A little girl named Ofelia Ivana Baquero journeys with her mother to meet her new stepfather, the sadistic and volatile Captain Vidal Sergi Lopez. His job is to hunt down rebels who may be hiding in the woods. Frightened by the things she sees taking place around her, Ofelia retreats into a fantasy world, wherein a creepy faun Doug Jones , believing her to be a reincarnated princess, assigns her three tasks that he claims will grant her immortality if completed.
The movie received extraordinary critical acclaim and was a solid box office hit. It's one of the best, most thematically substantive fantasy films of the last twenty years -- and possibly of all-time. The captivating visuals and rich storytelling ensure that you can watch Pan's Labyrinth again and again, seeing something new each time.
Few films can boast that. Because we here at Screen Rant are huge fans, we now present some trivia about this amazing movie that we hope you will enjoy hearing about. Pan is a famous figure in Greek mythology. He is the god of the wild, notable for being half-human, possessing horns and legs similar to those of a goat, and hanging out with Nymphs. Perhaps somewhat obviously, he can also play a pretty mean pan flute. As if that didn't make him fascinating enough, Pan achieved some renown for his sexual prowess.
The faun who appears in Pan's Labyrinth is not Pan, though. He is named, appropriately, Faun. So what's the deal with Pan, then? The answer is that Faun, or "Fauno" as he's referred to in the Spanish-language film, isn't really a name that has a lot of connotations for American audiences. Pan, on the other hand, at least calls to mind some basic qualities that the movie's character has. That's why America is one of the very few places where the picture is titled Pan's Labyrinth.
France also used the Pan reference. It provides an inkling of what the story will involve in a way that registers with viewers on our shores. The actual title is El Laberinto Del Fauno a. Faun's Labyrinth. Almost every other country where the movie was released used Fauno. Imagine pouring years of work into a project, only to lose it in a freak accident.
That nearly happened to del Toro. The filmmaker has scores and scores of notebooks in which he writes notes about his projects and draws sketches of visual ideas for them. They are the heart and soul of his work. For Pan's Labyrinth , he had one such journal, which he nearly lost. The director was riding in a British cab. He hopped out, unknowingly leaving the notebook, which had four years' worth of detailed plot and character information, in the back seat.
Realizing his error as the cab was pulling away, he tried and failed to catch up with it. Luckily for him -- and us -- the cab driver found the journal, as well as the piece of stationary from a local hotel that had been tucked inside.
The cabbie took the book to the hotel, where management was able to determine its rightful owner. A grateful del Toro gave the driver a nice fat tip for his kindness. It's a highly layered part that would challenge any seasoned performer because it requires the display of many very intense emotions, as well as the need to convey thoughts and feelings that the character is hiding. The amazing thing is that Baquero, who totally nails these requirements, was only eleven years old when she portrayed Ofelia.
Her casting was essentially an accident. Guillermo del Toro was actually looking to cast a younger actress, probably one who was about eight. When Baquero, who was ten at the time, showed up to audition, she blew away the director and his pre-production crew.
Del Toro was so impressed by her talent — and he wanted her for the role so badly — that he re-wrote the screenplay to make Ofelia a couple of years older than she was initially intended to be.
The rest, as they say, is history. Doug Jones has a rather unique resume. As an actor and contortionist, his ability to move in weird, unusual ways got him cast as a zombie in Disney's Hocus Pocus and as a clown in Tim Burton's Batman Returns before teaming up with del Toro for Mimic and Hellboy the latter of which cast him as fishman Abe Sapien, the role for which he's best known.
With Pan's Labyrinth containing some creepy creatures, the director knew he needed to have Jones come on board the project to play both the Faun and the Pale Man. There was only one hitch: Jones, an American, didn't speak Spanish, and the entire film was going to be in del Toro's native language. The actor didn't want to just repeat words phonetically. He wanted them to sound natural and have meaning.
Because the makeup process used to turn him into these characters took about five hours a day, Jones used this time to learn how to speak his lines with accuracy and authenticity. Unfortunately for him, del Toro ended up dubbing his voice for the finished product. Still, the commitment to authenticity benefited the movie by making the dubbing process smoother. Guillermo del Toro's movie Mimic was an exercise in frustration for him.
It was his first studio film, and he was working for Bob Weinstein, who, like his more famous brother Harvey, was well-known for being difficult and demanding. The two clashed over many creative aspects of Mimic , which led to GDT's preferred cut getting scrapped in favor of Weinstein's.
For that reason, the director decided that he would never again make his darker stuff within the Hollywood system. With this idea in mind, he opted to make Pan's Labyrinth in Spain and to keep it in the Spanish language. In Falangist Spain, a girl, fascinated with fairy-tales, is sent along with her pregnant mother to live with her new stepfather, a ruthless captain of the Spanish army.
During the night, she meets a fairy who takes her to an old faun in the center of the labyrinth. He tells her she's a princess, but must prove her royalty by surviving three gruesome tasks. If she fails, she will never prove herself to be the true princess and will never see her real father, the king, again. What happens when make-believe believes it's real? Rated R for graphic violence and some language. Did you know Edit. Trivia Guillermo del Toro is famous for compiling books full of notes and drawings about his ideas before turning them into films, something he regards as essential to the process.
He left years worth of notes for this film in the back of a cab, and when he discovered them missing, he thought it was the end of the project. However, the cab driver found them and, realizing their importance, tracked him down and returned them at great personal difficulty and expense. Del Toro was convinced that this was a blessing and it made him ever more determined to complete the film. Goofs When Ofelia goes down the stairs in the labyrinth and is talking to the Faun, his shadow still shows Doug Jones ' legs while they are in the stilts.
The special effects crew took out his physical legs, but the shadow still exists. Hierons Courtesy of Milan Entertainment. User reviews 1. Top review. Guillermo was there to introduce it and you can tell it really is a film he loves and is passionate about. He referred to it as a sister movie to The Devils Backbone. Don't let this put you off though, the film really is stunning and brilliantly acted.
The little girl carries pretty much the whole film on her shoulders and does so with the skill of Atlas himself! The violence is graphic and the monsters are scary but it is probably one of the most gorgeous and personal films from a director for a long time! ThreeSpoons82 Sep 15, FAQ His monsters are weird, strange but also beautiful — in a way.
They are also neither bad or good. They are nature itself, indifferent to humanity. Even the real world is given an alluring, otherworldly touch. Click here to join our channel indianexpress and stay updated with the latest headlines. His monsters are weird, strange but also beautiful -- in a way. Don't Miss These Stories. Click here for more.
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