunting and mesmerizing and will stay with you. A perfect merging that Guillermo Del Toro proves to me that he is one of the best imaginative directors out there.
A benchmark and huge Success in filming, richly deserved it's Oscars was hoping it would win best foreign film but you tend to lose faith in the voting sometimes at the Oscars. Although 3 Oscar wins did please me considerably.

A masterpiece which I love...

''A long time ago, in the underground realm, where there are no lies or pain, there lived a Princess who dreamed of the human world. She dreamed of blue skies, soft breeze, and sunshine. One day, eluding her keepers, the Princess escaped. Once outside, the brightness blinded her and erased every trace of the past from her memory. She forgot who she was and where she came from. Her body suffered cold, sickness, and pain. Eventually, she died. However, her father, the King, always knew that the Princess' soul would return, perhaps in another body, in another place, at another time. And he would wait for her, until he drew his last breath, until the world stopped turning...''

0 comments, Reply to this entry

Pan's Labyrinth review

Posted : 3 weeks, 2 days ago on 8 December 2009 08:06 (A review of Pan's Labyrinth)

Pan' Labyrinth is one of those extremely bizarre films that sticks the same way all the way through it. The story is very magical, very imaginative and very clever. It is a film with a large meaning to particularly younger children that fairy tales aren't really real. This has a lot of fantastic epic qualities within it. This is a fantastic example of fairy tales for adults just like Lord Of The Rings. It is a powerful story that sees through the eyes of a young girl. Pan's Labyrinth is a very emotional, heartbreaking and yet beautiful film which has fantastic qualities within cinema. Pan's Labyrinth ends in a similar sort of way Darren Aronofsky's The Fountain did.


Ivana Baquero delivers an absolutely outstanding performance as Ofelia. She goes through a lot of rollercoasters in this film which includes the three tasks Pan sets for her, looking after her pregnant mother and being around and obeying her evil stepfather. I remember when Ofelia's mother said to her that fairy tales aren't realy and never have happened and never will happen. So, that makes me question whether Pan, the fairies, the Pale Man, the tasks and the other creatures are just in Ofelia's imagination. Ivana's performance was very powerful and was very heartfelt which can be rare from a child in a film. It is definitely one of my top child female performances. Sergi López brings together one of the coldest film monsters of all time that is Captain Vidal. He kills innocent people for no reason but it is mostly how he kills them which makes Vidal a very dominant and powerful character to watch.


Guillermo Del Toro uses his typical visual style in this film. I think he imagines this film in his head as a similar sort of way Tim Burton did with Edward Scissorhands, Beetlejuice, Nightmare Before Christmas and Corpse Bride. Del Toro's directing was so precise and he wanted the performances from the actors decent enough for his type of film. The script is fantastic. It is very original which makes it a bit like a cult fantasy film.


This is my favourite Del Toro film so far, it is my second favourite film of 2006 after The Departed, it is one of my close favourite fantasy films, it is my favourite foreign language film. It is a film that is almost tied with Sweeney Todd for film with best art direction, the same with best film with best make-up. One of my most treasured films ever! Love it to bits! Always have and always will!

0 comments, Reply to this entry

a dark fairytale

Posted : 2 months, 3 weeks ago on 6 October 2009 05:09 (A review of Pan's Labyrinth)

this movie is beautyfull and charming in a sad way.the story is touching and creative.just delightfull.i gave it 5 worth watching

0 comments, Reply to this entry

Creative & Beautiful

Posted : 8 months, 2 weeks ago on 16 April 2009 01:01 (A review of Pan's Labyrinth)

Pan's Labyrinth is a film whose creativity & emotion are elegantly entwined in a manner that blurs the barrier between the "real" world & the fantasy dimension, almost beyond physical distinction.
Just an absolutely beautiful movie that successfully takes the constant air of peril that comes with living under the grim realities of war & overlays it with the macabre & twisted influence that such a situation can have on a young creative mind's fairy-tale-like imaginations.







0 comments, Reply to this entry

Enchanting tale

Posted : 2 years, 5 months ago on 15 July 2007 05:59 (A review of Pan's Labyrinth)

A thought provoking and enchanting tale that is only slightly let down by stereo-typical characters. The Captain being the main culprit in question. Brought back memories of childhood reading I'd almost forgotten.

1 comments, Reply to this entry

Pan's Labyrinth

Posted : 2 years, 6 months ago on 28 June 2007 06:57 (A review of Pan's Labyrinth)

This movie was definitely misleading, based on the commercials. Not what I expected at all. Very dark and violent (gruesome even), but still really good. Don't watch this with children. Definitely NOT a family movie. But definitely one to watch. Very well done, well acted, and great story.

1 comments, Reply to this entry

Pan's Labyrinth review

Posted : 2 years, 6 months ago on 25 June 2007 12:04 (A review of Pan's Labyrinth)

I was very surprised with this film. I have no idea what I was expecting except it was maybe more a children's film then anything else. Jeez was I mistaken! Obviously I hadn't heard much about it.

For starters it was far too violent in parts for children and younger children may have found it more on the scary side. For adults though (including young adults) it was excellent. It was unlike any other movie I have seen in a long time and by far a rarity in cinematic excellence. The acting was fantastic and the story line was marvellous. If you're a world cinema fan you have to see this and if you aren't, well you really have to see this.

1 comments, Reply to this entry

an extraordinary masterpiece

Posted : 2 years, 6 months ago on 16 June 2007 09:29 (A review of Pan's Labyrinth)

Spain. 1944. Ofelia, a girl fascinated by fairy tales, is sent with her pregnant mother to meet and live with her new stepfather, Capitan Vidal, a particularly sadistic character. One night Ofelia meets a fairy, is told she is a princess and encounters the faun Pan. To prove her royalty, she must execute specific albeit gruesome tasks.

Sergi Lopez as the Capitan is excellent, as are the two leading actresses, Maribel Verdu (playing Vidal's housekeeper, Mercedes) and Ivana Baquero (Ofelia). The faun is magistrally played by Doug Jones.

An intense, brutal, beautiful, magical world is what makes this movie A MUST SEE, for it is quite the masterpiece, visually and artistically. The film definitely deserved its Oscar for best cinematography: Guillermo Navarro used wonderful lighting and techniques.

Brilliantly directed and masterfully written by Guillermo Del Toro, this is a movie FOR ADULTS.

(Warning: English subtitles only so far available on the DVDs.)


1 comments, Reply to this entry

Aggravated by fast sub-titles & spanish

Posted : 2 years, 7 months ago on 4 June 2007 08:28 (A review of Pan's Labyrinth)

My first thought after renting and watching this movie wasn’t very honest. I was upset that it didn’t have an English language version and that the English sub-titles often ran way too fast prompting several rewinds on my player. But in retrospect this was a good movie, a really good movie. And sub-titles do make you pay more attention to the story, but when concentrating on the sub-titles I think you miss some of the visuals and visual effects. My hope is that a Special English dubbed version might be released sometime in the future. I give it high marks for everything but the Spanish only language and way-to-fast sub-titles. Yes, I was aggravated by it, but it was still a good movie.

0 comments, Reply to this entry

Good, but a slight Disappointment

Posted : 2 years, 7 months ago on 26 May 2007 04:40 (A review of Pan's Labyrinth)

Ok, so I have been waiting to see this movie for a long time, and I have built up quite an excitment for it. As with any high expectations, I was slight disappointed in the way the movie was presented. The previews I saw gave the movie a fantastic feel when in reality the movie focused more on the story of the gril in real life rather than her fantasy world. But in the end it was maid up for by the fact that so many people died. Lost of action, a little bit of fantasy, and some pretty good music. See it, but don't expect another LOTR or Neverending story.

0 comments, Reply to this entry