Pan's Labyrinth (New Line Two-Disc Platinum Series)

DVD arrived quickly and without issue. Discs play well. Easy transaction with a top rate seller. Thank you!

Let me start this review by giving some details about the genre of story telling we know as "Fairy Tales". This genre of known as "Fairy Tales" was never originally intended for children. In fact there is a lot of historical evidence which points to the fact that most of these old stories were written by adults and meant only for adults.The original nature of "Fairy Tales" was not meant to make you feel all good inside and nor were they to always end with "And they all lived happily ever after...The End". As others have pointed out we can all blame Disney for "dumbing" down this type of genre of story telling. Neither was this form of story telling meant to always include "High Fantasy". A lot of "Fairy Tales" actually have only bits and pieces of fantasy in them to help further a story along and to draw in the listener/viewer/reader further into the plot.I wont go to deep into the plot of this film but the director Guillermo Del Toro seems to go back to the roots of the original and lost art form of "Fairy Tales". Guillermo Del Toro in my honest opinion does an outstanding job of interweaving fantasy with reality. Yet he does not allow the fantasy portions of this film to overwhelm the reality based portions or the viewer. The fantasy portions are meant to force you to make that extra emotional leap. To engage you further into a main story which is all so cruelly based in reality. The reality being the post-Spanish Civil War era in Spain and a little girl with a cruel and self-absorbed step-father who is an officer in the Franco's fascists military. Guillermo Del Toro then wraps it up with a great group of actors and a hard hitting ending.My only complaint is that as others have noted the fantasy portion at the end might have been added to appease American audiences. You'll know what I mean when you see the movie and get to that part. The reality portion of the ending stood strong without the need to include a semi-happy ending if you can call it one. The movie does hit the viewer very hard emotionally. Frankly speaking I'll be honest and admit that as a man I did cry at end.I couldn't help it because maybe I just have a heart and a soft spot for kids. I feel that any movie, book, song, poem, etc that can draw out a strong emotional reaction has reached the apex of its art form in its given genre. Oh and yes there are portions of this film that are extremely violent and should not be viewed by younger children. As others have noted this move has an "R" rating for a very good reason as it's meant for adults only. Besides I'll doubt that many young children could keep up with a foreign film done entirely in Spanish let alone understand the slight and subtle plot twists of this movie including the ending.P.S. This is a master piece of a film. To dub this film into English would be like dubbing Karl Orff's vocal portions of "Carmina Burana" into English. For those who are angry that this movie is done entirely in Spanish well all I can say is that you should learn to speak a second language for goodness sake! Or just learn to deal with subtitles in foreign films and try to follow along with the story as best you can.Our society is going to become increasingly more globally oriented as technology and time march onward toward the future. The very nature of our increasingly global economy will demand that you if not your children learn at least a second language. This will grow increasingly true for every other generation hence afterwards when you, I and your children's generation are no more.If you had no idea that this movie was a foreign film then I can understand and forgive the confusion but at least try to give this film a chance.

This is one of the most imaginative and unique films I have seen in years. It is a dark fairy tale for adults and is not a children's movie. The film is a mixture of fairy tale and dark realism since it combines images from the Mediterranean's pre-Christian mythologies with the horror of Fascism in Franco's Spain. The overlap between these two concepts, classical mythology and fascism, is violence and threat as well as unreasonable power over the powerless. Myths often involve heroic action, often taken by an innocent person or child, that helps overcome the forces of evil. The film is very skillful in combining these concepts where they are verbalized by the mythical creatures but we see a parallel world in reality as the rustic peasants develop resistance to the forces of fascism.The transitional character between the fantasy world of mythology and the harsh world of fascist reality is a little girl, the daughter of the new wife of a Fascist officer. She travels between these world through an ancient labyrinth hidden in the woods outside the fascist compound. Here she meets mischievous fairies but also a somewhat threatening and mysterious faun who is ambiguous as to his full intentions. The faun is identified as Pan, the child of the god Hermes, who was the god of transitions and doorways. She is told she is the Princess Moana and must undertake 3 tasks to gain her rightful throne. As in many myths, this child is given three tasks to claim their rightful position with the gods. This puts our young heroine into danger not only when she is in the labyrinth performing tasks but also when she is with her mother and step-father among the fascist and hidden resistance fighters. The adventures within the mythological world with a giant toad full of slime to an amazing monster who is awakened when someone eats from his table and who sees through eyeballs in the palms of his hands.To achieve the tasks prescribed by the gods and to overcome the evils of fascism, resilience and creativity are required and so once again we see overlap between the two worlds. Monstrosity can be reflected in the world of imaginary monsters but also in the acts of the fascists as they torture and kill innocent villagers as well as resistance fighters. The young female protagonist is not fully protected from the evil of her step-father by her weak mother, suffering with a difficult pregnancy and childbirth. She does not feel fully protected and she is indeed vulnerable to the dark gaze of her dark murderous step-father. She is most protected by the housekeeper who plays many roles in this complex film. Children may retreat into fantasy when threatened but this poor little girl finds a fantasy world that demand much of her and a real world full of real dark threats. This film has some of the best integration of fantasy and reality since A.S. Byatt's the Dijin in the Nightingale's Eye or the works of Borges. This film has a different feel to it from a Hollywood production, since it has some ragged ends and images that are more European than North American. This is part of the film's strength. The Pan creature for example would have probably been more of a Santa Claus with goat legs if the film had been made in Hollywood. Instead, he is mysterious and ambiguous in a world with little clarity.The child actress Ivana Baquero plays the child Ofelia. She does a super job. Sergi Lopez plays her evil, cruel, fascist step-father Captain Vidal. He is an excellent actor and he has the ability to radiate threat on the screen. All scripts, sets, costumes, special effects, and cinematography were excellent. It all comes together into a great film.

Pretty awesome and iconic movie in my opinion

First off this is on great looking film, on Blu-ray this looks magnificent, with a 16:9 aspect ratio it just looks superb, there’s so much colour and depth to each frame, it’s like you could reach out and touch it, there’s never that flat digital look either you get with many modern films. This could be up there with some of the best looking films I’ve seen, The way the woods alone is shot with so much colour and light is wonderful, its like you can see and feel the beams of light, the pollen in the air. The film follows heavy themes of death, life, fascism, obedience and disobedience, as well as fantasy v reality. The casting, acting, camerawork and editing is fantastic. Rather than having monsters as a metaphor for humans or fascists in this the fascists literally are the monsters and the fantasy monsters are more imaginary than real perhaps. At night the creaky old house we find ourselves in seems to come to life with magic and noises. The plot involves a girl brought to a house in the woods by her mother, pregnant and unwell with her new stepfather, a captain in the Spanish army trying to defeat partisans in the area who he suspects locals may be aiding. The film’s cinematography deserves huge praise, the way the camera moves and spins and glides through the locations in a way which might normally annoy me but absolutely works in this genera. The film has some very heavy violence, swearing, scenes of torture, it’s not a film for children to be clear. The step father is a complete pig, there’s no attempt really to soften his character, he’s obsessed with simply ruthlessly destroying his enemies and making sure he has a son, everything is just a means to an end. That’s not to say he’s not an interesting or complicated character though, you spend a lot of time with him in the film and the acting is all round excellent, especially from such a young talent playing the lead. Scenes in the rain somehow look even more dazzling than in the sun, while the film has a very strong sense of fear and distress to it the ending felt slightly forced though with a few things happening I didn’t quite believe even though our main antagonist describes pride as being his weakness, characters happen to be exactly where they are needed to be when it suits the story, otherwise though it’s a really excellent film.

The item arrived safely and the bonus features are nice

Disappointed . I have an Xbox one that I play dvds on and this won’t work on my system .

Super Film, der schon zum Klassiker geworden ist.