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Pan's Labyrinth suggests that fairy-tale violence helps the vulnerable process and overcome real-life conflicts and that real-life violence permanently smashes the soul and the heart.
So breathtaking in its artistic ambition, so technically accomplished, so morally expansive, so fully realized that it defies the usual critical blather. See it, and celebrate that rare occasion when a director has the audacity to commit cinema.
A violent fantasy set during the Spanish Civil War, this magical film from Guillermo del Toro manages that intellectual high-mindedness, even as it resonates on a primal, mythic level.
It explores the connection between fantasy and reality, with eyes wide open to the dangers of giving either too much credence. That it works on both levels is impressive; that it makes them so clearly one is the stuff of art.
It is an adult fairy tale that will lead grown-ups to eagerly await the day that their own children will be old enough to understand.
This backdrop of intrigue creates violent scenes that may have you turning away from the screen. Beautifully designed and full of its own strange poetry, Pan's Labyrinth is nonetheless not a children's movie. Take its 'R' rating seriously.
The close-out of Pan's Labyrinth not only underlines its status as one of the great fantasy films of all time, but also its importance as a work of refined social and historical commentary.
a captivating, albeit unstable, blend of anti-Fascist social commentary and a visually sumptuous childhood fable
Fully deserving of its place in a distinguished political-fabulist lineage
Ofelia's smock is swiped from Alice, her faun from Narnia, and her magic book from Harry Potter, Del Toro sets her fairytale apart with its unrelenting gore and misery.
It's complex, it's masterful, and it's a pastiche of priceless talent that sums up to form one of the best films made in the last ten years...
Arresting though they may be, these mind-boggling effects, shot with limpid mystery by Guillermo Navarro and accompanied by chitinous whirs and crackles on the uncanny soundtrack, don't disrupt the double narrative but intensify it.
Pan's Labyrinth is a punishing, evocative poem. It is part ferocious reality and part fearful fantasy.
Brilliant, poignant fairy tale isn't for kids.
Pan's Labyrinth us that such fantasy offers no real escape from dreadful reality.
...a dark and wonderful fairy tale for grown-ups...
...a multifaceted film of worlds within worlds that works at all levels and touches one in every direction. (HD DVD Edition)
[In the featurettes] Del Toro is wisely allowed to dominate, ensuring that everything remains engaging.
[A] beautiful but relentlessly bleak fairytale.
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