Criticial review on Guillermo del Toro's Pan's Labyrinth film (2006) - Essay Example

This paper provides a critical analysis of this film. The plot of the film is set in the civil war of Spain. It revolves around a quest by an 11 year old girl called Ofelia. The girl is sensitive and faces relocation to a secluded military camp with her sick mother. The commander of the camp is the girl’s step father. He is the main antagonist in the film and is undoubtedly an extraordinarily vicious and cruel person. From an oppressive environment, the little girl moves to the fantasy world.

Here, she follows a dragonfly and is taken to witness worlds that are full of spellbinding enchantment. Ofeila then meets a type of faun (a goatish god ling pan). He tells her that she is destined to be the successor of the whole kingdom. However, she had to complete three tasks for her to meet her family and stay in the real world. The little girl finds herself torn between the real world and the fantasy world (Gill & Roy, 2010 p45). The film employs the cunning use of imagery in the plot development.

In the film, it is noticed that Ofelia experiences the presence of monsters in both the fantasy world and the real world. One compelling reason to watch films by Guillermo is excellent acting. This film is a superb example of a film with talented actors, who play their roles significantly well. The role of Ofelia is well played by actress Ivana Baquero as she experiences her ordeal in both the fantasy and the real worlds. . The film is exceptionally mature since it is a majestic and dark piece of fantasy that is filled with satyrs, fairies and toads (Guillermo, 2006 p2).

When viewing the bloody aftermath of the Spanish war from a waist-high vantage point of his heroine child Ofelia, the director splits the action in the film between the two worlds; fantasy and reality. The film is made astounding through the vision of the director. This is because the doodles of his sketchbook are well crafted by the production team to bring to life the haunted forests, the subterranean worlds, and the giant toads. Very fantasy moment in the film drips with its significance (Guillermo, 2006 p3).

Pan’s world may be one of dark fantasy, but the fantasy world is not near disturbing than the world that Ofelia is trying to escape from. In the real world, her father holds court. He rules his military post with clinical and vicious violence as he tries his very best to rid the country of all the guerrillas left. He plays the role of a true monster in the film, as a fascist ogre that is in clad to the domination of Franco’s regime. The director scores a veritable coup when he sets his mythical beasts alongside the portrait of evil possessed by Lopez.

He dissects the horror that is associated with fascism under the disguise of a fantasy flick (Moscowitz, 2009 p67). This film is a fantasy/horror cinema that is molded around a core of politics. Del Toro’s trademark of visual fair gets its chance to shine from this film. The tale is rendered so well on the screen that the subtitles are barely needed. Every actor excels in their role, and this makes the film compelling from the beginning to the end. The movie does not miss