Second Pan's Labyrinth Critical Review

Hey, after viewing Del Toro's 'Pan's Labyrinth', which I throughly enjoyed, Im now back to post another critical review of the film, this time from Total Film.

The following review is from their website.

"In the aftermath of the Spanish Civil War, young Ofelia (Ivana Baquero) travels with her pregnant mother (Ariadna Gil) to stay with her new stepfather Captain Vidal (Sergi López). As Vidal hunts diehard anti-fascist rebels, Ofelia discovers a magical labyrinth in the forest and is given a series of tasks by mysterious faun Pan (Doug Jones)...
A young girl draws a magic chalk door on her bedroom wall and pushes it open. She steps into a banquet hall, where a slumbering monster sits at a table loaded with food. The Pale Man (for that is his name)doesn’t notice her; his deformed, domed head has no eyes, just a bloody mouth and two gaping nostrils. The little girl approaches, terrified but brave. Forgetting every warning, she steals a morsel of food. The Pale Man jerks awake, picking up his eyeballs from the plate in front of him. He inserts the peepers into the palms of his hands and chases her through the corridors...

Sometimes even adults need fairytales. Guillermo del Toro’s Pan’s Labyrinth is Grimm for grown-ups, its pantheon of monsters destined to send ankle-biters screaming back to playschool. It’s refreshingly mature, a dark and majestic piece of fantasy full of satyrs, toads and fairies more likely to shape-shift into praying mantises than Tinkerbell. Imagine Alice In Wonderland marinated in the bug/body horror of David Cronenberg, Spanish painter Goya (the gory picture Saturn Devours His Children is a touchstone) and del Toro’s favourite Victorian illustrator Arthur Rackham (Google away... it’s worth it).

A stark, disturbing fairy story for adults. Its provocative vision of the monsters of fascism and childhood packs chilling power."

Blimey, quite alot eh, however for those of you who wish to read on, as always click on the blog title.

Cheers
Alec