Reflection Of The Pan's Labyrinth

Walls and Mirrors: Mexican Americans, Mexican Immigrants, and the Politics of Ethnicity. By David G Gutiérrez. (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1995).

In her article, “Cinderella: Not So Morally Superior,” Elisabeth Panttaja illustrates the important role of parents in a childhood. She talks about the importance the mother plays in all versions of Cinderella as well as evidence showing what lack of parenthood does to children. Panttaja claims by way of the Grimms Brothers version of Cinderella and how each mother wants to guarantee a bright and happy future for their daughters by marrying them off to the prince. The similarities between the wanting of Cinderella and the stepsisters married- and doing anything to get it- contradicts the idea that Cinderella and her mother were morally superior, or different at all, from the stepmother and sisters.

The director Guillero Del Torro uses many motifs and parallels in his film Pan's Labyrinth. The most obvious parallel in the film is the parallel between the real world and the fantasy world of the character Ofelia. Both worlds are filled with danger. At any second in both of these worlds your life could be lost. Del Torro separates the real world from the fantasy world with many visual motifs.

    The movie follows a kindly grandfather sitting down with his sick grandson and reading him a story. The story is one that has been passed down from father to son for generations. As the grandfather reads the story, the action comes alive. The story is a classic tale of love and adventure as the beautiful Buttercup, engaged to the foul Prince Humperdinck, is kidnapped and held against her will in order to start a war. It is up to Westley (her once believed dead love, now returned as the Dread Pirate Roberts) to save her. On the way he meets a thief and his hired helpers, an accomplished swordsman and a huge, powerful giant, both of whom become Westley's companions in his quest.

Pan’s Labyrinth, originally titled El laberinto del fauno, was published in 2006 by the Spanish director Guillermo del Toro. The story is set in the year 1944, in the country-side of a post-Civil War Spain. A young and imaginative girl named Ofelia, played by Ivana Baquero, travels with her pregnant mother, Carmen Vidal, who is very ill; in order to meet and live with her stepfather, a cruel and sadistic man named Capitan Vidal (Sergi Lopez). During the first night of their stay, Ofelia meets a fairy that leads her to a pit in the center of a labyrinth where they soon meet a faun (Doug Jones). The faun tells Ofelia that she is a princess from a faerie kingdom

Award-winning filmmaker Guillermo Del Toro delivers a unique, richly imagined epic with Pan’s Labyrinth released in 2006, a gothic fairy tale set against the postwar repression of Franco's Spain. Del Toro's sixth and most ambitious film, Pan’s Labyrinth harnesses the formal characteristics of classic folklore to a 20th Century period. Del Toro portrays a child as the key character, to communicate that children minds are not cemented. Children avoid reality through the subconscious imagination which is untainted by a grown-up person, so through a point of an innocent child more is captured. The film showcases what the imagination can do as a means of escape to comfort the physical trials one goes through in

Adults realize that despite Cinderella’s charismatic traits, Cinderella’s behaviour in Perrault’s tale is not acceptable for today’s modern western woman.

It was once said that “It does not do to dwell on dreams and forget to live”. Though this quote originally comes from a children’s book, the idea of fantasy being used to escape from a harsh reality is something found in numerous fictional works. The film Pan’s Labyrinth and the novel The Little Friend by Donna Tartt both incorporate the theme of escapism through fantasy as a method of coping with tragedy and show, through this theme, both the positive side of fantasy as well as the darker side.

When you see Pan’s Labyrinth starring Ivana Baquero as Ofelia and Sergi Lopez as Captain Vidal, prepare to take your emotions for a ride. As the movie is a fantasy/drama film set in Spain of 1944, during the civil war. Yet, it still captivates its audiences with its selection of an unconventional fairytale. While, keeping some of the same elements such as a princess and fairies of a traditional fairytale. Not to mention the sudden dark twists and turns of a ruthless stepfather, heartbreaking losses, and the horrifying unseemly creatures which the legendary lost princess Ofelia must prevail. While, taking on an expedition to completing three dangerous tasks.

Captain Vidal is Ofelia’s tyrannical stepfather who expects unquestioning obedience from her as well as everyone else. Since Ofelia lacks a mother figure, she establishes an attachment to Mercedes, the housekeeper and revolutionary spy. Mercedes in turn mothers Ofelia. Ofelia is most influenced by a faun, a mythical creature of the earth. This creature introduces her to natural magic, helps her by teaching her how to help heal her mother, and gives advice. He also tells her about the magical world that Ofelia is a part of via a past life and can join again.

Guillermo Del Toro’s Pan’s Labyrinth tells the story of Ofelia who experiences magical encounters in this fantasy. One night, a fairy leads her into a hidden labyrinth where she meets a faun who tells her that she is a lost princess. He assigns her three dangerous tasks to prove herself and to claim immortality alongside her father. Meanwhile, her step-father, the captain of a merciless, violent army in fascist Spain attempts to stop a guerrilla uprising. Ofelia struggles to meet the demands of the faun before time runs out. Through this quest, she interacts with creatures and challenges that create a monstrous environment.

Setting is one of the vital elements of fiction. A work can only be fully approached if it is first based on its setting, which guides the development of the work. For “Pan’s labyrinth”, an outstanding cinema work rich in symbols, details and meaning, it is even more essential for us to take the underlying context into serious consideration

Pan’s Labyrinth shows two worlds. The real world and the fantasy world created by Ofelia’s desire to escape the real world. Monsters are shown in the movie to have a deeper connection to Ofelia and how she sees reality in her fantasy world. The visions that she sees are either threats or closure from the suffering in the real world that she faces. Every creature has a significant meaning such as the toad, the fairies, and the pale man. The toad represents her brother, the fairies represent innocence and childhood, and the pale man represents the Captain as well as the aspects of growing older.

CRACK THUD ¨Throw him in the labyrinth.¨ said the dark voice, And then darkness fell over my memory obliterating it. Ouch geez, Where am I? Who am I? While I was sitting up I rubbed the back of my head to ease some pain from it and a painful flash of my memory returned briefly I remembered A storm, a cursed ruby, and a gang of thieves.

In this movie we follow common thief named Aladdin who wants a better life for himself and ultimately falls in love with the princess. We learn about his backstory and how he was abandoned as a child and left for the streets. Since then he has made a life for himself along with his companion, a monkey named Abu. We also learn about the princess Jasmine and how she isn’t happy living in the palace so she goes to the streets and there she meets Aladdin. Shortly into the movie Aladdin is helping out Jafar and is taken down and eventually stranded in ‘The Cave of Wonders’ where he stumbles upon a lamp. However this is no ordinary lamp, there is a genie bound to it who appears when someone rubs his lamp they summon the “genie of the lamp”. Aladdin then begins his journey to the top of the food chain with the help of genie who turns him into a prince. Aladdin then competes for Jasmines heart but is turned away when she learns the truth. Jafar then tries to take over Acraba and begins to control the Sultan with magic. He then tries to have Aladdin killed but fails when genie saves his life. The Sultan then discovers, thanks to Aladdin, that Jafar was controlling him and the Sultan has him arrested. The climax of the movie, the battle between Jafar and Aladdin, happens and in the end Aladdin wins and earns Jasmines love.