by Rianne Hill Soriano

Created on: December 27, 2010

"Pan’s Labyrinth" is a brutally bewitching adult fantasy film that parallels the horror of two worlds (the realistic and the magical) – both having their own monsters.

It resonates something primal and mythic within the thread of the realistic. It is enchanting and dream-like, and at the same time, realistic and intellectual. It is beautiful and magical, while it is also morbid and horrible. This imaginative fantasy motion picture is a creative masterwork from Mexican writer-director Guillermo del Toro.

"Pan's Labyrinth touches one’s inner child and inner cynic through an astonishingly dark fantasy story. It works within the framework of reality by bringing in sumptuous visual creepiness to a sad tale of incorruptible innocence and ultimate sacrifice. It has a simple story that speaks in poetic terms. It utilizes dark tones of magic realism and weaves a visually powerful and deeply affecting tale that speaks of the brutal in man.

Set in the turbulent times of 1944 Spain, the film juxtaposes inhuman military brutality with the idealism and imagery. It presents a portrait of childhood fears and hopes that brilliantly melds with the realms of fantasy and human history. It shows a moral eye by carefully crafting a political fable in the guise of a fairy tale.

With a breathtaking emotions and undoubted visual depth, Del Toro recreates the heart-wrenchingly sweet world for Ofelia (Ivana Baquero). Solidifying the gratifying surreal elements and fantastical instincts of the story, he makes it seem easy to make the otherworldly acceptable in the physical world and vice-versa. He brings his exquisite imagination and vision to pulsating life. With a profound and serious treatment of realism and surrealism wrapped within a carefully crafted drama, the film both has physical and magical forces that effectively endures a story resonating and offering various interpretations in every viewing.

The spellbinding aesthetics of childish imagination juxtaposed with adult brutality works under the film's palette of supersaturated yellows, deep-toned blues, and bottomless blacks. The well-detailed visuals become a product of impressive cinematography and production design where fantasy and reality become equally vivid.

The film’s elements are as sharp as the Captain’s razor, as strange as the squeal of a magic root, and as beautiful as Ofelia’s innocent smile. The music complements the technically accomplished editing. The effects render seamless

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