History Film / PansLabyrinth

Now the subject of an upcoming [[TheMusical musical adaptation]] written by Del Toro himself, with Gustavo Santaolalla (''Film/{{Babel}}'', ''BrokebackMountain'' and ''VideoGame/TheLastOfUs) and Music/PaulWilliams composing music/lyrics, respectively.

Now the subject of an upcoming [[TheMusical musical adaptation]] written by Del Toro himself, with Gustavo Santaolalla (''Film/{{Babel}}'', ''BrokebackMountain'') and Music/PaulWilliams composing music/lyrics, respectively.

* DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything?: The children's shoes piled in the den of the Pale Man are eerily reminiscent of TheHolocaust. Given the movie is set in 1994 this is likely intentional.

* BulletproofHumanShield: Averted, when Vidal turns his gun on the senior hunter, who's being restrained by a soldier. The soldier sees what's about to happen, and quickly changes his position to holding the man at the side, rather than directly behind him.

* BittersweetEnding

** Although it can also be interpreted as Vidal knowing that the men weren't partisans, who wouldn't go shooting a non-human target with an old hunting rifle in a forest filled with enemies, but wanted to make a point to his own men, who would have to bear the responsibility for bringing him prisoners without confirming their allegiance first.

* ForbiddenFruit

* EvenEvilHasStandards: If there's one thing Vidal's got going for him, when he kills a couple of rabbit hunters he was informed (and believed) were rebels and then finds out who they really were when he discovers a pair of rabbits on their persons, he yells at his men because they didn't search these assholes before bothering him with them.

It is notable that many {{squick}}s and nightmares were induced by this movie due to the advertising as "family friendly". Especially in Europe, trailers shown only mentioned the fantasy parts. The fact that it takes place during Franco's regime is completely ignored, as is every mention of gruesomeness. Rated everything from 12+ (France, Japan, Iceland, Taiwan) to 21+ (Singapore) in cinemas.

* FootFocus: While there are two shots of Ofelia's bare feet, they aren't important to the scene. However, [[https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-AR3xPvgCPkY/TYDjYjEoKII/AAAAAAAAAYU/3mb6ZZMMUDQ/Pans_Labyrinth_OST.jpg the cover to the soundtrack]] places them front and center.

** Ofelia claims her father was a deceased tailor. The faun, however, tells he that he's actually king of the underworld [[spoiler:and she meets him at the end]].

* HumanoidAbomination: The Pale Man.

* ProtagonistCenteredMorality: More like Author-Centered Morality. Those freedom fighting guerrillas? They are communists backed by Stalin, fighting to turn Spain into PeoplesRepublicOfTyranny. If anything, SpanishCivilWar is a classical real life example of BlackAndGrayMorality (which side is black and which is grey still is a theme of heated political debates). That's not a judgement one can get from this film.

* TheRevolutionWillNotBeVilified: The band of guerrilla fighters in the hills are depicted as overtly heroic, though they do noticeably execute the fascist prisoners in a scene that mirrors the summary executions of their own members early in the movie.

It's set in 1944, just after the SpanishCivilWar (a favorite period for Mexico-born GuillermoDelToro, the film's writer and director), with Spain's democratically elected socialist government overthrown by the Falangists (Spanish Fascists or "National-Catholics") and the new government attempting to weed out the last traces of LaResistance. The story centers on Ofelia, an only child whose widowed mother Carmen [[GuessWhoImMarrying has agreed to marry]] the ruthless Captain Vidal to provide for them. In turn, he expects her to bear him a son.

* ATragedyOfImpulsiveness: If Ofelia had not eaten those two grapes, the fairies' deaths could have been avoided, in addition to a lot of other bad things.

* CoupDeGrace: The soldierss on both sides do a single shot to the head.

* KillHimAlready: Mercedes' should probably have [[spoiler: killed Vidal when she had him at her mercy to avert the BittersweetEnding, However, according to WordOfGod: Mercedes' knife was intended to be too small to inflict serious damage on as formidable an opponent as Captain Vidal. On a symbolic level, such a fearsome monster as Captain Vidal needed something equally fearsome to finish him off. Such is the nature of a fairy tale.)]]

** The Faun (and later the Fairy court) use the vosotros (2nd person plural) form when addressing Ofelia, rather than tú. Not only does add a bit of atmosphere to the characters, since this sort of address was the norm in medieval Spanish, but it also overlaps with the ''RoyalWe.''

* KickTheDog

* EstablishingCharacterMoment: For Vidal - "It's the right hand." He's in the movie for less than ten seconds and we already have him pegged as a cold bastard. Then he murders two prisoners a bit later, just in case you didn't get it the first time.

Imagine ''Literature/AliceInWonderland'' [[XMeetsY meeting]] ''TheBoyInTheStripedPyjamas'', then joined by ''TheWindThatShakesTheBarley'' with a sizable portion of [[Creator/TheBrothersGrimm The Brothers]] [[{{Grimmification}} Grimm]] thrown in.

Original Spanish title: ''El laberinto del fauno''.

''Pan's Labyrinth'', a dark, modern-day fairy tale, complete with [[TheFairFolk fairies]], [[SecretTestOfCharacter Secret Tests Of Character]], and monsters -- not all of them supernatural.

* [[spoiler: HeroicSacrifice]]: [[spoiler: Ofelia]]
** [[spoiler: The doctor shows mercy and euthanizes the captured rebel, even though he surely knows it will cost his own life.]]

* RogerEbertGreatMoviesList