Pan's Labyrinth: Movie Review

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Plot Summary: 

In the beginning of the movie, a dead girl was shown immediately. Also, different classic fairy tales appeared on the screen such as a rose from Beauty and the Beast, trap in an underground fantasy world from Rapunzel/Tangled, where Ofelia (main character) escaped from it, and blinded her eyes that made her memories vanished. Also the green dress that looks exactly from Alice in the Wonderland. It already shows that the theme of the story is Fantasy, but with a dark side. Ofelia is the kind of child who enthusiastically reads stories about fairies, princesses and magic lands, longing to believe that what she read is real. Going through the journey along with her mother, Carmen to meet his husband, Captain Vidal Ofelia saw a mantis that appeared right in front of her. Captain Vidal is an officer in Franco’s army who seems to live by the war that begins at home. He treats Carmen in a humiliating way that proves that she is only value to him because she is pregnant with his son. Captain Vidal enjoys the exercise of authority and in the trappings/ torturing of military discipline. Meeting him makes Ofelia feel uneasy. A new home that is in the middle of the war makes Ofelia feel uncomfortable, but later that night she saw again the mantis and it turned out to be a fairy from one of her fairy tales books. It led her through the labyrinth where she met a faun that frightened her at first. The faun seems to be both good and evil. Also, his proposal is not good or evil either, but the choice between them. When she met the faun, the faun immediately proclaimed that she was the Princess of the Underworld and gave her 3 task that should be accomplish before the full moon. 

Interpretations, Symbolism, Relevance of the Story to the Events: 

Ofelia live in 2 worlds where the scenario change its colors such as blue or dark color for reality world and yellow or bright color for fantasy world. The faun gave Ofelia 3 task. First, she must get the key on the inside of the stomach of a frog. The tree of where the frog is located symbolizes the uterus of Ofelia’s mother, where in it aches because of her unborn son, while the frog represents his unborn little brother. Seeing Carmen in pain makes Ofelia angry that’s why she quickly respond to the quest by killing the frog with 3 stones gave by the faun. Second, Ofelia must get the dagger from a castle without eating and drinking anything from the feast since it might wake the horrible Pale Man whose skin hangs fold from his unwholesome body (whose eyes are in its palms) sitting in the middle of the table. But Ofelia didn’t listen and she was chased down by the Pale Man until she escaped from the castle by drawing to the wall using the chalk gave by the faun. The Pale Man represents Captain Vidal where they are both seated in the middle of the table whose basically is in charge of the place. While in the castle there was an hourglass for Ofelia to be time, just like the first meeting of Ofelia and the stepfather, he looked through his clock since he likes to be punctual. And third, for Ofelia to give her newly born brother to the faun. Giving her little brother will open the portal because of his innocence, and surprisingly Ofelia cared for her brother even though that they’re not fully related she still didn’t gave him away, because of her choice she passed the test. But sadly she was killed by her own stepfather and it shows that the movie is patriarch. With these 3 challenges Ofelia accomplished all and she was named as the Princess of the Underworld. 

Reflection: 

We always dream happy ones in times of war and tragic, and we want to escape from reality. I often watch movies that shows an escape from the world to feel nothing is wrong, everything feels so right, and almost anything is possible. But in this movie I feel like even though you’re in a fantasy world anything can happen unless you conquer your fears, face them also in reality, and learn to grow as a person. I will give this movie a 5/5 since I am a disney enthusiast and at the beginning of the movie I immediately saw the relevance of the story of Pan’s Labyrinth but in a darker way than to any Disney Movies. I was surprised by the movie since this is the first time that I’ve watched a princess who has a much darker story than the common ones like Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, and many more.