What did you think of Pan's Labyrinth?

Where do I begin with this...do I make an attack on American cinema or celebrate foreign films? In the words of Forest Gump, "I think its both."

Guillermo del Toro where have you been all of my life? I almost think back to something Katie Holmes said in Wonderboys regarding Michael Douglas' book. (By the way, if you haven't seen Wonderboys I highly recommend it. Quietly beautiful)

Hannah Green: Grady, you know how in class you're always telling us that writers make choices?

Grady Tripp: Yeah.

Hannah Green: And even though you're book is really beautiful, I mean, amazingly beautiful, it's... it's at times... it's... very detailed. You know, with the genealogies of everyone's horses, and the dental records, and so on. And... I could be wrong, but it sort of reads in places like you didn't make any choices

del Toro MADE choices. Where some would have glossed over things he decided he was going to make the film he wanted and he did. This was a not only a fairy tale but a movie about war as well. Our intelligence as an audience is respected when del Toro demonstrates the brutality of the real world, as well as the fantasy. I am almost sad at the thought that an American studio never would have let this film go forward.

Ivana Baquero, who plays Ofelia, is someone I feel will be around for a long time. Not since Mean Creek have I seen a young actor play both mature and naive at the same time so well. Dakota Fanning, please take notes. This is how you play a dramatic role at such a young age with a balance of youthful innocence and vigor. There really is no comparison. I still have a headache from her work in War of the Worlds. I don't think I have seen a young actor make a possibly great movie so incredibly annoying.

Also, the other star of the film is Sergi Lopez who plays Captain Vidal. Lesser actors would have played this character much softer and half heartedly. Vidal is a villian and Lopez plays him as such. There is no second guessing or chickening out. He has a role to play and he runs with it. His performance is hard to describe unless you have seen it.

Kudos to the writers and director for not taking the cowardly American way out at the climax of the film. Ofelia, through a somewhat complex set of circumstances, dies at the end of the movie. Few American directors would have the stones to commit to such a powerful ending. With the war going on and the turmoil that the characters had faced it was the only appropriate ending.

Shame Shame SHAME on Disney for missing the boat on this film, opting to instead put out that woefully insufficient movie The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe. It saddens me to think that young children and many adults will go through life thinking that that is what a fairy tale is comprised of. I believe I read somewhere that del Toro had the opportunity to direct that movie. Like a true man of character that he is he chose to steer clear of it. He felt that he could not direct a movie where Aslan comes back to life, that it was almost cheating. I couldn't possibly agree more. In my opinion, this is worse for a child's development over violence. What kind of message is it to send to a child that even when things die they can come back to life? Isn't that more confusing than showing them the consequences of violence? I find that the fakeness and manipulativeness of the Chronicles movie is far more detrimental to a child than the violence in Pan's Labyrinth.

For those of you familar with old fairy tales you will recognize some of the elements in those to Pan's Labyrinth. Real fairy tales, as in before they were Disneyfied, are very dark and brutal stories of reality meeting fantasy. One doesn't realize the level of writing that was originally involved in these writings. The true core if a fairy tale, Aesop's Fables for example, is that it is a metaphor and an allegory for the real world. It reshapes and reformulates events to provide us with a more clear perspective of reality through fantasy. I might have to write about this in further in depth at some point.

As you can see I am a huge detractor of Disney story telling. This could be in part due to my minimal viewing of these movies when I was younger. To be honest, I just found them to be "boring and stupid." I don't fault young people who watched these movies. Most are/were unaware that there were other things available to watch. I wish there had been more movies like this around when I was younger, although Predator still brings back memories everytime I watch it.

I do not think I am being bold when I say that in time I feel as if this will rank as the best, if not one of the best, fantasy/fairy tales movies ever made. It is a pity that the Academy decided not to nominate it for Best Picture, although the current nominees are very worthy.

I preferred Pans Labyrinth. There have been a few components that would were edited out however exhibit me a film that does not. I can not stand how humans will seem at a relatively well film and no longer get it, then pass and watch a few dull predictable comedy film and like it. I swear a few humans are simply dull, no longer that I'm calling you dull or whatever. I've obvious humans watch the Godfather and no longer like, however love Knocked Up. I do not get it.

ther is nothing that you can say about that film except wow. It thouroghly(sorry bad spelling) all awards that it was nominated for and ot was robbed at the oscars.

I found it good because it does something that no other fantasy film does. it uses the fantasy to conect to the real world while also showing that all fantasy films are not for kids.

Words are not enough but believe me when I say seek this out. It will make you ask Hollywood for your money back.

I'd give it nine out of ten.

it was also right behind the departed on my list (at #3, I likked letters from iwo jeema bettrer)

AWESOME MOVIE

I totally agree with you. I loved the money, and it was so much more than I expected, it's #2 right under the Departed, Deja Vu is up there too

9 out of 10,

it was amazing, the soundtrack is wonderfully and the main theme is hauntingly beautiful, worth a buy, I cant wait for it to come to DVD.

Sorry, I haven't seen this movie.

i loved it. it was really great.