Pan's Labyrinth

Greetings, Pan’s Labyrinth is a Mexican-Spanish film from 2006 which was written and directed by Guillermo del Toro. Del Toro has worked on many famous movies in his career including Pacific Rim, the Hobbit trilogy and the Kung Fu Panda series. Due to the film’s place of origin, the main cast would be mostly unknown to English speaking audiences. The lead actress, Ivana Bacquero, was eleven years old at the time of filming. Other actors and actresses include Sergi Lopez, Maribel Verdu, Alex Angulo, Ariadna Gil and Doug Jones. The music was conducted by Javier Navarrete who has mostly composed scores for Spanish films but also worked on the American movie, Wrath of the Titans.

In the introduction, a fairy tale is told about princess Moanna, daughter to the king of the underworld. The princess visits the human world and in doing so she loses her memory and becomes a mortal being. It is revealed that Moanna would ultimately die from illness but the King believes that her spirit will one day return to the underworld. The majority of the plot takes place in 1944, when Spain had fallen to Franscico Franco after his victory in the Spanish Civil war in 1939. Ofelia, a young girl who is yet to enter her teenager years, is taken by her pregnant mother Carmen to live with her step father, a man named Vidal. Captain Vidal is the father of Carmen’s unborn child and serves in the Francoist military by hunting down the remaining members of the resistance to Franco’s regime. Ofelia soon learns that that her new home is located next to a labyrinth which appears to be an ancient construction.

Ofelia encounters a stick insect that leads her to the entrance of the labyrinth but the girl is prevented entry into the maze by the house keeper Mercedes. In reality Mercedes is actually an informant for the rebels and uses her position to spy on Vidal as well as passing on important information. At night, the same stick insect from before flies into Ofelia’s bedroom and transforms into a fairy while she is still awake. It leads the amazed child through the labyrinth to meet the Faun, a goat-like creature, who is situated underground. Once the Fauna sees Ofelia, the creature comes to believe that the girl is the reincarnation of princess Moanna as told about in the introduction of the movie. The Faun then promises to give Ofelia the gift of immortality if she is able to complete three challenges before the return of the full moon.

Overall, this was an enjoyable movie that has received critical acclaim and won numerous awards since its release. I should also mention that the film is subtitled for English audiences rather than having dubbed voiceovers and that Spanish is the language spoken in Pan’s Labyrinth. I believe that this gives it an authentic feel due to its setting and provides the film with some charm. I would recommend it to you if you haven’t already seen it previously.

I don’t normally post about personal matters on this blog, normally using it for reviews or as a platform for my up and coming stories but I am making an exception for today. As you already know by now, one of our cats had recently passed away in a tragic accident. This will be the first blog update that I have written without her so I would like to leave a small tribute on this blog for Holly. She joined the family in December 2012 and had kept me company through the years ever since she had first arrived. Holly would often lie on my bed as I was writing for this blog or for my many Write Wise entries. Her absence is very noticeable, despite the fact that we still have two cats in the household. Holly will be missed and fondly remembered by the whole family.

Plot=8/10

Characters=7/10

Special Effects=9/10

Overall=8/10

Quote of the Day

And the moral of the story; appreciate what you've got, because basically, I'm fantastic!

Holly

Red Dwarf