Pan's Labyrinth tells the story of little girl who comes to find out that she is the princess of a dark realm and does what it takes to claim her kingdom.

Rating: 10/10 (2 November 2015)

Did you ever believe in fairy tales and nightmares as a child? Pan's Labyrinth is a film directed by Guillermo del Toro, which plays a story of a young girl who faces strange conflicts that are definitely out of the ordinary. Ofelia, the main character, comes to find out that she is the princess of a dark realm. To claim her kingdom, she must first complete multiple task. As she struggles to complete the task demanded, she finds out that her step-father is a corrupt leader of the Spanish army during a civil war in Mexico. Pan's Labyrinth definitely shows two sides of imagination: scary and fun because Ofelia's challenges are extremely horrifying in an entertaining way.
Trailers of the film may give you the initial idea that the it is intended for a audiences of all ages, surprisingly, the film is rated R. The film is not found suitable for children because the film is entirely in Spanish and contains subtitles throughout the entire movie that must be followed in order to understand the storyline of the movie. Younger children who are not fluent in Spanish will tend to lose interest in a short period of time, being that audience of young ages will get fed up having to reading subtitles throughout an entire movie. Along with that, there are some very graphic scenes in the movie, for example: Ofelia's step-father bashes in a trespasser's face in with a gun and shot the other in the face before even giving them the chance to prove their innocence. Horrifying creatures that can only be imagined with the help of our deepest darkest fears are shown throughout the movie well.
Ofelia faces many challenges throughout the movie one of them is the typical childhood problem of adults not believing her. Ofelia tries to tell her mother and Mercedes, who is a butler to her family. When she tries to tell them what she is seeing, she is told to stop reading books because it is filling her head with nonsense and such creatures do not exist. As the story goes on, antagonists are introduced, such as The Pale Man and the giant toad. Both antagonist are symbols for something much larger than what they are. For example, Ofelia is told to destroy the giant toad that lives in the roots of the tree. It is explained that the giant toad is blocking the trees roots which causes the tree not to bloom. The giant toad is symbol for her mother's pregnancy complications, whom is unable to give birth to her younger brother just as the tree is not able to bloom because the toad is blocking the roots. Unfortunately, midway through the movie, Ofelia loses her mother while giving birth to her younger brother.
A majority of Toro's film are of the same genre; they contain an insane amount of imagination along with a great fictional story line. A great example would be The Book of Life, which is one of his first animated films, a story of a prince and a great bull fighter who share the same childhood crush and compete to win her love. Guillermo's films are known for creativity, for example, he has directed Hellboy, Pacific Rim, The Hobbit and Blade. Pan's Labyrinth is different from his other work because usually his work is usually filled with action at the climax, this particular film was very calm for the most part. This film is truly unique in comparison to all of his other films because it is something out of the ordinary and very fascinating at the same time.
Pan's Labyrinth is an extremely fascinating film because it shows how much creativity an individual can possess and shows the positive and negative sides of your imaginations with the story line and characters. The film has many ups and downs with a wide variety of emotions stirred, while teaches great lessons with the story being told within the film.