Line #23 YMMV/PansLabyrinth


1	* AlternativeCharacterInterpretation:
2	** The Faun is subject to this, as it is left deliberately ambiguous on how trustworthy he actually is. Del Toro also suggested that the Faun and the Pale Man are the same character in different forms.
3	** Did Vidal really think the farmers were rebels, or did he know (or suspect) that they were innocent all along, and simply didn't care?
4	** [[spoiler: The King of the Underworld, Ofelia's supposed father.]] He supposedly sends the Faun to help guide her return to her home, but despite her being a young child, he puts her through extremely difficult trials and tests that go from life-threatening to sadistic or both with basically no help. To be fair, this is a staple of fairy tales, but given Ofelia's terrible situation and how innocent, vulnerable and sensitive she clearly is, it's difficult for the audience to believe a [[spoiler: loving father]] would put her through this. While this is very in keeping with TheFairFolk, it still throws his intentions into a BlueAndOrangeMorality area--he might care for Ofelia, but not in a very normal way, which casts her return [[spoiler: to the Underworld]] in a darker light. [[spoiler: This helps enforce the fan's theory that Ofelia is imagining all this--as a child she is simply convincing herself that her cruel life is all a "test" to prove her worth and goodness by some higher power, despite being too young and innocent to deserve that kind of character test in any form.]]
5	** If one believes in the DelusionConclusion, could The Pale Man be a metaphor for Captain Vidal? Vidal's seat at the table does mirror the way The Pale Man was seated. Could The Pale Man just be how Ofelia sees Vidal?
6	* AntiClimaxBoss: Admittedly, [[spoiler:Captain Vidal]] is defeated unsatisfyingly easily. You'd think he'd put up more of a fight instead of going down via BoomHeadshot. A case could be made that this is an InvokedTrope to indicate that [[spoiler:right-wing authoritarians, for all their bluster, don't actually possess the superhuman strength that they project. Captain Vidal might be the most overtly villainous character in the film, but a single headshot wastes him the way it would any other human character.]]
7	* AwardSnub: The film failed to earn a Best Picture nomination, despite appearing on more Top 10 lists than any of the actual nominees that year aside from ''Film/TheQueen'' and ''Film/TheDeparted''.
8	* BigLippedAlligatorMoment: The lottery ticket. Essentially, Garcés buys a lottery ticket, then a scene has him listening to the radio and screwing it up into a ball when it's a non-winner.
9	* BrokenBase: It's split between whether the fantasy elements were real or just Ofelia's imagination. WordOfGod has confirmed it's the former, and there are several moments that would be ''very'' [[ContrivedCoincidence coincidental]] if the magic wasn't real. But there are others who like to interpret the entire story as being [[spoiler: a dying Ofelia retroactively turning her story into a DyingDream]] thanks to the BookEnds format. It largely depends on the viewer's attitude towards the FantasyGhetto. This was confirmed by del Toro to be an IntendedAudienceReaction.
10	* CatharsisFactor: [[spoiler:Captain Vidal's death. As he survives the brutal slashing from Mercedes, he essentially gets killed twice. For added satisfaction, Mercedes tells him that his son won't ever know his name]].
11	* CommonKnowledge: The film is not set during the Spanish Civil War, but in its aftermath.
12	* CompleteMonster:
13	** [[WickedStepfather Captain Vidal]] is far more terrifying than the fantastical monsters in the same work. Vidal first shows his nastiness when two poachers, a father and son, are brought to him in the dead of night, his men suspecting them of being rebels against the regime. He beats the younger man's face in with a bottle simply for defending his father against Vidal's accusations before shooting them both with a vague air of boredom and pleasure. When the men are proven not to be rebels, Vidal shows no remorse, only belittling his men to be more careful next time. At one point, Vidal captures a rebel with a horrible stutter and cheerfully shows the man his [[TortureTechnician torture instruments]] before offering to let him go if he can clearly count to three. He fails. Vidal is married to the young heroine's mother solely so she'll bear him an heir, and shows no concern over the possible death of his wife in childbirth. When the doctor attending her gives the stuttering torture victim a MercyKill, Vidal coldly guns him down. At the film's end, Vidal's stepdaughter Ofelia tries to rescue her baby brother, but Vidal catches her and [[WouldHurtAChild promptly shoots her fatally]]. It's no accident that Vidal's place at the head of the table in the dinner scene parallels that of the Pale Man; each qualifies as a MonstrousHumanoid in his own way, one literal, [[HumansAreTheRealMonsters one figurative]].
14	** ''[[{{Novelization}} The Labyrinth of the Faun]]'', by Creator/GuillermoDelToro & Creator/CorneliaFunke: [[WasOnceAMan The Pale Man]] is a monstrous ChildEater that has haunted the lands for centuries. Born a seemingly normal child who [[EnfantTerrible everyone recognized the inherent cruelty of]], he murdered his own brother out of petty jealousy and became a [[TortureTechnician torture practitioner]] under [[UsefulNotes/TheSpanishInquisition a Spanish Inquisitor]], honing his abilities until he betrayed his master and ate his heart. Becoming a murderer and cannibal of children, he developed into the monstrous "Pale Man", his outside appearance as heinous as his personality. The Pale Man spent hundreds of years luring children to him to feast upon them, [[LovesTheSoundOfScreaming loving the sound of their screams]] and fashioning their remains into furniture, while he kept each and every one of their names written on his walls as trophies of his countless kills.
15	* CreepyAwesome:
16	** The Faun can be frightening, but his ambiguous nature makes him great to watch.
17	** The Pale Man is NightmareFuel personified, it's little wonder why [[OneSceneWonder his scene]] is [[SignatureScene one of the best known parts of the film.]]
18	* DeathOfTheAuthor:
19	** Despite del Toro's own insistence that the magic is real, some viewers hold that the film is better assuming Ofelia is simply delusional, and merely using the Faun and the fairies as a coping mechanism for her own traumas, with even Ivana Baquero stating that she preferred this interpretation.
20	** On the flip side, del Toro considers the film a metaphor for the Spanish Civil War, and many people ran with it, especially in Spain. Interpretations go as far as to consider, for instance, Vidal a representation of Franco's regime, Carmen a representation of Spain itself, Ofelia a representation of the doomed Second Spanish Republic and Ofelia's half-brother a representation of Spanish democracy that came after Franco's regime.
21	* DelusionConclusion: The fantastical elements are sometimes interpreted as Ofelia's attempts to escape the brutality of Francoist Spain by retreating into her imagination, especially since the magical beings she interacts with are InvisibleToNormals. [[spoiler: It's also not uncommon for Ofelia's happy ending to be reinterpreted as a DyingDream - even by viewers who take the fantasy aspects at face value.]] Ivana Baquero stated that she believed the fantasy world was Ofelia's creation and that she escapes there in the end but it's real for her alone, while WordOfGod interprets it as spiritual as opposed to literal:
22	--> '''Del Toro''': I think it's real, but... not in the pejorative sense. It's a spiritual reality. I don't mean the faun is there, or the mandrake is there, but she really is transported- saved by herself.
23	* EnsembleDarkhorse: Dr. Ferreiro is well-liked for his compassionate nature, getting a fairly rounded character arc, and his dignified TheReasonYouSuckSpeech to Vidal before his death at the latter's hands.
24	* EsotericHappyEnding: There are other fascists out there, after [[spoiler:Vidal's death]], and several more decades of dictatorship - it's 1944 and Franco will only die in 1975. Plus given the rebels [[spoiler: murdered a high-ranking Franocist officer]] it's likely they'll be hunted down and killed before they can manage an escape, including Ofelia's baby half-brother [[spoiler: who she died to protect, basically making her sacrifice pointless.]] Again, this would fit in the fandom theory that it's all in Ofelia's imagination, serving as a depiction of the total destruction of innocence and hope Spain experienced under Franco's regime to the point that even a child's inner mind is corrupted and ultimately [[spoiler: snuffed out]] by it.
25	* GeniusBonus:
26	** Pretty much every single event in this film is based on an existing folk tale, even the wraparound story. This film is literally folklore wrapped in folklore sprinkled with more folklore which will evoke a strong "don't open the door!" type of terror from those familiar with the source material. Yes, even the crazy stuff regarding chalk doors and mandrake roots have actual folklore magic roots!
27	** Since Captain Vidal is Mercedes' employer, she has to use "usted", the formal "you" in Spanish, when addressing him directly. [[spoiler:At the end, just before she shoots him, she uses "tu", the ''informal'' "you", a more subtle indication of her hatred of him.]] Arguably qualifies as a BilingualBonus.
28	* GermansLoveDavidHasselhoff: The film is far more appreciated outside of Spain, where it's only remembered as "a good Creator/GuillermoDelToro movie"... if remembered at all. Partly because [[CulturalCringe Spaniard mainstream and geek audiences have kind of a disdain for local cinema]].
29	* HilariousInHindsight:
30	** Ofelia's name in the fantasy world is "Princess Moanna". Come 2016, when there's an actual Franchise/DisneyPrincess [[WesternAnimation/{{Moana}} with this name]] (although spelled slightly differently).
31	** Meta example: del Toro compared Steven King's reaction to the Pale Man to winning an Oscar. Come 2017 with ''Film/TheShapeOfWater'', and del Toro walks away with one for Best Director and Best Film.
32	* IAmNotShazam: The Faun has no mentioned name; "[[Myth/ClassicalMythology Pan]]" was used in the English title under the assumption that people would confuse "faun" with "fawn" (baby deer.) WordOfGod has confirmed that his idea of Pan is far too wild and dangerous to serve in a role of the Faun (Which makes sense, considering the actual mythology behind the God Pan, who is often described as hypersexual or even paedophile.) In the novelization, however, the Faun tells Ofelia that some call him Pan but it's just one of his many names.
33	* JustHereForGodzilla: Many only watch the film to see the Pale Man and nothing else.
34	* MagnificentBastard: [[FaunsAndSatyrs The Faun]] is a TricksterMentor to Ofelia, the reincarnation of Princess Moanna of the Underworld, who seeks to return her to her royal roots. Giving her a series of tasks, all of which put her in danger, The Faun gives her the final task to see if she would give her brother's blood. With Ofelia choosing to put her half-brother over her, resulting in her death, she passes the SecretTestOfCharacter, with the Faun congratulating her as she takes her rightful place as princess of the underworld.
35	* MemeticMutation:
36	** It's become fairly common in some circles to note that the Pale Man bears a resemblance to Kentucky Senator [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mitch_McConnell Mitch McConnell]].
37	** In keeping with the U.S. politics theme, conflating Alabama Senator Doug Jones with the ''actor'' Doug Jones, who portrayed the Faun and the Pale Man in this film (and has had major roles in several other Del Toro films, including the Asset in ''Film/TheShapeOfWater'').
38	* {{Moe}}: Ofelia for a few viewers. Despite experiencing the horror of war, her belief in magic and fairy tales endears her to people. She also goes from terrified innocent to PluckyGirl whenever there's a fantasy themed challenge for her.
39	* MoralEventHorizon:
40	** Vidal beating a boy's face in for supposedly being a rebel is one of the most horrific scenes in the entire movie. It is also one of the first centered on him. ''And he only gets worse from there''.
41	** He also shoots the boy's horrified father in said scene, and finishes the boy off with a double tap. Then he searches their bag and finds dead rabbits, confirming their innocence. Apart from telling his men to "search these assholes properly before you come bothering me", he ''barely reacts''.
42	* {{Narm}}:
43	** When Vidal catches Mercedes and Ofelia trying to escape, he drags Ofelia back to her room and angrily interrogates her over how long she knew Mercedes was a traitor and slaps her in the face. The slap clearly doesn't land and there isn't even a noise to indicate impact.
44	** Sergi Lopez (Vidal) dubs himself in the French version of the movie, without doing any attempt to hide his accent, while none of the other voice actors have any accent (or attempt to imitate Spanish accents). The result is somewhat immersion-breaking, because every (human) character is Spanish in a movie entirely set in Spain, but only a single character sounds Spanish.
45	* NauseaFuel:
46	** The poor boy getting his face beaten in by Vidal through the eye socket, and that's ''just'' the tip of the iceberg.
47	** The sickening sound as the Doctor begins to cut into the injured man's leg with a saw...
48	** The first task, with the frog in the tree. ''All of it''.
49	** The bloody face of the poor rebel who was interrogated. Nevermind the state of his [[{{Fingore}} fingers...]]
50	* NightmareRetardant:
51	** For a creature as iconic as the Pale Man, there are a couple of elements about him that are surprisingly ineffective to some people.
52	** During the scene where the Pale Man chases after Ofelia, the way he walks is supposed to be menacing, but due to his bizarre biology, it's closer to awkward stumbling. Between this and his extremely frail body, one has to wonder how he can be such a threat.
53	** In the same scene, the moment where the Pale Man shrieks loudly when chasing Ofelia is undeniably terrifying, but the way he thrusts out his arm, in a manner similar to someone asking for a hi-five, or someone uttering a BigNo, kind of waters down the scare factor.
54	* ObviousJudas: Subverted! [[spoiler: The Faun looks like he's going to turn on Ofelia and viewers aren't surprised when he appears to. But it turns out it was all a SecretTestOfCharacter and he was a benevolent creature after all]].
55	* OneSceneWonder: The Pale Man only shows up once, and has roughly five minutes of screen time. Yet for many people, he is the most memorable thing in the movie, even more than the Faun, thanks to his horrific design and the sheer NightmareFuel of his sequence.
56	* SciFiGhetto: It's a fantasy movie that broke out of it in some ways. However, it failed to get a Best Picture nomination. The fact the magical elements are [[MaybeMagicMaybeMundane more ambiguous]] then most fantasy films may have helped. Though notably, del Toro said it led to some people deciding his ''other'' films were in the sci-fi/fantasy ghetto, and this was him making a "serious" film. As he will happily tell you, [[DefiedTrope he resents any implication]] that he sees his more obviously commercial films as less personal.
57	* SignatureScene:
58	** Vidal's EstablishingCharacterMoment with the farmers is one of the most-remembered scenes, mainly due to the bottle attack.
59	** The Pale Man waking up and putting his eyes into his hands.
60	* {{Squick}}:
61	** Both supernatural (the Pale Man) and mundane ([[spoiler:Captain Vidal getting his cheek cut open and subsequent sewing it back together]].)
62	** And to add to the {{Squick}}[=/=]{{Nightmare Fuel}} factor: After Vidal [[spoiler:provisionally sews together his cheek, he takes a quick gulp of whiskey (or some other high-percentage alcohol.) He does not manage to swallow it all at once, and there is a painful sequence, where whiskey comes flushing out of his sown-up cheek. And one can only imagine the intense pain of having an open wound at the mouth flushed with concentrated alcohol, in this case a searing bitter. Strangely enough, this short moment occurs ''without'' much blood spill, which in fact makes it all the more... {{Squick}}]].
63	* SpiritualSuccessor:
64	** WordOfGod identifies this film as the second in a loosely connected trilogy started by ''Film/TheDevilsBackbone''. In the "Making Of" documentary of his ''[[WesternAnimation/GuillermoDelTorosPinocchio Pinocchio]]'', del Toro states that's to be considered as the third installment due to its themes of children being subjected to the [[WarIsHell horrors of war]], but prior to that, 2017's ''Film/TheShapeOfWater'' also works well as a spiritual third installment due to having a similarly loathsome authority figure villain [[spoiler: who is subjected to {{Squick}}-y wounds and shoots the female protagonist dead before being killed, while she still manages to have a happy ending thanks to the story's supernatural element.]]
65	** Del Toro also cited Hans Christian Andersen's ''Literature/TheLittleMatchGirl'' as a major inspiration.
66	** There were some who saw it as a SpiritualSuccessor to the Franco-Era Spanish classic ''Film/TheSpiritOfTheBeehive'', another film that deals with a young girl's experiences in the early Franco years and her perception of the real-world realities of the time through a fantasy lens (in this case through Creator/BorisKarloff's Frankenstein).
67	** It could be thought of as ''Film/{{Labyrinth}}'' reimagined as a horror movie.
68	* UglyCute: The Faun. Despite being terrifying at first, he has an AmbiguousInnocence that makes him endearing.
69	* UnintentionallySympathetic: The toad. While it was harming the tree it's not shown to be aware of this, so it's doubtful it deserved to die, let alone as gruesomely as it did.
70	* WhatDoYouMeanItsNotForKids; One of the most profound examples, as the trailers were cut in such a way as to suggest that it's a Disney-esque fantasy... and while this [[CrapsaccharineWorld isn't strictly inaccurate,]] it's a much, ''much'' [[DarkFantasy darker, more violent, and more serious]] movie than its immediate aesthetic presentation would suggest.
71	* {{Woolseyism}}: The aforementioned title change. Its original Spanish title was ''El Laberinto del Fauno'' -- "The Labyrinth of the Faun."
72	* TheWoobie:
73	** Ofelia and Carmen have both lost their father and husband respectively, and both appear afraid of Captain Vidal. Not to mention that Carmen knows she is at risk to travel so far this late in her pregnancy.
74	** Mercedes has a brother in the rebellion and is passing supplies to them, while also working under the very man they're fighting against. The poor woman must be terrified every day of her life. [[spoiler: Then she has to watch Ofelia die]].

Context YMMV / PansLabyrinth