#838: DEL TORO, Guillermo: Pan's Labyrinth (2006)

DEL TORO, Guillermo (Spain)
Pan's Labyrinth [2006]
Spine #838
Blu-ray


An Academy Award-winning dark fable set five years after the end of the Spanish Civil War, Pan's Labyrinth encapsulates the rich visual style and genre-defying craft of Guillermo del Toro. Eleven-year-old Ofelia (Ivana Baquero, in a mature and tender performance) comes face to face with the horrors of fascism when she and her pregnant mother are uprooted to the countryside, where her new stepfather (Sergi López), a sadistic captain in General Francisco Franco's army, hunts down Republican guerrillas refusing to give up the fight. The violent reality in which Ofelia lives merges seamlessly with her fantastical interior world when she meets a faun in a decaying labyrinth and is set on a strange, mythic journey that is at once terrifying and beautiful. In his revisiting of this bloody period in Spanish history, del Toro creates a vivid depiction of the monstrosities of war infiltrating a child's imagination and threatening the innocence of youth.

119 minutes
Color
5.1 Surround
1:85:1 aspect ratio
Criterion Release 2016
Director/Writer


Guillermo Del Toro was 42 when he wrote and directed Pan's Labyrinth.

Other del Toro films in the Collection:

#551: Cronos (1993)
#666: The Devil's Backbone (2001)

A

Film Rating (0-60):

60

The Extras

The Booklet

Twelve-page wraparound featuring an essay by film critic Michael Atkinson.

Commentary

By del Toro from 2007.

Interview 1

With del Toro by novelist Cornelia Funke about fairy tales, fantasy, and Pan’s Labyrinth.

Interview 2

With actor Jones.

Four 2007 making-of documentaries

Examining the characters, special effects, themes, and music of the film.

Interactive director’s notebook

Footage

Of actor Baquero’s audition for the film.

Animated comics

Featuring prequel stories for the film’s menagerie of creatures.

Programs

Comparing selected production storyboards and del Toro’s thumbnail sketches with the final film.

Trailers and TV spots

Extras Rating (0-40):

39

60 + 39 =

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