Pan's Labyrinth (2006)

R
112 min
Drama
August 25, 2006

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Pan's Labyrinth Is Finally Getting a 4K Ultra HD Release in October

Guillermo del Toro's masterpiece Pan's Labyrinth is getting its most high resolution release yet on October 1st.

Brian B.Sep 5, 2019

Pan's Labyrinth Comes to HD-DVD and Blu-ray Disc December 26

Release to offer all the extras from the 2-disc DVD release, along with Enhanced Visual Commentary.

Evan JacobsOct 5, 2007

Pan's Labyrinth Casts a Spell on the Charts

Guillermo del Toro's opus is No. 1 in sales and rentals.

Evan JacobsMay 24, 2007

Own Pan's Labyrinth on DVD!

Win the most magical film of 2006.

Evan JacobsMay 13, 2007

Pan's Labyrinth Casts a Spell on DVD May 15

DVD to be released in one and two disc sets!

Evan JacobsFeb 5, 2007

Win Pan's Labyrinth Posters!

Own a piece of this spellbinding film.

Evan JacobsJan 10, 2007

Guillermo del Toro Steps Into Pan's Labyrinth

The writer/director talks about his new fantasy film.

Dec 27, 2006

Pan's Labyrinth Illustration Contest

Guillermo Del Toro will select 5 winners to receive an autographed poster.

Dec 19, 2006

Guillermo del Toro on Pan's Labyrinth and Hellboy 2

Already planning on making Hellboy 3.

Aug 15, 2006

Guillermo Del Toro's Pan's Labyrinth Website Goes Live

Get a look at the Hellboy director's upcoming film.

Evan JacobsJan 26, 2006

Critics Score

95%

Release Date

August 25, 2006

Director

Guillermo del Toro

Writer

Guillermo del Toro

Cast

Ivana Baquero
Sergi López
Maribel Verdú
Doug Jones
Ariadna Gil
Álex Angulo

Official Website

panslabyrinth.com

Pan's Labyrinth Synopsis

Award-winning filmmaker Guillermo del Toro delivers a unique, richly imagined epic with PAN'S LABYRINTH, a gothic fairy tale set against the postwar repression of Franco's Spain. Del Toro's sixth and most ambitious film, PAN'S LABYRINTH combines the historic and moral themes of his acclaimed Spanish Civil War ghost story THE DEVIL'S BACKBONE with the protean visual creativity and gripping dynamics of such previous films as HELLBOY and BLADE II. Harnessing the formal characteristics of classic folklore to a 20th Century landscape, del Toro delivers a timeless tale of good and evil, bravery and sacrifice, love and loss.

PAN'S LABYRINTH unfolds through the eyes of Ofelia, a dreamy little girl who is uprooted to a rural military outpost commanded by her new stepfather. Powerless and lonely in a place of unfathomable cruelty, Ofelia lives out her own dark fable as she confronts monsters both otherworldly and human. As Ofelia, the gifted young Spanish actress Ivana Baquero holds the screen with a remarkable combination of innocence and maturity, vulnerability and strength. Baquero is joined by a superb cast that includes international stars Sergí Lopez (DIRTY PRETTY THINGS), Maribel Verdú (Y TU MAMÁ TAMBIÉN) and Ariadna Gil (BELLE ÉPOQUE), as well as frequent del Toro collaborator Doug Jones (HELLBOY).

A lone automobile travels a narrow road in the Spanish countryside in 1944. In the back seat, a little girl named Ofelia (Ivana Baquero) and her mother Carmen (Ariadna Gil) are on their way to their new home. A bright and dreamy little girl, Ofelia keeps her precious books of fairy tales close at hand, despite Carmen's gentle admonition that it may be time for her to put away these childhood favorites. It is unlikely that such pastimes will meet the approval of Ofelia's new stepfather, Captain Vidal (Sergí Lopez). And Carmen, who is pregnant with the captain's child, is anxious for her daughter to get along with the man to whom she has entrusted their future.

But for Ofelia, fables of good and evil, magic and danger are more than simple entertainment. They are her window onto the world, awakening her to life's everyday possibilities and mysteries. When a dragonfly captures Ofelia's attention during a roadside stop, it is not a gangly insect that she follows into the woods but a glistening emerald ambassador, welcoming her to its domain.

There is little sense of welcome, however, when Ofelia and her mother finally arrive at their destination, an abandoned mill in rural Spain that Vidal has converted into a military headquarters. Though Captain Vidal is there to greet them, his annoyance at their late arrival is palpable. Indeed, there is nothing in the officer's cold, exacting demeanor to suggest that he wishes to be a parent to Ofelia, whose own father died several years ago. What Vidal wants is the son that Carmen is carrying, not a family.

On the grounds of the mill, armed soldiers are everywhere. Charged with rooting out resistance fighters in the nearby mountains, Vidal and his troops zealously pursue any and all signs of their opponents. Thus far, the rebels have managed elude capture, though fascists have solidified their power in the region. Those local people who clean and cook for the soldiers do their work quietly, speaking only when they are spoken to. Carmen, her condition already precarious, grows even sicker and is soon confined to her bed.

In this tense and fearful environment, Ofelia finds a sympathetic presence in the housekeeper Mercedes (Maribel Verdú), who shows her a rambling, neglected old garden near the mill. With its winding paths, it is a lovely place to wander, though one can easily become lost there after nightfall.

That garden labyrinth will become Ofelia's haven, a dark refuge from loneliness and sorrow. It is a place of fantastical creatures and powerful talismans, presided over by a teasing, inscrutable Faun (Doug Jones). Here, Ofelia will come to terms with the world as she now knows it - and with the monsters that live not only in her imagination, but in her daily life.