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Audio Format: DD 5.1 Video Format: Widescreen 1.78:1 (Anamorphic) Languages: Spanish Subtitles: English Region Code: 2, PAL Year Made: 2006 Running Time: 118
Please note: Please verify that PAL formatted DVD will play on your machine prior to purchasing this title. (PAL TV and DVD players required.)
 Ofelia's (Ivana Baquero) mother, Carmen (Ariadna Gil), tells her young daughter that she's getting too old for the fairytales she loves so much. But for Ofelia, living in the uncertainty of 1944 Spain and suspicious of her new stepfather, Captain Vidal (Sergi Lopez), her books are more than just stories. They are a refuge from the grim everyday world, and as she and Carmen move to a remote military outpost to live with the captain, the books are a portal to her escape.
With Pan's Labyrinth, Mexican filmmaker Guillermo Del Toro has created a kind of companion piece to his excellent and eerie 2001 ghost story, The Devil's Backbone. It's a fairytale itself, and also a terrifying story of a child caught in circumstances beyond her control. And for Del Toro, it's simply a glorious achievement, an irresistible and affecting mixture of horror, fantasy, history, and drama.
In the rest of Europe, World War II rages on, while in Spain the fascist Generalissimo Francisco Franco's troops fight remnants of Republican resistance left over from the country's civil war. And fighting the resistance is where Captain Vidal comes in. A cruel man who does not think twice about ordering or committing acts of barbarity, he is ruthlessly efficient, although lately a rebel faction in the hills surrounding the fortress has proven surprisingly impervious to capture.
Carmen is ill from complications to her pregnancy, but her husband has insisted that she join him while they await the birth of what he is convinced will be their son. He and his stepdaughter have little use for one another. So when fairies come for Ofelia one night and lead her through the labyrinth at the back of the house, she welcomes the respite. And when Pan (Doug Jones), the faun she meets there, tells her that she is really a princess who can rejoin her family at the completion of certain tasks, she is eager to believe him.
 And so the story unfolds, much like a Grimm's fairytale as Ofelia seeks to find light and solace in the darkest places. Real life is hell on earth, as the rebels grow closer, sending the captain into ever escalating paroxysms of violence, and as Carmen grows sicker. But the assignments Pan devises for Ofelia are nearly as horrific as she comes across fantastic and frightening creatures. Sussing out Pan's motivation presents Ofelia with a puzzle in itself, as he can be sly, cajoling, threatening, or downright mean. Will following his counsel lead her to a happier place or push closer to the doom that seems sure to envelop her as long as Vidal remains part of her family?
Special Features:
Disc 1:
- Director??s Commentary
- Director??s Prologue (35 secs)
- Spanish Language Trailer (30 secs)
- UK Theatrical Trailer (1 min 30)
- International Trailers (2 mins)
Disc 2:
- The Power of the Myth featurette on DVD comics (20 mins)
- El Fauno Y Las Hadas featurette (32 mins)
- The Colour & The Shape featurette (4 mins)
- Director??s Notebook (20 mins)
- Storyboard Video prologue (26 secs)
- Notebook Video Prologue (33 secs)
- Storyboard / Thumbnail Comparisons
- Picture galleries
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