Pan’s Labyrinth may not be as well known among Guillermo del Toro’s vast output, but it is an important and engaging film that uses its fantasy trappings to pose some interesting questions about the nature of reality.
What Is It?
This film takes place in Spain in 1944 under the fascist rule of the dictatorial Franco. It focuses on a young girl named Ofelia who travels to the Spanish countryside with her ill, pregnant mother to live with her stepfather, a captain in the Spanish army tasked with rooting out a group of Spanish Maquis insurrectionists. While there, she encounters several fantasy creatures, including fairies and a faun, who explain to her that she is actually Princess Moanna of the Underground Realm and that she must pass several tests in order to return there and live with her real mother and father. She must then maneuver through the real world—in which her cruel stepfather deals harshly with the rebels, including several who have infiltrated his staff—while also trying to carry out the tasks set upon her by the creatures from the fantasy world.
Cast: Sergi López, Maribel Verdú, Ivana Baquero, Doug Jones, Ariadna Gil
Crew: Guillermo del Toro (Writer/Director)
Original Release: September 7, 1984
Legacy:
Pan’s Labyrinth delivers a more intimate and personal film compared to blockbusters del Toro has worked on like Hellboy and Pacific Rim, but it is a rich tale with a fully developed fantasy world that explores the nature of the real world vs. imaginary.
A Closer Look
Pan’s Labyrinth is a Spanish-language film written and directed by genre powerhouse Guillermo del Toro, which received exposure in the United States with a subtitled release late in 2006. The movie merges a fairy tale with a more modern, quite bleak setting that juxtaposes fantasy with harsh reality and ultimately suggests a possible reason why we choose to retreat to imaginary realms.
(Minor Spoilers Ahead)
While sitting through this film the first time, I found myself engaged by the dark fantasy world that del Toro created–interposing it with the harshness of the real world–yet it also initially felt a bit too linear and predictable. But once the journey was complete, I realized that this was likely del Toro’s actual intent all along. Many things that occur throughout the film suggest their own resolutions or what will follow next. You know from the prologue that Ofelia will find her way back to her true mother and father in the fantasy world. You know that the vicious Captain Vidal will receive his comeuppance. You know that Ofelia will defy the orders given by the faun to eat nothing in the Pale Man’s room. You know that there is some significance to Mercedes’ paring knife, and by the second time you see her stash it in her apron, you realize she will eventually use it on Vidal. The foreshadowing in the movie is practically telegraphed, but that harkens back to the simplistic story structure of the fairy tale, which follows the same pattern. Fairy tales often deliver parables with simple messages on the consequences of actions, and del Toro simply overlaid that template on top of his grander story.
In doing so, he may have hinted at one of the origins of the fairy tale or fantasy story: a means of escape from the harsher reality of the world. Throughout the movie, the fantasy characters seem part of reality, even if they spend their time mostly out of sight and lurking in the shadows. Only Ofelia actually interacts with them, and eventually we get the suggestion that they may exist only in her own imagination. Toward the end, when Vidal chases her through the labyrinth and encounters her talking to the faun, he sees only her, not the mythical creature. Does this mean that his disciplined, harsh, logical mind lacks the imagination to see these fantastical beings? Or does this suggest that they only exist in Ofelia’s mind, and that the final ending—where she appears to be reunited with her family—is simply where her mind went in her final moments?
These possibilities leave the ending ambiguous and suggest that the purported fairy tale resolution was nothing more than Ofelia’s means of escaping the unforgiving world she lived in. And ultimately, this may be where many fairy tales and fantasy stories originated. When you think of the harsh conditions that many people endured through the centuries—especially during the periods when many fairy tales became well known, such as the Dark Ages and Medieval times—you can easily see where these tales may have provided a simplistic panacea to the bleakness of reality. That interpretation certainly presents itself as one possible reading of Pan’s Labyrinth, though this multifaceted movie has many other layers to its story as well.
Apart from the intricacies of the story, the movie delivers striking visuals that at times contrast the real world with the fantasy realm, while at other times bring the two uncomfortably close together. Del Toro uses a combination of animatronic creatures and CGI effects to bring his fantasy world to life, which seems very real and at times somewhat terrifying. He completed the entire movie on a budget of less than $20 million, creating a product that would have cost three times that amount or more if produced by Hollywood. But if he had gone that route, the major studios would almost certainly have insisted on a more upbeat, less ambiguous ending. By working outside the Hollywood machine, del Toro succeeded in conveying his vision and delivering an amazing, visually stunning, multi-layered film that succeeds on artistic and stylistic levels.
Del Toro also pulled together an incredibly talented cast, mostly unknown to American audiences—apart from Doug Jones—but more than capable of keeping the audience engaged in a foreign-language film. Ivana Baquero’s performance as Ofelia is particularly notable, as she endures the harshness of the real world she has been thrust into while also finding hope in the fairy tale realm that provides her with a means of escape. Everything comes together in this film, and it certainly counts as a genre classic, even though it has not received as much attention as some of del Toro’s better-known films such as Hellboy, Pacific Rim, and his recent adaptation of Frankenstein.
Why Was There No Sequel?
Pan’s Labyrinth was a success at the box office, making nearly $84 million globally on a budget of $19 million, but Guillermo del Toro considered it a standalone movie, not the beginning of a franchise. Ofelia’s journey—whether interpreted as literal fantasy or symbolic escape—reaches its natural conclusion in the film, and continuing it would undercut that power and ambiguity. Del Toro has generally been reluctant to do sequels to his films, though he does consider The Devil’s Backbone—which came out in 2001—to be a spiritual “sibling” to Pan’s Labyrinth.
Should It Be Rebooted?
No. This film is nearly perfect as is, and there is certainly no need to reboot or reimagine it. Sure, it was made on a modest budget, but del Toro got the most out of that, and the special effects and makeup are quite good. I could see where Hollywood might want to revisit this property because of the rich fantasy world it creates that could be expanded into a franchise. But there are plenty of other fantasy universes they could tap into (maybe the Pelman Trilogy as an option?), so it is best to leave Pan’s Labyrinth alone.
Interesting Facts:
Hollywood producers offered del Toro more money toward the production if he would film Pan’s Labyrinth in English, but he refused. He felt that Spanish best fit the story, especially because of its setting, and did not want to give in to “market needs.”
Del Toro had been unhappy with the English translations of his prior films done in Spanish, so he wrote the subtitles himself.
Where Can You Watch It?
The film has been released on DVD, Blu-ray, and 4K UHD and you can purchase it VOD. It is not currently streaming on any of the major services.
