Exploring Pan's Labyrinth
Pan's Labyrinth is a beautifully layered surrealist film about fascist Spain in 1944. It is sorrowful, tragic and beautiful, yet magical and full of wonder. It is a disobedient fairy tale, if you will, as it does not follow the narrative structure set by Disney in his mainstream fairy tale adventures. Unlike the regular fairy tale, which are usually stripped of their darker original elements to become overprotective tales with a message in morality and current values, Guillermo Del Toro loves to depict the struggle between good and evil with a real-life horror twisted in.
I really enjoyed how reality and Ofelia's dream world bleed together in a way where the audience never gets a final answer on whether the her
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magical side of the film is merely a coping mechanism during a dark point in her life, symbolizing the state of her subconscious, or if it truly exists. For example, the Faun's head is carved into the banister in the Captain's mansion, subtly enforce the bleed from the fantasy world into the real one. Towards the end, Ofelia somehow manages to escape the locked room and sneak into Vidal's, which Mercedes saw a drawn outline of a door in. In addition to this, the flower blooming on the dead tree at the end of the film, the chalk on Vidal's desk and Ofelia's escape through a dead end of the labyrinth, reinforce that everything in the film that has occurred is in fact real. Everything is left as an open question as to whether is fantastic part was total fantasy or not. It constantly feels as if the film's different parts intrude on each other. For example Ofelia's scenes are filled with curves, circles and warm lights where as Vidal's scenes have a multitude of angles, straight lines and cold colours. This not only reinforces which character represents good and evil but they two different backgrounds gradually merge together more and more as the film progresses, ergo instead of two worlds fighting against one another it appears that they are becoming one. This is similar to how a persons mind works between the dark and light subconscious thoughts, where often they fight against one another but are also apart of one whole subconscious and almost complement each other in an eerie dream-like way. Characters in the real world are also connected to the fantasy realm.
The real villain in this story is Ofelia's stepfather, Captain Vidal, can be read as existing in both worlds as well, as the two real monsters; the Monstrous Toad and the Pale Man, can be seen as how a small child would view Vidal's evil actions. In contrast, Ofelia's mother is in a weak and frail state, due to her pregnancy and thus because of Vidal. The fig tree which Ofelia enters that houses the Monstrous Toad, has imagery similar to a woman's genitalia, resembling her mother's collapse as well as the sexual union between her mother and Vidal. Much like the toad, Vidal is the reason for her weakness due to his lustful and obsessive appetite for consumption, as he is an wicked step mother like authoritarian presence. To him, she is merely a vessel, or an object which contains his unborn son. Just as the tree once sheltered magical creatures, Ofelia's mother sheltered her. Furthermore, Ofelia defeats the toad by tricking it into eating magical grubs. This is a parallel to the end of the film when Ofelia laces Vidal's liquor class with her mother's medication, causing him to become nearly unconscious. Del Toro may be likening Fascism to that of an invasive species, leaving the captains fate as not merely fairy-tale justice but necessary eradication to a threat in the natural world. In addition to this, the Pale Man's dining room is the same as Vidal's, creating a parallel between the two characters. It is as if Ofelia sees Vidal as a monster who dines on the blood of the innocent. The table in the faerie world is filled with foods and treats showing the gluttony and indulgence of the monster, just as Vidal consumes copious amounts of drink, tobacco and food. The monsters appear to be representing not only Vidal's actions but his subconscious mind. Many of these similarities between the two worlds can be seen as a small child coping with the harsh realities of her
life. The ending was extremely poignant as it was utter tragedy softened by the wistful fantasy of happiness and closure. The hope provided by the Faun in Ofelia's dark life, shares a likeness to the Christian promise of heaven. Many people believe that Ofelia used this construct to deal with her own death at the end as she preferred to believe she was moving to a better place as supposed to dealing with the death itself, which is something multiple religions promote. It is also interesting that Ofelia's baby brother, who she has protected throughout the film, ends up in the arms of the most heroic character in Ofelia's real life, who was part of the resistance against Fascism in the same was that Ofelia resisted against Vidal. The message the audience is left with appears to be hope in resistance against greed, gluttony and Fascism.
The left door which they entered was a dead end. After sprinting a hundred yards, they ran into an enormous boulder that completely blocked their way.They could hear something breathing heavily which didn't sound human. Tyson pushed the boulder blocking the place where they could hear the heavy breathing and soon Annabeth realized they were in Alcatraz so she told the group about it.
The movie the Labyrinth tells a story about a group of unlikely heroes trying to make their way though a maze in order to defeat the Goblin King. The story starts out with the main character Sarah whom, without even realizing it, wishes her baby brother to be taken way by Jareth the Goblin King. He tells her that if she wants her brother back she will have to make her way through the labyrinth and to the castle beyond the Goblin City. She only has 13 hours to complete the seemingly impossible task or her little brother Toby will be turned into a goblin. While making her way through the twisted and endless maze Sarah runs into many weird characters. The first person she encounters is Hoggle a very untrustworthy dwarf whom is under the influence of Jareth. He is selfish and does things only if there is something for him to gain. He betrays Sarah many times throughout the movie, but in the end he proves himself to be more than a traitorous coward. Ludo is a yeti and despite looking vicious is a gentle and caring monster. Ludo also has the power to control rocks. Sir Didymis is a loudmouthed, but noble knight who displays his valor throughout the movie. The four heroes manage to fight their way through the perilous labyrinth. The Goblin King Jareth is defeated and Sarah’s brother Toby is saved. Though the characters in this movie seemed to be nothing more than ordinary, and if not odd, they fought their way through labyrinth and conquered an entire army of evil goblins and their king. (Labyrinth 1986)
Primo Levi once said, " Human memory is a marvelous but fallacious instrument. The memories which lie within us are not carved in stone; not only do they tend to become erased as the years go by, but often they change, or even increase by incorporating extraneous features.." The memory of a human being is a fascinating matter, but it is not something that stays with us forever. Memories will often change or multiply with unnecessary information, but they are what define you as you.
Many other characters alter his viewpoint of the world. Some of these characters die, one is a murderer, and another introduces him to local myths. The heroine in Pan’s Labyrinth is Ofelia, a girl trapped in the middle of a revolution and escapes into a world of fairytales through books and imagination. Ofelia’s mother, Carmen, is pregnant and very sick. Under the influence of her husband, she encourages her daughter to stop reading childhood fantasies and to obey her new husband....
Pan’s Labyrinth (2006) written and directed by Guillermo del Toro is a dark fantasy film that uses fantasy and inspired true events of the after effects of the Spanish Civil War to create a symbolic parable that was influenced by fairy tales and myths. Even though this film is explicitly about the times during Franco it is also a film that can speak for any time period, past, present, and future. Through the use of phantasmagorical elements in the fantasy sequences del Toro uses doubling to reinforce the horrific events that have and can happen again in reality. The film takes place five years after the Spanish Civil War during Francisco Franco’s reign of terror. The story focuses on Ofelia (Ivana Baquero) as well as Ofelia’s evil stepfather, Captain Vidal (Sergi Lopez). Both characters represent something bigger than they actually are; Ofelia is seen to represent Spain and the antifascists whereas Captain Vidal represents Franco and fascism. Ofelia has to complete three daunting tasks given to her by the Faun (Doug Jones) that is said to reunite her with her family, the King and Queen of the Underworld. Del Toro uses doubling of the mythical realm with the ‘real world’ throughout the film that emphasizes the underlying meaning of the film. The film also follows the story of the anti-fascists rebels that are hidden amongst the trees and mountains. The character Mercedes (Maribel Verdu) is able to fool Captain Vidal for most of the film and help the rebels. It is not until the near end of the film where Captain Vidal realizes that Mercedes has been helping the rebels the entire time and it is due partly because of his misogyny that he is unable to see her as a threat to his cause.
It is not often that a strong and significant female character is introduced in a movie and/or book as the main character. Pan’s Labyrinth, though not the typical fairy tale, introduces the viewer to three females that prove controversial and necessary to the plot, which passes the Bechdel Test, designed to identify gender bias in the media. There is Carmen, the loving mother, Ofelia, the supposed princess/innocent girl, and then there is Mercedes, Captain Vidal’s maid and rebel spy. These three women show different portrayals, different characterizations, of how women should defy the gender bias in films.
Moreover, the Monster learns history and social systems from Felix’s instructions to Safie, and becomes a rational, deep thinking being. All these actions of the Monster apparently show that nurture outweighs the nature of the Monster. Also, the story of the De Lacey family draws the significance of how nurturing determines one’s personality and characteristics. “The patriarchal lives of my protectors caused these impressions to take a firm hold on my mind; perhaps, if my first introduction to humanity had been made by a young soldier, burning for glory and slaughter, I should have been imbued with different sensations.
“Fear me,love me,do as I say,I’ll be your slave” says Jareth The Goblin King from the Labyrinth. By using irony, the author of a story can create a surprising events. Authors use multiple kinds of irony to make stories more surprising.
Like all the fairy tale will have a happy ending. "Pan 's Labyrinth" is no exception, but this layer of happiness is immersed in the bitter and depressed in the deep. Too much blood and tears, too many memories, too much darkness. Ofelia finally found her parents, returned to the eternal sweet home, but not one can really happy together. A fairy tale is hope, is the dream, is the comfort, is the ideal country. "Pan 's Labyrinth" is such a fairy tale, Ofelia through the murky darkness of the labyrinth find her happiness, just as experienced the cruel history 's Spanish people. Guillermo applied a metaphor in the end. The end of the tragedy is the film 's surface cover, in essence, is the protagonist Ophelia 's comedy
The film Pan’s Labyrinth, has several common concepts with Joseph Campbell’s theory on heroes in Hero with a Thousand Faces. His theory emphasizes on tests that show their moral and basic instincts for the rite of passage to their threshold, in this case, the underworld. Campbell’s theory is a concept that surrounds an individual’s journey to heroism. This concept pertains to Ophelia due to her circumstances as a child who ventures out on thresholds, tests, and so forth. Campbell’s depiction relates to Ophelia as he describes the levels in which one must attain and accept as a female heroine. Furthermore, his theory exaggerates on the making of a hero to the resurrection in terms of physical and spiritual transformation. Ophelia’s character depicts a hero who has been resurrected as a human. Thus, she begins her journey to cross the threshold, “pass from the everyday world in the world of adventure,” (Campbell). There are many stages in the film that depicts Ophelia’s introduction to the stages of being a hero. More so, it focuses on tasks, which Ophelia must pass or fail in order to determine her role in the film; Princess of the Underworld or just a human soul. This is lead by the faun who simply reassures a place of ‘paradise’ for Ophelia only with her cooperation to listen and follow her morals.
In 1904 James Matthew Berrie wrote a book called Peter Pan and Wendy which was adapted into a play by Eric Stedman. Several decades later, it was turned into a Disney classic better known as Walt Disney’s Peter Pan. The movie adaptation was directed by Clyde Geronimi, Wilfred Jackson, and Hamilton Luske and was released in 1953. Even though the film was based off the play, it still has many differences compared to the original play script.
In the title “In This Strange Labyrinth”, the labyrinth is symbolic of love’s maze-like qualities. The speaker describes her predicament by saying, “In this strange Labyrinth how shall I turn/Ways are on all sides” (1-2). A different path on every side surrounds her, and every way seems to be the wrong way. She is confused about which way she should go. Wroth is conveying the theme of love in a decidedly negative way, for according to myth, the Labyrinth was where the Minotaur lived and before it’s demise, death was evident for all visitors of the maze. The speaker is struggling with every choice she may make and cannot rest or find aid until she finds the best way: “Go forward, or stand still, or back retire;/ I must these doubts endure without allay/ Or help, but travail find for my best hire” (10-11). She has several choices and each one is confusing and leaves her feeling helpless.
The monster portrays more humanistic qualities than his creator as he portrays his compassion, intelligence and feelings throughout the novel. Instead of wreaking havoc on his neighbors, ambushing them for food and shelter, the monster decides to live in secrecy in the De Laceys’ shadow to observe their ways. The monster demonstrates compassion as he refrains from stealing the De Lacey’s food when he realizes that the family suffers from poverty. In this sense, he sacrifices an easy dinner to scavenge for himself. He also expresses intellectual thought in his strategy to advance his knowledge of the English language by observing Felix’s lessons to his Arabian lover, Safie. The monster recalls to Dr. Frankenstein that, “… I found, by the frequent recurrence of some sound which the stranger repeated after them, th...
...haracteristics, but in the incongruity of this "mortal grossness", the grotesque, earthy and plain-speaking Bottom, and the beautiful, airy, eloquent and possibly dangerous fairy queen. The "bank whereon the wild thyme blows" and the beautiful fairy song "Philomel with lullaby", as well as the dainty morsels offered by Titania's servants - it is difficult to imagine a more alien creature to all this, than Bottom. We laugh at his ineptitude, at the incongruity of the situation, at the blatant illustration of the gulf between "reason and love"; we are disturbed by the indignity Titania undergoes, alarmed by the danger Bottom may be in, but reassured by his taking it in his stride.
Once Upon a Time is a television series aired on ABC, a company owned by Disney’s conglomerate. With this said, it is important to acknowledge Disney’s own adaptation of Disney characters into a series. Once Upon a Time mentions various Disney characters; however, for the purpose of this assignment I will focus on three characters and their origination, to analyze and contrast to this adaptation. The characters to be analyzed are Peter Pan, Belle, and Mulan. While analyzing these characters, we’ll visualize how each character’s personality changes, as the medium of adaptation changes. In the television series there is not only a change in character, but there is a change in setting, garments, language, tone, and a target audience. During this