Pan's Labyrinth (El laberinto del fauno)
Pan's Labyrinth movie poster
Directed by	Guillermo del Toro
Produced by	Alfonso Cuarón Guillermo del Toro Bertha Navarro Frida Torresblanco Alvaro Augustin
Written by	Guillermo del Toro
Starring	Ivana Baquero Doug Jones Sergi López Maribel Verdú Ariadna Gil Álex Angulo
Music by	Javier Navarrete
Cinematography	Guillermo Navarro
Editing by	Bernat Vilaplana
Distributed by	Warner Bros. Optimum Picturehouse
Release date(s)	October 11, 2006 October 20, 2006 24 November 2006 December 29, 2006
Running time	112 min. 119 min. (UK version)
Country	Spain Mexico
Language	Spanish
Budget	$19 million[1]
Gross revenue	$82 million[1]
Official website
All Movie Guide profile
IMDb profile

Pan's Labyrinth (Spanish: El Laberinto del Fauno; literally The Labyrinth of the Faun) is an Academy Award-winning Spanish language fantasy film^[3][4] written and directed by Mexican film-maker Guillermo del Toro. Though the original title referred only to the mythological faun, the English title refers to the faun-like Greek god Pan. Del Toro has stated, however, that the faun featured in the film is not actually Pan.^[4] It was produced and distributed by the Mexican film company Esperanto Films.

Pan's Labyrinth, set in post-Civil War Spain, tells the allegorical story of a girl named Ofelia who is given three tasks by a mysterious faun. Meanwhile, her stepfather, the Falangist Captain Vidal, viciously hunts for rebels in the region, and her pregnant mother grows ill. Heavily influenced by fairy tales and considered a spiritual sequel to The Devil's Backbone, the film employed make-up, puppetry, and CGI effects to create its fantasy creatures.

The film premièred at the 2006 Cannes Film Festival. It was released in the United Kingdom on November 24 2006. In the United States and Canada, the film was given a limited release on December 29, 2006, with a nationwide release on January 19, 2007.^[5] Pan's Labyrinth has won numerous international awards, including three Academy Awards, and the 2007 Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation, Long Form.

Plot

The movie opens with a fairy tale. In it, Princess Moanna, whose father is the king of the underworld, becomes curious about the world above. When she goes to the surface, she forgets about her life in the underworld and grows old and dies as a mortal. The king believes that her spirit will come back to the underworld someday.

The story then cuts to post-Civil War Spain in 1944, with Francisco Franco firmly in power. Ofelia (Ivana Baquero), a young girl who loves fairy tales, travels with her pregnant mother Carmen (Ariadna Gil) to meet Captain Vidal (Sergi López i Ayats), her new stepfather and father of Carmen's unborn child. Vidal, the son of a famed commander who died in Morocco, believes strongly in falangism and was assigned to root out any anti-fascist rebels.

Ofelia discovers a large insect resembling a stick insect which she believes to be a fairy. It follows her to the mill where Vidal is stationed and leads Ofelia into an ancient labyrinth nearby. Before Ofelia can enter, she is stopped by Mercedes (Maribel Verdú), Vidal's housekeeper who is spying for the rebels. That night, the insect appears in Ofelia's bedroom where it changes into a fairy and leads her through the labyrinth. There, she meets the faun (Doug Jones), who believes her to be Princess Moanna. He gives her three tasks to complete before the full moon to ensure that her "essence is intact". Meanwhile, Vidal brutally kills two farmers suspected of being rebels before searching them properly. After looking in their bag it is clear that they were hunting rabbits as they had said and were not rebels.

Ofelia completes the first task of retrieving a key from the belly of a disgusting giant toad, but she becomes worried about her mother whose condition is worsening. The faun gives Ofelia a mandrake root, which instantly begins to cure her mother's illness.

Accompanied by three fairy guides, Ofelia then completes the second task of retrieving an ornate dagger from the lair of the Pale Man (Jones as well), a gruesome, child-eating monster who sits silently in front of a large feast. Although she was gravely warned not to consume anything, she eats two grapes, awakening and angering the Pale Man. He eats two of the fairies and chases her, but she manages to escape. Infuriated at her disobedience, the faun refuses to give her the third task.

Meanwhile, Vidal becomes increasingly vicious, torturing a captured rebel. Vidal also kills the doctor who euthanized the tortured prisoner to stop his pain, because he discovered the doctor was helping the rebels. Vidal catches Ofelia tending to the mandrake root. Vidal makes Carmen throw it into the fireplace, where it then begins to scream. Instantly, she develops painful contractions and dies giving birth to a son. Vidal discovers that Mercedes is a spy, and he captures her and Ofelia as they attempt to escape. Ofelia is locked in her bedroom, and Mercedes is taken to be tortured; however, she frees herself using a hidden knife, badly injures Vidal, and flees into the woods where the rebels rescue her.

The faun returns to Ofelia and gives her one more chance to prove herself. He tells her to take her baby brother into the labyrinth. Ofelia steals the baby after sedating Vidal; although disoriented, Vidal continues to chase her through the labyrinth while the rebels attack the mill. The faun tells Ofelia that the portal to the underworld will open only with an innocent's blood, so he needs a drop of her brother's blood. Ofelia refuses to harm her brother and the faun disappears. Vidal finds her, takes the baby and shoots Ofelia.

When he leaves the labyrinth the rebels and Mercedes are waiting for him. Knowing that he will die, he calmly hands Mercedes the baby. He takes out his watch, ready to break it, and tells Mercedes to tell his son when he grows up what time his father died, reflecting his own father's death. Mercedes refuses, telling him that his son will never even know his name. Pedro, one of the rebels and Mercedes' brother, draws his weapon and shoots Vidal in the face, killing him.

As Mercedes enters the labyrinth and mourns over the dying girl, humming her lullaby, drops of Ofelia's blood drip onto the altar which was the gateway into the underworld. Ofelia is reunited in spirit with the king and queen of the underworld. The Faun is there with his fairy companions flying around him (including the ones previously eaten by the monster). She learns that by giving up the eternal life as the princess to save her baby brother, she has completed the final task and proven herself to be the Princess Moanna. The camera pans back up to the surface world, where a faint smile passes across the girl's face as she draws her last breath. The ending is ambiguous however, as it is not possible to tell from the sequence of events and the inter-cut scenes whether she has actually died, as it appears in the world on the surface, or if she has lived, taking her place as the princess of the underworld.

Production

Influences

The idea for Pan's Labyrinth came from Guillermo del Toro's notebooks, which he says are filled with "doodles, ideas, drawings, and plot bits." He had been keeping these notebooks for twenty years.^[6] At one point during production, he left the notebook in a taxi and was distraught, but the cabbie returned it to him two days later.^[7] Though he originally wrote a story about a pregnant woman who falls in love with a faun,^[8] Sergi López said that del Toro described the final version of the plot a year and a half before filming. Lopez said that "for two hours and a half he explained to me all the movie, but with all the details, it was incredible, and when he finished I said, 'You have a script?' He said, 'No, nothing is written.'" López agreed to act in the movie and received the script one year later; he's said that "it was exactly the same, it was incredible. In his little head he had all the history with a lot of little detail, a lot of characters, like now when you look at the movie, it was exactly what he had in his head." ^[9]

Del Toro has said the film has strong connections in theme to The Devil's Backbone and should be seen as an informal sequel dealing with some of the issues raised there. Some of the other works he drew on for inspiration include Lewis Carroll's Alice books, Jorge Luis Borges' Ficciones, Arthur Machen's The Great God Pan and The White People, Lord Dunsany's The Blessing of Pan, Algernon Blackwood's Pan's Garden and Francisco Goya's works. In 2004, del Toro said: "Pan is an original story. Some of my favorite writers (Borges, Blackwood, Machen, Dunsany) have explored the figure of the god Pan and the symbol of the labyrinth. These are things that I find very compelling (remember the labyrinth image on Hellboy?) and I am trying to mix them and play with them."^[10] Though del Toro thought Pan's Labyrinth was "profane," Alejandro González Iñárritu described the film as "truly Catholic." It was also influenced by the illustrations of Arthur Rackham.^[11]

Guillermo Navarro, the director of photography, said that "after doing work in Hollywood on other movies and with other directors, working in our original language in different scenery brings me back to the original reasons I wanted to make movies, which is basically to tell stories with complete freedom and to let the visuals really contribute to the telling of the story."^[12]

Casting

• Ivana Baquero as Ofelia. Del Toro says he was "scared shitless" in casting the right actress for the lead role, and that finding the 10-year-old Spanish actress was purely accidental. (The film was shot June-October 2005, when she was 11.) "The character I wrote was initially younger, about 8 or 9, and Ivana came in and she was a little older than the character, with this curly hair which I never imagined the girl having. But I loved her first reading, my wife was crying and the camera woman was crying after her reading and I knew hands down Ivana was the best actress that had shown up, yet I knew that I needed to change the screenplay to accommodate her age."^[13] Baquero says that del Toro sent her lots of comics and fairytales to help her "get more into the atmosphere of Ofelia and more into what she felt". She says she thought the film was "marvelous", and that "At the same time it can bring you pain and sadness and scariness and happiness."^[4]
• Sergi López as Captain Vidal: Del Toro met with López in Barcelona, a year and a half before filming began, to ask him to play Vidal. In Spain, López was considered a melodramatic or comedic actor, and the producers told del Toro "You should be very careful because you don't know about these things because you're Mexican, but this guy is not going to be able to deliver the performance"; del Toro replied "Well, it's not that I don't know, it's that I don't care."^[14] Of his character, López said he is "the most evil character I've ever played in my career. It is impossible to improve upon it; the character is so solid and so well written. Vidal is deranged, a psychopath who is impossible to defend. Even though his father's personality marked his existence - and is certainly one of the reasons for his mental disorder - that cannot be an excuse. It would seem to be very cynical to use that to justify or explain his cruel and cowardly acts. I think it is great that the film does not consider any justification of fascism."^[15]
• Doug Jones as The Faun and The Pale Man: Jones had worked with del Toro before on Mimic and Hellboy, and says the director sent him an email saying, "You must be in this film. No one else can play this part but you." Jones read an English translation of the script and was enthusiastic but then found out the film was in Spanish, which he did not speak. Jones says he was "terrified" and del Toro suggested learning the script phonetically, or dubbing his lines with a voice-over actor, but Jones rejected both ideas preferring to learn the words himself. He said, "I really, really buckled down and committed myself to learning that word for word and I got the pronunciation semi-right before I even went in," using the five hours a day he spent getting the costume and make-up on to practice the words.^[16] Del Toro decided afterwards that he still preferred to dub Jones with the voice of "an authoritative theatre actor," but Jones's efforts remained valuable because the voice actor was able to easily match his delivery with Jones's mouth movements.^[17]
• Maribel Verdú as Mercedes: Like López, Verdú was cast against type; usually playing a sex goddess, del Toro selected her to play the compassionate revolutionary because he "saw a sadness in her...he thought would be perfect for the part".^[14]
• Ariadna Gil as Carmen: Ofelia's mother and Vidal's wife.
• Alex Angulo as Doctor Ferreiro: a doctor in the service of Vidal who is anti-fascist.
• Manolo Solo as Garces: Vidal's lieutenant.
• César Vea as Serrano: Vidal's lieutenant.
• Roger Casamajor as Pedro: One of the Rebels, and Mercedes' brother.

Effects

Pan's Labyrinth employs some computer generated imagery in its effects, but also uses complex make-up and puppetry. The giant toad was inspired by The Maze. Del Toro himself performed the noises. The mandrake root is a combination of puppetry and CGI. Del Toro wanted the fairies "to look like little monkeys, like dirty fairies," but the animation company had the idea to give them wings made of leaves.^[18]

Jones spent five hours putting on make-up for the faun, which was mostly latex foam. He operated the faun's legs, while his own were digitally erased. Puppeteers helped to operate his face. Del Toro told Jones to "go rock star... like a glam rocker. But less David Bowie, more Mick Jagger."^[18] Del Toro also had the faun grow younger as the movie progressed. Jones said that he had to look out of the Pale Man's nostrils. The Pale Man's legs were attached to the front of his over a green leotard.^[19]

Subtitles

The film uses subtitles for its translation into English. Del Toro wrote them himself, because he was disappointed with the subtitles of his previous Spanish film, The Devil's Backbone. In an interview, he said that they were "for the thinking impaired" and "incredibly bad." He spent a month working with two other people, and said that he didn't want it to "feel like... watching a subtitled film."^[20]

Distribution

Pan's Labyrinth was first released at the 2006 Cannes Film Festival on May 27 2006, where it received a twenty-two minute standing ovation.^[21] Its first premiere in an English-speaking country was at the London FrightFest Film Festival on August 25 2006.^[22] Its first general release was in Spain on October 11 2006, followed by a release in Mexico nine days later.^[22] On November 24 2006 it had its first general English release in the United Kingdom; that month it was also released in France, Serbia, Belgium, Italy, Russia, Singapore, and South Korea.^[22] It had a limited release in Canada and the United States on December 29 2006, in Australia on January 18, 2007, and in Taiwan on April 27, 2007.^[22] Its most recent release was in Slovenia on May 17 and its latest scheduled release will be in Japan on September 29 2007.^[22] Its widest release in the United States was in 1,143 theatres.^[5]

The film was released on DVD on March 12, 2007 in the United Kingdom by Optimum Home Entertainment in a 2-disc special edition. The film was released in the United States on May 15, 2007 from New Line Home Entertainment in both single-disc and double-disc special edition versions, featuring an additional DTS-ES audio track not present on the UK version. Additionally, the film received a special limited edition release in Korea and Germany. Only 20,000 copies of this edition were manufactured. It is presented in a digipack designed to look like the Book of Crossroads. The Korean edition contains two DVDs along with an art book and replica of Ofelia's key. The German special limited edition contains three DVDs and a book containing the movie's storyboard. Pan's Labyrinth was released for download on June 22, 2007 from Channel 4's on-demand service.

High definition versions of Pan's Labyrinth are being planned for release in December of 2007 on both Blu Ray and HD DVD formats. Exclusive to these versions will be a Picture-in-picture commentaries and the HD DVD version will have exclusive web content. The audio for these versions is planned to presented in DTS-HD Lossless Master Audio track in , which will be a first for New Line Home Entertainment.^[23]

Reception

Academy Awards
Best Art Direction Best Cinematography Best Makeup
Ariel Awards
Best Director Best Movie
BAFTA Awards
Best Costume Design Best Foreign Language Film Best Makeup & Hair
Constellation Awards
Best Science Fiction Film, TV Movie, or Mini-series
Fantasporto
Best Film
Goya Awards
Best Cinematography Best Editing Best Makeup and Hair Best New Actress (Ivana Baquero) Best Original Screenplay Best Sound Best Special Effects
National Society of Film Critics
Best Picture
Saturn Awards
Best International Film Best Performance by a Younger Actor
Spacey Awards
Space Choice Awards

The film has earned a 96% rating on Rotten Tomatoes,^[24] and a 100 percent rating among the "Cream of the Crop" critics.^[24] It received a 98% rating at Metacritic,^[25] making it Metacritic's fourth highest rated movie of all time.^[26] At its Cannes Film Festival release, it received a twenty-two minute standing ovation.<ref name="Miami Herald" /> It also received a standing ovation at the 2006 Toronto Film Festival,^[27] its first release in the Americas.

Mark Kermode, in The Observer, labeled Pan's Labyrinth as the best film of 2006, describing it as "an epic, poetic vision in which the grim realities of war are matched and mirrored by a descent into an underworld populated by fearsomely beautiful monsters."^[28] Stephanie Zacharek wrote that the film "works on so many levels that it seems to change shape even as you watch it,"^[29] and Jim Emerson called the film "a fairy tale of such potency and awesome beauty that it reconnects the adult imagination to the primal thrill and horror of the stories that held us spellbound as children."^[30] The New Yorker's Anthony Lane took special note of the film's sound design, saying it "discards any hint of the ethereal by turning up the volume on small, supercharged noises: the creak of the Captain's leather gloves... the nighttime complaints of floorboard and rafter...."^[31] As of 20 August, 2007, it was number forty-four on the Internet Movie Database's top 250 movies.^[32] and the number two movie of 2006.^[33] Some reviewers had criticisms, however: for The San Diego Union-Tribune, David Elliott said "the excitement is tangible," but added that "what it lacks is successful unity... Del Toro has the art of many parts, but only makes them cohere as a sort of fevered extravaganza." ^[34]

During its limited first three weeks at the United States box office, the film made $5.4 million. As of March 1, 2007, it has grossed over $37 million in North America, and grossed $80 million worldwide.^[5] In its native Spain, it grossed almost $12 million, and it is the fourth highest domestically grossing foreign film in the United States.^[5] It has generated $16 million from its DVD release.^[5]

Awards

Pan's Labyrinth has won numerous film awards, including Best Picture from National Society of Film Critics,^[35] and Academy Awards for Achievements in Cinematography, Makeup, and Art Direction.^[35] It has also earned BAFTA awards for Best Foreign Language Film, Costume Design, and Makeup and Hair.^[36] At the Goya Awards, the Spanish equivalent of the Academy Awards, the film won in many categories including Best Cinematography, Editing, Make Up & Hairstyles, New Actress for Ivana Baquero, Original Screenplay, Sound, and Special Effects. At Mexico's Ariel Awards, the movie won in 8 categories, including Best Movie and Best Director. The film won the top award at the 2007 edition of Fantasporto. At the 2007 Saturn Awards, it received accolades for Best International Film and Best Performance by a Younger Actor for Ivana Baquero.^[37] The film also won "Best Film" at the 2007 Spacey Awards,^[38] and "Best Science Fiction Film, TV Movie, or Mini-Series of 2006" at the 2007 Constellation Awards.^[39] It also won the Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation, Long Form in 2007.^[40]

The film was also nominated for a number of other awards such as Best Foreign Film at the Academy Awards<ref name="Academy Awards" /> and the Golden Globes^[41] in 2007.

Comparisons to other films

In 2007, del Toro noted the striking similarities between his film and Disney's The Chronicles of Narnia: both films are set around the same time, have similar child-age principal characters, mythic creatures (particularly the fauns), and themes of "disobedience and choice." Says del Toro: "This is my version of that universe, not only 'Narnia,' but that universe of children's literature."^[42] In fact, del Toro was asked to direct but turned it down for Pan's Labyrinth.^[42]

In addition to Narnia, Pan's Labyrinth has also been compared to films such as Gabor Csupo's Bridge to Terabithia and Jim Henson's Labyrinth.^[43][44] Del Toro himself has noted similarities with The Spirit of the Beehive.^[45]

Soundtrack

Pan's Labyrinth
Pan's Labyrinth cover
Film score by Javier Navarrete
Released	December 19, 2006
Genre	Film soundtrack
Label	Milan Entertainment
Producer	Emmanuel Chamboredon Ian P. Hierons
Professional reviews
All Music Guide link

The score for Pan's Labyrinth, composed by Javier Navarrete, was released on December 19, 2006.^[46] Navarette and the score were nominated for an Academy Award.^[35] It was entirely structured around a lullaby, and del Toro had the entire score included on the soundtrack, even though much of it had been cut during production.^[46]

Track listing

1. "Long, Long Time Ago (Hace Mucho, Mucho Tiempo)" – 2:14
2. "The Labyrinth (El Laberinto)" – 4:07
3. "Rose, Dragon (La Rosa y el Dragón)" – 3:36
4. "The Fairy and the Labyrinth (El Hada y el Laberinto)" – 3:36
5. "Three Trials (Las Tres Pruebas)" – 2:06
6. "The Moribund Tree and the Toad (El Árbol Que Muere y el Sapo)" – 7:12
7. "Guerilleros (Guerrilleros)" – 2:06
8. "A Book of Blood (El Libro de Sangre)" – 3:47
9. "Mercedes Lullaby (Nana de Mercedes)" – 1:39
10. "The Refuge (El Refugio)" – 1:32
11. "Not Human (El Que No Es Humano)" – 5:55
12. "The River (El Río)" – 2:50
13. "A Tale (Un Cuento)" – 1:55
14. "Deep Forest (Bosque Profundo)" – 5:48
15. "Waltz of the Mandrake (Vals de La Mandrágora)" – 3:42
16. "The Funeral (El Funeral)" – 2:45
17. "Mercedes (Mercedes)" – 5:37
18. "Pan and the Full Moon (La Luna Llena y el Fauno)" – 5:08
19. "Ofelia (Ofelia)" – 2:19
20. "A Princess (Una Princesa)" – 4:03
21. "Pan's Labyrinth Lullaby (Nana del Laberinto del Fauno)" – 1:47

References

External links

• http://www.panslabyrinth.com Official site
• Pan's Labyrinth at Rotten Tomatoes
• Pan's Labyrinth at Box Office Mojo
• Pan's People, samples from del Toro's sketchbook
• Official Pan's Labyrinth MySpace
• Weavers of Dreams - the creature creations of Pan's Labyrinth
• Radio (Fresh Air) Interview
• Premiere.com interview

Awards
Preceded by John Myhre and Gretchen Rau for Memoirs of a Geisha	Academy Award for Best Art Direction Eugenio Caballero and Pilar Revuelta 2006	Incumbent
Preceded by Dion Beebe for Memoirs of a Geisha	Academy Award for Best Cinematography Guillermo Navarro 2006
Preceded by Tami Lane and Howard Berger for	Academy Award for Makeup David Martí and Montse Ribé 2006
Preceded by The Beat that My Heart Skipped	BAFTA Award for Best Film Not in the English Language 2006

•  • [ e] The films of Guillermo del Toro
Cronos  Mimic  The Devil's Backbone • Blade II • Hellboy  Pan's Labyrinth • • 3993