8.5 | / 10 |
Users | 4.6 | |
Reviewer | 4.5 | |
Overall | 4.5 |
In the aftermath of the Spanish Civil War, Ofelia and her ailing mother arrive at the post of her mother’s new husband, a sadistic army officer, in the Spanish countryside. As Ofelia’s mother lies immobilized in anticipation of her forthcoming child, and her high-ranking stepfather attempts to fulfill his orders of crushing a nearby guerrilla uprising, the young girl ventures into an elaborate stone labyrinth presided over by the mythical faun Pan. Convinced by Pan that she is a legendary lost princess, Ofelia sets off on a quest to complete three dangerous tasks and reclaim her kingdom and immortality.
Starring: Ariadna Gil, Ivana Baquero, Sergi López, Maribel Verdú, Doug JonesDrama | 100% |
Period | 69% |
Foreign | 57% |
Surreal | 56% |
Thriller | 49% |
Imaginary | 32% |
Horror | 18% |
Fantasy | Insignificant |
Video codec: VC-1
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.85:1
Spanish: DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1
English, English SDH, Spanish
50GB Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region free
Movie | 5.0 | |
Video | 4.5 | |
Audio | 4.5 | |
Extras | 4.0 | |
Overall | 4.5 |
Guillermo del Toro's Pan's Labyrinth (Actually, "the faun's labyrinth" from the Spanish) is one of
those movies I'd call perfect. It's a fantasy movie, a realistic movie, it's a children's movie, an
adult movie, a psychological thriller, a movie about war and a fairy tale, a horror movie, a
beautiful movie. Gorgeously photographed, powerfully disturbing, this is one of those movies that
to me, achieves what movies should do: Tell a story and suck you in into their world as most no
other art form can. But this movie is not for everybody. Many audiences, having been attracted
by the promotion for it showing the fairy tale aspects, would end up finding themselves taken
from behind and propelled into a nightmare world that was far too real and upsetting. You see,
the best way to describe this movie to an unsuspecting patron would be to say Schindler's List
meets the Bridge to
Terabithia.
The movie deals with the story of a little girl who finds herself in the middle of a real life
nightmare while seeking a dreamy and heavenly world. The story is set in northern Spain as the
War in the rest of Europe was about to end. Spain had had a 3 year civil war that when seen in
context was like the prelude or prequel to the World War that would immediately envelope the
rest of Europe just after the fascist forces of Francisco Franco came to power in Spain in 1939.
Franco was an ally of Adolph Hitler (Germany's Air Forces had given air support to his campaign)
but he wisely kept "out" of the action in Europe, consolidating his rule, and thus smartly
ensuring his would be the only surviving fascist regime after WWII ended. In such days thus
starts the movie's story in which the defeated Republican followers live in a fascist Spain waiting
for the War in Europe to end and wondering if the defeat of Hitler and Mussolini would help
change things, because, whereas the rest of Europe is being liberated and the Nazi nightmare
being swept away, in Spain, the Fascists actually had won and they managed to stay. It is a
world as if the Germans, instead of the Allies, had won WWII and turned it's practices against
themselves. And into this world young Ofelia (Ivana Baquero) falls, as she finds her widowed
mother marrying a Franco's army captain, carrying his unborn (and extremely expected by him)
child, and relocating to the enclave in the hills that he commands trying to squash any
remaining pockets of republican "up-risers".
There are such things.
Pan's Labyrinth is presented in 1.85 widescreen with a VC-1 transfer that
every
time I checked was running at about 18 Mb/s.
So how does the transfer compare to the 35mm presentation I saw? Well New Line's Blu-ray is
assuredly clearer, contrastier, more colorful, and solid that the subtitled film print. The clarity,
specially in the night scenes and underground in the faun's lair is impressive. I saw things,
details, for example, in the faun's "costume" that I didn't see in the theater. Specially pleasing
was to see aspects of his eyes that were sharp, liquid and more vivid that I hadn't noticed
previously. If the dark shots look so good, the full-daylight shots, like the one where the car
caravan arrives, look almost hyper-real: Vidal's skin detail when we first see him impatiently
waiting for the mother carrying his child to arrive is unnerving. With the heightened clarity his
beady calculating eyes seem more malignant and disturbing specially when he smirks. The
colors be it golden oranges or night blues and greens are solid and sometimes emboldened, the
red blood much stronger than I saw on the theatrical print. There's almost no grain to be found.
To those that like their Blu-rays to have no grain, the transfer will look perfect and be most
satisfying. Apparently some grain scrubbing has been done for this transfer and it does give the
film a different feel than the theatrical presentation I saw. Purist might not be pleased, but
there's no denying , the lack of grain gives the film a different look, more immediate, more in
your face, than the slightly grainy faded look I saw on the theater screen. The theatrical was
more mystic, more dreamlike. The Blu-ray is more visceral. Instead of having the impression of
seeing something filmed long ago, it feels more like watching something happening now. Does
this change the movie? Maybe. I'd think first time viewers might cringe a little more from the
realism of the BD. And at the same time the faun and magical creatures look a little bit more real
than something coming out from a shadow.
As a purist myself I like the grain to be preserved,
specially if I worry that the image might lose sharpness in the process, but as this is a 1.85 film
, with more than 1000 vertical lines, and I watch it at the same 2PH vertical image height
viewing distance that I watch 800 pixel Scope BD movies and movies at the theater, there's still
enough sharpness to present a good image. In fact the BD, as I've said is sharper than in the
theater, while the theater has a softer, less hard edged image with maybe a little more detail
and the grain. Surprisingly you can see on one of the trailers more grain which will give you an
idea of how a different transfer would look. Those who watch at farther viewing distances than
me (like 3 PH or 4) they will have to admit the current BD has an impressive clean colorful
image.
Talking about color, Guillermo mentions how precisely the color palette of this film was planned,
how the real world was given cold and grey colors and how the fantasy world was warm and red
and golden, till they intersected at the end of the film, or how the faun's surroundings had moss
greens. Well as I've mentioned, the Blu-ray transfer has some very dense colors, and I don't
know if it's
director approved, but sometimes what he's describing in the commentary doesn't exactly match
what is on the screen on the areas he's talking about, while it matches more with the film I saw
in the theater. On my first time viewing of the BD I found the "real world" exterior scenes more
colorful, not the "grey" and muted he mentions, or in the interiors bathed in a golden light,
particularly the orange tones in the actors skin colors in those scenes, where the orange color
was so strong, they looked more like they've been sunning in Benidorm or Marbella than the
normally pale skin tones of those living in northern Spain. The night scenes in the rain also
looked more intensely blue. I asked one of my reviewer companions who saw the movie with me
in the theater about this and we agreed on that. Sometimes, it seemed that some of the colors
on the images of the trailer that I mentioned before appear to be more in tune (paler/greyed real
life, golden fantasy, blue/green filtered moss, etc) with what Guillermo describes. I do know that
when transferring from an original element the colors can be purer than in the duped subtitled
print elements used in exhibition.
The movie has a single DTS HD master Audio 7.1 soundtrack and it's in the original Spanish
language. (There's options in the set up menu for subtitles in English, English SDH, español, or
none. The translation is a smidgen tamer than what's on the soundtrack). Altho I didn't get to
listen to the HD part of the audio, even on the core DTS the movie sounded great and the mix
intricate. Much more directional and enveloping that what I experienced on the theater.
Compared to the Blu-ray's soundtrack, the theater might as well been blaring in mono. Be it
swishes of fairies, whooshing left and right, or delicate insect noises, or hypnotic lullabies that
might haunt you later, you could hear lots of detail in the mix, accompanied by music (Javier
Navarrete) that
evokes a profound melancholy. There's also couple of scary woofer workouts when something
unmentionable was banging around which kind of made me jump, I did not jump on the theater
in fact I barely heard anything like that there, which is probably why I jumped.
Vidal's sweet as hell personality from his voice comes clear as poison from a vial.
One
discrepancy that bugged me a little, in a particular scene which everybody that's seen the movie
will
remember, (and those that haven't yet will wish they didn't), the sound was clearer and you
could hear every noise like cracking eggs next to you all too well, but the bass thumping that
made you not forget about it, gave me the impression of being tamer in the mix in relation.
Maybe it was that my speakers may have clearer sound. But seemed to me that when I heard
the commentary track in that same scene the thumping was more prominent. In any case the
sounds in the scene will make you wish there wasn't any sound at all ;)
The BD comes with a leaflet promoting Juan Antonio Bayona's The Orphanage.
The Menu is the usual loop of scenes, in this case sepia toned, accompanied by the
lullaby that
will follow you for a week if you don't go into the movie immediately.
You can start the movie with an Introduction by Guillermo del Toro or without it. I
recommend
you watch the introduction at least once because it's funny.
You can do that while watching the Enhanced Visual Commentary if you please, as
the
introduction is included as part of the Picture In Picture. The Enhanced Visual Commentary
consists of Guillermo talking about various aspects of the film and sometimes some special
effects, storyboards, drawings, props or other cast and crew showing up in a small 16:9 window
as usual. Most if not all can be found in the separate Audio Commentary or the featurettes, Pip
features don't get me excited much as I prefer to watch the movie and featurettes about it,
separate, not simultaneously (*Smiles like Guillermo here) but if you prefer watching it like this
well you have the option.
Then there's the Audio Commentary (in stereo DTS) by Guillermo del Toro with lots of
interesting
details, and he talks in a relaxed warm voice which makes you fell like you're having a
conversation with him over a coffee or wine which is nice because it's an intelligent discourse
about all the aspects about he came to develop and realize the story, the visuals and the whole
movie itself. If you like the movie it's a great supplement to savor. My only thing with it is as I
said earlier, he may been a little too literal in saying this is what's happening to Ofelia which (to
me) takes out a little of the magic of the movie (*smiles like Guillermo here ;))
There are 4 featurettes:
The Power of Myth (14+ minutes) where the director explains many of the concepts
behind the
myths and the iconic characters and their interacting relationships with clips from the movie
and some drawings.
The Faun and the Fairies (30+ minutes). Here the director the cast and some of the
creature
SFX crew describe and explain about the faun and other creatures and make-up SFXs. Lots of
video and images about the creature costumes and effects. Specially interesting the segment
with the actor that plays the faun and his costumes. (Partly in spanish but has english subtitles
in those sections)
The Color and The Shape (4+minutes)
Here the director talks abut the color palettes chosen for each world or segment and what they
mean. Shapes also play an important part in the settings
The Lullaby has 2 parts:
The Melody: Echoes of a Fairy Tale (3 minutes). Why and how the melody of the
lullaby was
reached at, and chosen
Mercedes' lullaby (2 minutes), The lullaby as it evolvend in different versions
(instruments,
hummed, etc), played over a set of stills.
All of these featurettes are in 480 x 720 MPEG-2 video and DTS stereo
One of the most interesting supplements is the Director's Notebook
which contains kind of a scrapbook, annotated diary, of the creation of the film.
The notebook pages are in 1080 and handwritten partly in Spanish and partly in English. If you
can understand the handwriting you could read them. There are almost 30 pages, and most
have interesting drawings, some in color. Some pages have links that take you to video
segments related to the subjects on the page when you select them with the remote.
Also offered are about 10 minutes of Storyboard Comparisons to Film. The segments
are:
Ofelia Enters The Labyrinth,
Ofelia, The Fig Tree and The Giant Toad,
Ofelia's Death, and
Death Of The Doctor (This last one seemed to have very little storyboards on it, but I
still found it
interesting as the color is more muted than on the movie transfer itself)
The storyboards + film are presented in 480 x 720 Mpeg-2
There's a 1 minute SFX Plate Comparison with Ofelia following the fairy in the finished
film and
Guillermo carrying it on a stick on the unfinished SFx segment.
Presented in 1080, there are more than 70 still images of photos and drawings of creatures and
props, about 150 of the sets, and nearly 200 photos on the set and of the SFx creature work, in
the Gallery
There's a complete 50 minute Charlie Rose Show where directors Guillermo del Toro,
Alfonso
Cuarón, and Alejandro González Iñárritu have a lively discussion of their films, how they started
and their creative processes. In 480 x 720 mpeg-2
Comics includes four semi-animated brief 1080p segments of background stories on
The Giant
Toad, The Fairies, the Faun, and The Pale Man.
And finally, Marketing Campaign includes 8 posters, the theatrical teaser, the
theatrical trailer,
which as I mentioned has more grain and a different palette, (all in 1080p), and seven TV spots
(in 480).
If you love fantasy, World War II movies, horror, or just well made films,
this is a great film to
watch. It's magical and at the same time disturbingly realistic,
reminding you this things happened
and such men exist. A great piece of Cinema, beautiful and evocative in imagery with originality
in
it's creatures, a disc with a sharp, all too clear bold image and appropriate enveloping sound, I
would recommend it heartily if you like films to be more than just entertainment. And after a
quiet
evening, watching it, pondering on Ofelia's destiny, while savoring a fine Porto, remember.
There
are such things.
El Laberinto del Fauno
2006
2006
2006
2006
2015
1993
El espinazo del diablo
2001
2017
아가씨 / Ah-ga-ssi
2016
2015
2005
دختری در شب تنها به خانه میرود / Dokhtari dar šab tanhâ be xâne miravad
2014
2020
Körkarlen
1921
2019
The Secret of Marrowbone
2017
La belle et la bête
1946
30th Anniversary
1992
El espíritu de la colmena
1973
2011
2006
La piel que habito
2011
2013
2013