Pan's Labyrinth

Pan's Labyrinth is the story of a little girl, Ofelia who accepts a quest in order to become the rightful princess that she should be. Her and her mother move in with an evil man, Vidal in the middle of a big war in Spain. One day Ofelia wanders off and finds a labyrinth where she meets a faun and some fairies. The faun gives her three tasks to complete that will test her to see if she will be able to serve as princess of this magical other world. She needs to complete these tasks before the full moon, but she runs into some obstacles such as her pregnant mother and the evil Vidal who is leading the big war. The war is a whole different story that conflicts a little with Ofelia and her quest, but for the most part is not related. This part deals with the conflict of Vidal and Mercedes, who works for Vidal but is really undercover for the people Vidal is fighting. When Ofilia's mother dies Mercedes is the one who takes care of her. Carmen, Ofilia's mother was pregnant with her and Vidal's son and they are able to save the son before she dies. Vidal is obsessed with having his son and doesn't care about anyone else. It is the son who in the end of the film ties in the war segment and Ofelia's quest to complete her tasks. This was a great movie with some amazing imagery and imagination from the director and other creators of the film.
The director of the film is Guillermo Del Toro. He is very interested in fairy tales and has a great imagination. All of the imagery and characters are amazing in this film. They are fairytale but not the kind that you would normally think of. They have a very dark feel to them, from the giant frog to the evil monster with eyes in his hands. Even the faun who is good and helps Ofelia looks extremely dark and evil. Guillermo's imagination was influence by fairytale authors Arthur Rackham, Kay Nielson, and Edmund Dulac. It is with these author's illustrations and his own imagination that Del Toro was able to create these amazing fairytale creatures.
Along with having a great director this film also had some great actors. Sergi Lopez played the villain, Vidal who was a horrible and very violent man. Sergi captured Vidal's controlling and evil personality perfectly making him seem like a very real person. Lopez loves acting and has done it all of his life. He was born in Vilamova which is a small village near Barcelona. He had his own acting troupe there and then went on to study acting even more in Paris. It was there that he started his career with a role in La Petite Amie D'Antonio. As he continued acting he became known to play dark roles as the villain of the film. He acted in many films that all led up to his greatest role of Vidal the villain. Another very interesting actor in this film is Doug Jones. He played the role of the faun in Pan's Labyrinth and did so in a different way. Doug was born in 1960 in Indianapolis, IN. He studied acting and miming at Ball State university in Indiana. He played in many other movies before Pan's Labyrinth, most notably in Batman Returns. To play the role of the faun he need only to mime him. Jones just moved his body while a puppeteer moved his head. These two great actors really helped make the film very interesting and real.
Pan's Labyrinth is a very creative and interesting film. Even though it is in Spanish you can understand and enjoy its creative plot. The great director Guillermo Del Toro really helped make this fairytale like movie into an amazing work of art. Also the great actors contributed in helping to make the story come to life. Pan's Labyrinth was an amazing film and if you haven't seen it I would recommend watching it right away.