Pan's Labyrinth

[Kanazaka]

I saw this earlier this year and liked it a lot. It deserved all of the Oscars it won, though it should have also won Best Original Screenplay . However, I did think that some elements of the plot resembled Season Five of Buffy the Vampire Slayer (especially the sacrificial offering at the portal).

[Sathai]

Just a couple of more weeks and it will be out on DVD. I'm really looking forward to seeing this one.

[Ice fyre]

Just watched this, what a haunting disturbing film.

The ending was amazing powerful and so very sad, had a tear in my eye.

Beautifully directed filmed, you know I just can't fault this film.

[Annie]

I'm hoping to watch this one, tomorrow night. I can't wait!

[The Pelagic Argosy]

Spoilers....

Originally Posted by Thadlerian

The trailer is rather misleading, I think (just apart from that awful Trailer Voice). It's not a Fantasy movie, the fairy-tale plot sometimes falls completely into the shadow of the real-life plot. The trailer also failed to reflect the brutality found in very many scenes.

I saw it on DVD last night. It's a superb film that deserves all the praise it's gotten, of course.

My only gripe echo's Thadlerian's comments. The ratio of this film is 80% disturbing fascist Spain stuff, 20% cool fantasy stuff. The advertising and reviews I read led to me to believe it would be the other way around. I, personally, try to avoid disturbing realistic war movies, which is mostly what this was. (I'm glad they ended the leg-cutting scene when they did!)

I did like, though, how the theme of questioning authority was mirrored in both the realistic and fantasy parts.

It was also interesting that my mom saw this as a movie with a happy ending where the girl succeeded and went on to live as a princess. I saw it more cynically as a story where everything good that happened to this little girl was just in her imagination, and she died tragically. I guess I'm a pessimist.

[the_faery_queen]

ah, but as my friend pointed out (and i can't remember if i said this here) her soul was that of the princess, reborn. not her body. she had to die to leave it behind. so tho she did die, she did also go to this other world. i think there were too many factors in it, like the way she got out of her room when it was locked, to say that it was totally in her mind.

i loved it. i did think it would be more fantasy, but i think the fantasy that they did have stood out so much more clearly because of the dark fascist contrast to it. i think that if it had been more like labyrinth teh fantasy would have lost it's edge, the end wouldn't have meant as much. either way, that girl kinda won. her world was dark and horrible, and in death she was free. either as a princess, or just because she got away from that awful messed up world (granted that was kinda over as her step-father was dead, but still. it wasn't a nice place generally)

[Aniri]

I really enjoyed this film. I do wish it had more fantasy to it, but what it did have was great.

[Brigitte]

I saw Pan's Labyrinth on Pay-Per-View. At first, I got really sick of it (Spanish subtitles making it ever so difficult to follow along, as I found myself trying to translate the words in my head). However, it got pretty good toward the end. What a sad story! I don't know if the Spanish Civil War necessarily needed to play in there, but it was a good background story.

[tangaloomababe]

I loved this movie, saw it again only recently. Its just a beautiful film and although somewhat violent at times, which I am not to keen on, the movie was very moving. I couln't decide if I was sad or happy at the ending, because I like to believe that the young girl was a princess after all.

Have to rate as one of my favorites.

[Spade]

This movie is definitely in my top 5 of all time. I really, really enjoyed every minute of it. Can't wait to see it again.

[SidMarl]

I absolutely loved this movie .. it was so dark, yet retained the whole fairytale mood at the same time