Pan's Labyrinth Fairy Tale

Words: 1589
Pages: 7

The movie Pan’s Labyrinth presents an interesting mix of realities through the story of Ofelia’s escape from the war around her into a fantasy world where she can become a princess after completing three tasks. This movie can seem peculiar because the fantasy world that Ofelia escapes into is supposedly a fairytale, but this fairytale is filled with grim terrors and life threatening tasks which oppose the typically friendly lightheaded story of a “fairytale.” These fairytales also invite viewers to questions reality as there is no definite answer between what is “real” and “fantasy” for there is never a moment that clearly shows viewers that Ofelia’s fairytales are truly fantasy. These peculiarities create a space where viewers are forced …show more content…
In fairytales, a magical creature like a faun may appear to help the main character, but the Faun in Pan’s Labyrinth appears to be slightly monstrous when he first appears. His appearance includes long thin fingers, large horn, and white eyes. The Faun also looks more goat and mystical with his exaggerated features than human. These qualities make the Faun seem questionable from the beginning instead of a trustworthy guide for the main character. Despite this, the Faun helps Ofelia throughout the movie. He offers Ofelia tips for completing her tasks, and he offers her the mandrake root to help heal her mother. Only his appearance and the words of Mercedes are presented to make viewers question his motives until the end when he asks Ofelia to harm her baby brother. The Faun appears to be in the movie to make viewers question the “never question a book by its cover” saying as well as the warning to be wary of what others say about other people. All the humans in the movie appear to be normal and possibly scary but not evil until they do something horrible, but the Faun is automatically seen as a possible evil creature because of his