Pan's Labyrinth

The story of Pan's Labyrinth has a rich backround. Guillermo del Toro is the Director and Writer of the film. The story he came up with is a combination of old spanish myths and an actual civil war that happened in Spain. The name Pan refers to the mythoogical greek god, Pan. Guillermo del Toro got his ideas from a notebook he had been keeping for twenty years. In his notebooks he would write down all kinds of ideas, drawings and plotlines. In Del Toro's original plot, he tells a story of a pregnant women who falls in love with a faun. The final story ended up being very different. The pregnant women and the faun stay in the story, but the focus and main charater is a young daughter of the pregnant women awaiting the arival of her baby brother. A fairy comes to the daughter, Ofelia at night and leads her down to an old labyrinth in the woods. Here, Ofelia meets the faun, Pan. The mysterious Pan explains to her that she is a princess who was destined to return here to help restore the lives of those in the underworld. Pan then tells her how she must complete multiple tasks, using magic to do this. Ofelia meets the challenge and goes through many difficult mini journeys during the night. One encounter with a gaint toad, another with a monster from under the floors.
Throughout her quest she also must attempt to deal with a father he constantly abuses Ofelia and her mother. Even while Ofelia's mother is extremly sick and pregnant with her little brother. The faun Pan, tries to help Ofelia to overcome the troubles at their home by giving her a plant to put under her mothers bed. Each night Ofelia puts two drops of blood into the plant to keep the plant healthy. The magic plant works a miracle and mothers fever goes way down and things are looking up. But then her father finds the plant. Ofelia tries to tell her parents that that plant is the reason for mothers huge turn around, but they dont want her to believe in magic, so they throw the plant into the fire. As soon as the pant goes in you hear a shreek from the flames, and almost instantly after that, her mother drops to the ground, holding her baby in pain. Shortly after the boy is born, but Ofelia's mother does not make it. With this setback, Ofelia strives to keep her brother to have some type of family. She brings him to the labyrinth and there she is faced with her final task. Ultimatly she has to decide how important her family is. If she gives up her borther's life, she will be imortal. She chooses to save him and that ultimatly proves her of being the princess of the underworld.

This story is very interesting for many reasons; the amazing cinematography and music add alot to the film, but most of all the script is unbeatable. The way Del Toro contrasts the real life events, the fantasy story during night and day is so interesting to watch. The way you as the viewer know whatis happenening and are cheering on young Ofelia. Overall it is a great film to think about, especially if you know about the history behind it first.