"My mother told me to be wary of Fauns."

Rating: 9/10 (29 February 2008)

The success of Peter Jackson's 'The Lord of the Rings (2001-2003)' and Tim Burton's 'Big Fish (2003)' demonstrated that adult audiences still enjoy stepping into the magical and wonderful worlds that captivated them throughout their childhoods. Mexican director Guillermo del Toro has made fantasy his speciality, having achieved critical success in the past with such films as 'The Devil's Backbone (2001)' and mainstream comic-book adaptation 'Hellboy (2004).' Though I had previously never seen any of his films, I now consider del Toro to be a director-to-watch, since his most recent release, 'El Laberinto del fauno / Pan's Labyrinth' is one of the favourite films of 2006, second only to fellow Mexican director Alfonso Cuarón's dystopic futuristic sci-fi, 'Children of Men (2006).' An "adult fantasy" in every sense of the word, 'Pan's Labyrinth' unfurls a marvellous fantasy fairytale amid the bloody backdrop of the aftermath of Spanish Civil War (1936-1939). A young girl learns to endure the violence and devastation of warfare by retreating into a world of fantasy, occupied by fairies, fauns and other similarly-wondrous and terrifying creatures.
Young Ofelia (Ivana Baquero) is an intelligent and imaginative girl with a fondness for fairy tales. After the death of her father, a simple tailor, Ofelia's mother, Carmen (Ariadna Gil), marries an ambitious and sadistic Falange commander, Captain Vidal (Sergi López), who has been assigned to an old homestead from which to root out the remaining Marxist guerrillas. Vidal is ruthless in his attempts to exterminate the sympathetic rebels, often employing torture and intense violence to achieve his objectives. His primary ambition in life is to be remembered as a brave soldier, and, like his father, he wishes to die in battle so that his own son {currently developing in the womb of Ofelia's heavily-pregnant mother} will know the exact moment of his death and will be proud of him. With her mother seriously ill in bed, Ofelia is generally neglected by the household, with the exception of a kind-hearted servant (Maribel Verdú) whose sympathies lie with the rebels. In order to escape the horrors of the ongoing conflict, Ofelia devises an elaborate fantasy-world in which she is the returned spirit of Princess Moanna, destined to return to her glorious underground kingdom.
Whether Ofelia's fantasies are, indeed, authentic or not {I tend to believe that the creatures are figments of her imagination, stemming from a subconscious desire to escape the violence of the real world}, there's no doubting the magnificence of del Toro's creations. Intricate make-up, puppetry and computer-generated imagery combine to create an assortment of the most mesmerising fantasy creatures I've ever seen: Doug Jones' Faun {named as the Greek god Pan in the English-translated title, though del Toro has denounced this due to the possible sexual connotations} is absolutely spellbinding in his every single word and movement, and one need only compare him to the rather ordinary faun in Adam Adamson's 'The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (2005)' to confirm the superiority of del Toro's artistic vision. 'Pan's Labyrinth' brilliantly blurs the borders of the story's real and fantasy worlds, and young Ivana Baquera delivers an assured and mature performance in the leading role, lending credibility to her character's interactions with each fantastic creature. Guillermo del Toro's picture proved successful at the 2007 Oscars, winning awards for Art Direction, Cinematography and Make-up from six nominations.