Pan's Labyrinth (2006) Rank 5 Reviews

Oregonian (Shawn Levy)

The film is impressively acted all around. ...read the complete Pan's Labyrinth movie review at Oregonian (Shawn Levy)

Seattle Post-Intelligencer (Sean Axmaker)

Like the folk tales from centuries past, Pan's Labyrinth is a dark odyssey with nightmarish visions and cruel threats, but coming through the sacrifice and suffering is the childlike belief in magic and imagination that for Del Toro represents the hope ...read the complete Pan's Labyrinth movie review at Seattle Post-Intelligencer (Sean Axmaker)

Orlando Weekly (Cole Haddon)

With Pan's Labyrinth , director Guillermo del Toro taps the same magical vein that made his Devil's Backbone so memorable. ...read the complete Pan's Labyrinth movie review at Orlando Weekly (Cole Haddon)

Austin Chronicle (Marjorie Baumgarten)

These creatures of the underworld are the fervid fabrications of del Toro's imagination: More than once they will catch you by surprise and make you gasp. ...read the complete Pan's Labyrinth movie review at Austin Chronicle (Marjorie Baumgarten)

Boston Globe (Wesley Morris)

Pan's Labyrinth is a transcendent work of art. ...read the complete Pan's Labyrinth movie review at Boston Globe (Wesley Morris)

Miami Herald (Rene Rodriguez)

It leaves you feeling exhilarated at the invigorating power a well-told story, no matter its subject, can have. If you like Harry Potter, you will love this movie. If you don't like Harry Potter, you will still love this movie. ...read the complete Pan's Labyrinth movie review at Miami Herald (Rene Rodriguez)

Philadelphia Inquirer (Carrie Rickey)

This is the breakthrough work of one of world cinema's most visionary artists. ...read the complete Pan's Labyrinth movie review at Philadelphia Inquirer (Carrie Rickey)

Washington Post (Ann Hornaday)

With this film, del Toro seems to have created his manifesto, a tour de force of cautionary zeal, humanism and magic. At this writing, Pan's Labyrinth is the best-reviewed film of 2006 listed on the movie review Web site Metacritic.com, and for a reason: ...read the complete Pan's Labyrinth movie review at Washington Post (Ann Hornaday)

MovieFreak.com (Sara M. Fetters)

In a year filled to the brim with magnificent visual achievements Pan's Labyrinth might be the most spectacular of the bunch. ...read the complete Pan's Labyrinth movie review at MovieFreak.com (Sara M. Fetters)

Mountain Xpress (Asheville, NC) (Ken Hanke)

Films this extraordinary don't come along every day -- or even every decade. ...read the complete Pan's Labyrinth movie review at Mountain Xpress (Asheville, NC) (Ken Hanke)

Chicago Sun-Times (Roger Ebert)

Guillermo del Toro's "Pan's Labyrinth" is one of the cinema's great fantasies, rich with darkness and wonder. It's a fairy tale of such potency and awesome beauty that it reconnects the adult imagination to the primal thrill and horror of the stories ...read the complete Pan's Labyrinth movie review at Chicago Sun-Times (Roger Ebert)

Denver Post (Lisa Kennedy)

Ofelia, you break our hearts. But you also restore our confidence in human decency. ...read the complete Pan's Labyrinth movie review at Denver Post (Lisa Kennedy)

Sun Publications (Chicago, IL) (Josh Larsen)

...a precious chance to feel the wonder and fear of childhood once again. ...read the complete Pan's Labyrinth movie review at Sun Publications (Chicago, IL) (Josh Larsen)

Killer Movie Reviews (Andrea Chase)

Ofelia (Ivana Baquero in a stunningly mature and measured performance) is a dreamy eleven-year-old with a stubborn streak, given to reading fairy tales and being protective of her heavily pregnant mother, Carmen (Adriana Gil). As the film opens they are ...read the complete Pan's Labyrinth movie review at Killer Movie Reviews (Andrea Chase)

Los Angeles CityBeat (Andy Klein)

...a startling, idiosyncratic combination of children's fantasy and brutal political realism that switches effortlessly from early Fascist-era Spain to the fairytale world of a young girl's imagination. ...read the complete Pan's Labyrinth movie review at Los Angeles CityBeat (Andy Klein)

FilmFocus.Co.UK (Joe Utichi)

By mixing the true terror of the Spanish Civil War with unbridled fantasy, del Toro challenges us to believe far more effectively than most. Ofelia might be the only one able to see the fairies and the faun, but as the war edges ever closer to her by way ...read the complete Pan's Labyrinth movie review at FilmFocus.Co.UK (Joe Utichi)

Reel.com

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 ...read the complete Pan's Labyrinth movie review at Reel.com

Flipside Movie Emporium (Rob Vaux)

Pan's Labyrinth is first and foremost a fairy tale, complete with wicked stepparents, challenging riddles, and clever little girls in way over their heads. Yet it approaches that equation from a supremely adult standpoint. Its closest relative is Neil ...read the complete Pan's Labyrinth movie review at Flipside Movie Emporium (Rob Vaux)

Worcester Telegram & Gazette (Daniel M. Kimmel)

Mexican filmmakers are having a good year, in whatever language they film... However with Pan's Labyrinth , Del Toro may have topped them all. ...read the complete Pan's Labyrinth movie review at Worcester Telegram & Gazette (Daniel M. Kimmel)

Cinematical (Jette Kernion)

A gorgeous film that ought to be seen on the largest screen possible -- try to catch it in a theater. ...read the complete Pan's Labyrinth movie review at Cinematical (Jette Kernion)

About.com (Marcy Dermansky)

Guillermo del Toro's vision has created a film that will last: an enduring fairytale that resonates and offers new interpretations with every viewing. ...read the complete Pan's Labyrinth movie review at About.com (Marcy Dermansky)

The Sydney Morning Herald

Horror is usually born from the unknown, but what about the horror of the known? The filming of Saddam Hussein's execution has become this kind of horror movie, a chilling mirror of what we're capable of. Pan's ...read the complete Pan's Labyrinth movie review at The Sydney Morning Herald

zBoneman Movie Reviews (Kevin Jones & Adam Mast)

Pan's Labyrinth is certainly dark, brooding, and tragic but it's also a thing of great, fragile beauty. ...read the complete Pan's Labyrinth movie review at zBoneman Movie Reviews (Kevin Jones & Adam Mast)

BBC Films

Mexican helmer Guillermo del Toro travelled to Spain to shoot his "transcendent" masterpiece Pan's Labyrinth. Hollywood would never have sanctioned such a dark fairytale that sees a young girl (Ivana Baquero) conjure a fantasy world to escape the horrors ...read the complete Pan's Labyrinth movie review at BBC Films

The Spinning Image (Graeme Clark)

There was a legend that the princess from a world of fantasy wanted so much to join the real world that she crossed over, with the consequence that she suffered and died for her trouble. But her father the king did not give up on her soul, which he ...read the complete Pan's Labyrinth movie review at The Spinning Image (Graeme Clark)

Empire Movies

Guillermo del Toro's "Pan's Labyrinth" is a film as beautiful and fantasy-filled as it is brutal and relentless. If Del Toro died tomorrow, this is the film that would stand as the director's legacy. This movie is Del Toro's business card to everyone in ...read the complete Pan's Labyrinth movie review at Empire Movies

Film Freak Central

Brutal and ignoble, the antithesis of romantic, the violence in Guillermo del Toro's Pan's Labyrinth slaps metal against flesh like the flat of a hand against a steel table. It's the only element of the picture that isn't lush, that isn't laden with the ...read the complete Pan's Labyrinth movie review at Film Freak Central

Empire (Kim Newman)

Dark, twisted and beautiful, this entwines fairy-tale fantasy with war-movie horror to startling effect. ...read the complete Pan's Labyrinth movie review at Empire (Kim Newman)

San Jose Mercury News (Bruce Newman)

MGM released ``The Wizard of Oz'' in 1939, just as an official armistice was being declared in the Spanish Civil War. Armed resistance to the fascist government continued for years in Spain (it melted away more quickly in Oz), and at the outset of ...read the complete Pan's Labyrinth movie review at San Jose Mercury News (Bruce Newman)

Chicago Reader (Jonathan Rosenbaum)

OVER THE PAST few years three highly talented and ambitious young Mexican film directors -- Alfonso Cuaron, Guillermo del Toro, and Alejandro Gonzalez IÃ±arritu -- have made their way into the American mainstream. All three seem to have managed this ...read the complete Pan's Labyrinth movie review at Chicago Reader (Jonathan Rosenbaum)

Pittsburgh Tribune-Review (Jolie Williamson)

In "Pan's Labyrinth," by Mexican director Guillermo del Toro, Ofelia (Ivana Baquero) travels to a rural military outpost in northern Spain as the fascists of Francisco Franco's regime attempt to smash the remnants of the Republican resistance. There, she ...read the complete Pan's Labyrinth movie review at Pittsburgh Tribune-Review (Jolie Williamson)

St. Louis Post-Dispatch

Set in Spain in 1944, the film uses the remnants of that country's civil war as the backdrop for a surreal allegory about family and fate. The dreamy Ofelia (Ivana Baquero) is on the verge of adolescence when her widowed mother, Carmen ( Ariadna Gil), ...read the complete Pan's Labyrinth movie review at St. Louis Post-Dispatch

Commercial Appeal (Memphis, TN) (John Beifuss)

Unlike many other popular fantasists, del Toro is brave and honest enough to acknowledge that if fantasy is a refuge, it's not necessarily a shield. ...read the complete Pan's Labyrinth movie review at Commercial Appeal (Memphis, TN) (John Beifuss)

Denver Rocky Mountain News (Robert Denerstein)

This backdrop of intrigue creates violent scenes that may have you turning away from the screen. Beautifully designed and full of its own strange poetry, Pan's Labyrinth is nonetheless not a children's movie. Take its 'R' rating seriously. ...read the complete Pan's Labyrinth movie review at Denver Rocky Mountain News (Robert Denerstein)

Minneapolis Star Tribune (Colin Covert)

Pan's Labyrinth is beautifully shot and designed, but it's the acting that makes it a remarkable emotional journey. ...read the complete Pan's Labyrinth movie review at Minneapolis Star Tribune (Colin Covert)

Entertainment Weekly (Lisa Schwarzbaum)

Like any great myth, Pan's Labyrinth encodes its messages through displays of magic. And like any good fairy tale, it is also embroidered with threads of death and loss. ...read the complete Pan's Labyrinth movie review at Entertainment Weekly (Lisa Schwarzbaum)

L.A. Daily News

Guillermo del Toro's "Pan's Labyrinth" is an adult fairy tale where fantasy and reality are indistinguishable and can be read either literally or as metaphor. But del Toro is very much pushing the "either" in the either/or equation, blurring the lines ...read the complete Pan's Labyrinth movie review at L.A. Daily News

Charlotte Observer (Lawrence Toppman)

We don't find out until the last scene how reality and fantasy intersect, when the meaning of the first shot of the film gets driven home. How many movies have you seen with a payoff like ...read the complete Pan's Labyrinth movie review at Charlotte Observer (Lawrence Toppman)

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

The most visually and viscerally virtuosic film of this new (and the previous ) year is director Guillermo del Toro's "Pan's Labyrinth," a breathtaking fable of perfectly interwoven history and fantasy. ...read the complete Pan's Labyrinth movie review at Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

FirstShowing.net (Alex Billington)

From the brilliant mind of Mexican director Guillermo del Toro comes his latest film, Pan's Labyrinth, a Spanish-language adult fairy tale that exudes excellence and vivid imagery in every last frame. Only del Toro's imagination can create such a ...read the complete Pan's Labyrinth movie review at FirstShowing.net (Alex Billington)

Baltimore Sun (Michael Sragow)

With a surgical saw instead of a hatchet, del Toro takes apart patriarchy and opportunistic religion as well as fascism. ...read the complete Pan's Labyrinth movie review at Baltimore Sun (Michael Sragow)

MovieWeb (Kaya Savas)

Pan's Labyrinth is the most beautiful and exquisite film I have seen in the last few years. Guillermo Del Toro has crafted a masterpiece of cinema that slowly bends reality into fantasy. The film is about a young girl named Ofelia who is living in ...read the complete Pan's Labyrinth movie review at MovieWeb (Kaya Savas)

EmanuelLevy.com (Emanuel Levy)

Best picture of 2006: This vividly aesthetic, poignantly haunting, densely rich fable for adults represents the maturation of del Toro as a director of the first rank, raising the bar of the fantasy genre; the most visionary film in Cannes Fest this year. ...read the complete Pan's Labyrinth movie review at EmanuelLevy.com (Emanuel Levy)

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) (Liam Lacey)

This is like no movie you've seen before, a haunting mixture of horror, history and fantasy that works simultaneously on every level. ...read the complete Pan's Labyrinth movie review at The Globe and Mail (Toronto) (Liam Lacey)

Future Movies (Michelle Thomas)

Recently remarried, heavily pregnant Carmen (Gil) moves with her bookish, imaginative daughter Ofelia (Banquero) into the house of her new husband, the cold-heartedly authoritarian Vidal (Lopez), a captain in Franco's army. ...read the complete Pan's Labyrinth movie review at Future Movies (Michelle Thomas)

DVD Talk (Randy Miller III)

Those who enjoy carefully-woven dramas sprinkled with mystery, imagination and suspense have come to the right place. ...read the complete Pan's Labyrinth movie review at DVD Talk (Randy Miller III)

Bloody-Disgusting

Del Toro has delivered perfection, which is a rare treat in this half-assed world of filmmaking and studio designed features. If there was ever a fairy tale for adults, this is it and I don't see anything better coming along for a few decades. ...read the complete Pan's Labyrinth movie review at Bloody-Disgusting

One Guy's Opinion (Frank Swietek)

In a way the film is a feminine counterpart to "Backbone." In the earlier film, a young boy must survive a stay in a Spanish orphanage during the Civil War of the 1930s. ...read the complete Pan's Labyrinth movie review at One Guy's Opinion (Frank Swietek)

ShowBIZ Data

Guillermo del Toro is the latest Mexican director to be showered with praise by critics as Oscar contenders are unveiled at the end of the year. ...read the complete Pan's Labyrinth movie review at ShowBIZ Data

FilmExposed

In the immediate aftermath of the Spanish Civil War, twelve-year-old Ofelia is escorted with her mother to the estate of her new stepfather, the rural dictator Vidal. In the grounds of her new home lies a crumbling labyrinth, at the centre of which ...read the complete Pan's Labyrinth movie review at FilmExposed

Christian Science Monitor (Peter Rainer)

In tone, Pan's Labyrinth resembles a cross between "Alice in Wonderland" and H.P. Lovecraft, with some BuÃ±uel thrown in for good measure. It is a tribute to - as well as a prime example of - the disturbing power of imagination. ...read the complete Pan's Labyrinth movie review at Christian Science Monitor (Peter Rainer)

Rolling Stone (Peter Travers)

Del Toro never coddles the audience. He means us to leave Pan's Labyrinth shaken to our souls. He succeeds. ...read the complete Pan's Labyrinth movie review at Rolling Stone (Peter Travers)

San Francisco Chronicle (Ruthe Stein)

Visually stunning, it meshes haunting images with a complex multilevel story about the enchantment of youth. ...read the complete Pan's Labyrinth movie review at San Francisco Chronicle (Ruthe Stein)

New York Post (Lou Lumenick)

Nothing this year comes close to being as utterly unforgettable as Guillermo del Toro's Pan's Labyrinth, an extremely dark and disturbing fairy tale for audiences say, ages 12 and up. ...read the complete Pan's Labyrinth movie review at New York Post (Lou Lumenick)

New York Daily News (Jack Mathews)

A critic trots out the word "masterpiece" at his own peril, but there it is. ...read the complete Pan's Labyrinth movie review at New York Daily News (Jack Mathews)

TV Guide (Maitland McDonagh)

Del Toro's film ranks with the best examinations of children's inner lives, but be warned: Its haunting insights are best left to adults. ...read the complete Pan's Labyrinth movie review at TV Guide (Maitland McDonagh)

The New York Times (A.O. Scott)

A swift and accessible entertainment, blunt in its power and exquisite in its effects. ...read the complete Pan's Labyrinth movie review at The New York Times (A.O. Scott)

Chicago Tribune (Michael Wilmington)

A brilliant work of the imagination capable of truly seizing and igniting our fantasies. ...read the complete Pan's Labyrinth movie review at Chicago Tribune (Michael Wilmington)

Village Voice (J. Hoberman)

Literally and figuratively marvelous, a rich, daring mix of fantasy and politics. ...read the complete Pan's Labyrinth movie review at Village Voice (J. Hoberman)

DVD Verdict

Unquestionably, 2006 was one of the most impressive recent years for imaginative films. We were offered Terry Gilliam's Tideland, Alfonso Cuaron's Children of Men, and Darren Aronofsky's The Fountain. ...read the complete Pan's Labyrinth movie review at DVD Verdict

Premiere (Glenn Kenny)

This intense film, a mix of horror, fantasy, and history that convinces on all those levels and mixes them up with dizzying brio, is a searing cinematic experience, a beautiful, terrifying vision from writer-director Guillermo del Toro. ...read the complete Pan's Labyrinth movie review at Premiere (Glenn Kenny)

Three Movie Buffs (Scott Nash)

In the real world, Ofelia's mother is having difficulties with her pregnancy. The Captain, her husband, informs the doctor in private that if he can only save one or the other, to make sure that it is the baby that he saves. There are also rebels in the ...read the complete Pan's Labyrinth movie review at Three Movie Buffs (Scott Nash)

Christianity Today (Jeffrey Overstreet)

It would probably have delighted Tolkien and Lewis, who believed that fairy tales help us apprehend the reality of grace as it glimmers through a screen, darkly. ...read the complete Pan's Labyrinth movie review at Christianity Today (Jeffrey Overstreet)

Fresno Bee (Donald Munro)

Triumphs both as allegory and riveting adventure tale. ...read the complete Pan's Labyrinth movie review at Fresno Bee (Donald Munro)

Orlando Sentinel (Roger Moore)

A violent fantasy set during the Spanish Civil War, this magical film from Guillermo del Toro manages that intellectual high-mindedness, even as it resonates on a primal, mythic level. ...read the complete Pan's Labyrinth movie review at Orlando Sentinel (Roger Moore)

TV Guide's Movie Guide (Maitland McDonagh)

Ranks with the best examinations of children's inner lives, but be warned: Its haunting insights are best left to adults. ...read the complete Pan's Labyrinth movie review at TV Guide's Movie Guide (Maitland McDonagh)

Zertinet Movies (Steven Snyder)

There's an aura about this film, an air of gloom that seems to match its themes of lives lost and hopes abandoned. Ofelia's mother does not love her new father, but she accepts the hand that life has dealt her. ...read the complete Pan's Labyrinth movie review at Zertinet Movies (Steven Snyder)

ViewLondon (Matthew Turner)

Meanwhile, Vidal conducts a brutal search for rebel Nationalists, little realising that his own housekeeper (Maribel Verdu) is helping them. He also becomes increasingly obsessed with continuing his family line, even if it means sacrificing Ofelia's ...read the complete Pan's Labyrinth movie review at ViewLondon (Matthew Turner)

Atlanta Journal-Constitution (Bob Longino)

Pan's Labyrinth is del Toro's home run. He's delivered a film full of power, beauty, horror and, ultimately, sadness. ...read the complete Pan's Labyrinth movie review at Atlanta Journal-Constitution (Bob Longino)

Sacramento Bee (Carla Meyer)

Technically magnificent and flawlessly acted, the picture incorporates 20th century Spanish history and classic fairy-tale elements in a way that seems completely new. ...read the complete Pan's Labyrinth movie review at Sacramento Bee (Carla Meyer)

The Land of Eric (Eric D. Snider)

We know immediately that Capt. Vidal is a stern, authoritarian man, different only in gender from the stepparents of the Grimms' fairy tales. Soon we see he's even worse than that: He's also a cruel, vicious killer. His treatment of two men suspected of ...read the complete Pan's Labyrinth movie review at The Land of Eric (Eric D. Snider)

FilmJudge

At the end of the Spanish Civil War, a young girl named Ofelia (Baquero) is whisked away with her mother (Ariadna Gil) to live with her new stepfather (LÃ³pez), a cruel and demanding army Captain. Away from all this, she journeys to a magical labyrinth ...read the complete Pan's Labyrinth movie review at FilmJudge

Detroit News (Tom Long)

'Pan's Labyrinth" is "Alice in Wonderland" juxtaposed against a real and dreary world, the story of one girl's desperate inner flight from the dire personal and political circumstances that surround her. To say this is a visionary film isn't enough. ...read the complete Pan's Labyrinth movie review at Detroit News (Tom Long)

CHUD (Devin Faraci)

A filmmaker blossoming into true greatness... Pan's Labyrinth is a film of breathtaking emotional, thematic and visual depth. ...read the complete Pan's Labyrinth movie review at CHUD (Devin Faraci)

Spirituality & Health (Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat)

Carmen (Ariadna Gil) and her daughter Ofelia (Ivana Baquero), a little girl who loves reading fairy tales, are traveling to join him. Carmen is pregnant with a baby the captain is convinced will be his desired son. Ofelia misses her own father, a tailor ...read the complete Pan's Labyrinth movie review at Spirituality & Health (Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat)

MovieMaze.de (Birte Luedeking)

Hier ist es der Stiefvater, der Angst und Schrecken verbreitet und die einzigartigen, hochkreativen Gestalten, die Autor und Regisseur Del Toro erschaffen hat, stellen jeden Wolf in den Schatten: darunter eine lebendige, sich windende Wurzel, die einer ...read the complete Pan's Labyrinth movie review at MovieMaze.de (Birte Luedeking)

FilmStew.com (Kevin Biggers)

The only part where Pan errs is in its marketing, via a top-of-the-poster blurb that proclaims it a "fairy tale for grown-ups. ...read the complete Pan's Labyrinth movie review at FilmStew.com (Kevin Biggers)

Harvey S. Karten

An awe-inspiring mixture of real-world mayhem and fairy-tale ferocity, "Pan's Labyrinth" is anything but a film made for children. ...read the complete Pan's Labyrinth movie review at Harvey S. Karten

Premiere Magazine (Aaron Hillis)

This magnificent and moving horror-fantasy for adults has already been raking in nearly unanimous acclaim... I'm not only on the bandwagon, I'm proudly riding shotgun for one of the richest films of 2006. ...read the complete Pan's Labyrinth movie review at Premiere Magazine (Aaron Hillis)

OhmyNews.com (Brian Orndorf)

Visually, this is del Toro at his most fearless, effortlessly shaping a lurid realm of magic for Ofelia, and a stark, cold-blooded fear factory for the Captain. ...read the complete Pan's Labyrinth movie review at OhmyNews.com (Brian Orndorf)

musicOMH (Jon Bright)

It was at least a small surprise when he passed on the opportunity to direct Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, the third outing for the pubescent bespectacled mage, passing over the opportunity to his long time and equally talented friend Alfonso ...read the complete Pan's Labyrinth movie review at musicOMH (Jon Bright)

DVD Town (John J. Puccio)

We don't need storytellers to conjure up our demons for us; they're all around us, more hideous and vile than anything we could ever dream up in our poor imaginations. Monsters have always been with us; they always will be with us. It is when we ...read the complete Pan's Labyrinth movie review at DVD Town (John J. Puccio)

Ozus' World Movie Reviews (Dennis Schwartz)

The 42-year-old Mexican-born writer-director Guillermo del Toro has previously shuffled between making the arthouse political/metaphysical ghost story called The Devil's Backbone and the Hollywood blockbuster Hellboy with at best mixed results, but at ...read the complete Pan's Labyrinth movie review at Ozus' World Movie Reviews (Dennis Schwartz)

Arkansas Democrat-Gazette (Philip Martin)

...a powerful, haunting film replete with phantasmagorical visions and inexorable dread. Painted in shadows and lit by a moon the color of a frog's belly, Pan's Labyrinth is an emotional cousin to David Lynch's creepy puzzle films. ...read the complete Pan's Labyrinth movie review at Arkansas Democrat-Gazette (Philip Martin)

The Onion (A.V. Club) (Noel Murray)

After two hours of dazzlingly fantastical images and stomach-turning gore, del Toro winds around, and finds his story's center. ...read the complete Pan's Labyrinth movie review at The Onion (A.V. Club) (Noel Murray)

JackassCritics.com ("The Grim Ringler")

It's the end of the Spanish Civil War and the forces of rebellion have been quelled but not finished off. ...read the complete Pan's Labyrinth movie review at JackassCritics.com ("The Grim Ringler")

Jam! Movies (Bruce Kirkland)

Rarely in film history has such elaborate fantasy been put in the service of such a profound and serious treatment of reality. But Pan's Labyrinth is an extraordinary film made by an exceptional visionary. ...read the complete Pan's Labyrinth movie review at Jam! Movies (Bruce Kirkland)

Salon.com (Stephanie Zacharek)

This is a true fairy tale, and one of the finest fantasy pictures ever made, but please do not take your young children to see it unless you want them to be scarred for life. ...read the complete Pan's Labyrinth movie review at Salon.com (Stephanie Zacharek)

Pop Syndicate (Stefan Halley)

A truly imaginative journey into a fairy tale world with an intelligent adult twist. ...read the complete Pan's Labyrinth movie review at Pop Syndicate (Stefan Halley)

Shadows on the Wall (Rich Cline)

The dual story threads merge seamlessly in del Toro's elegant style. ...read the complete Pan's Labyrinth movie review at Shadows on the Wall (Rich Cline)

Rochester Democrat and Chronicle (Jack Garner)

Pan's Labyrinth is an astonishing tale in which a child employs her vivid imagination to keep herself sane in a world gone mad. ...read the complete Pan's Labyrinth movie review at Rochester Democrat and Chronicle (Jack Garner)

Los Angeles Times (Kenneth Turan)

With Pan's Labyrinth, Del Toro has made his most accomplished film to date, a dark and disturbing fairy tale for adults that's been thought out to the nth degree and resonates with the irresistible inevitability of a timeless myth. ...read the complete Pan's Labyrinth movie review at Los Angeles Times (Kenneth Turan)

Film Threat (Don R. Lewis)

The action scenes are exciting, the fantasy scenes are creative and the war scenes are brutal. ...read the complete Pan's Labyrinth movie review at Film Threat (Don R. Lewis)

USA Today (Claudia Puig)

Pan's Labyrinth artfully fuses a war film with a family melodrama and a fairy tale. The result is visually stunning and emotionally shattering. ...read the complete Pan's Labyrinth movie review at USA Today (Claudia Puig)

ReelViews (James Berardinelli)

The lack of family friendliness does not diminish what del Toro has achieved with this magical motion picture. ...read the complete Pan's Labyrinth movie review at ReelViews (James Berardinelli)

Groucho Reviews (Peter Canavese)

A fresh opportunity to revel in the darkly beautiful dreamscapes unleashed by the increasingly masterful del Toro. ...read the complete Pan's Labyrinth movie review at Groucho Reviews (Peter Canavese)

Kansas City Star (Robert W. Butler)

In its supremely confident and effortless blend of the fantastic and the grittily realistic, Pan's Labyrinth not only compares favorably with Terry Gilliam�s best work ( Brazil ), it also exceeds it. ...read the complete Pan's Labyrinth movie review at Kansas City Star (Robert W. Butler)

Deseret News, Salt Lake City

You might not guess it from the rather misleading theatrical trailers and television ads, but at times the Spanish-language hit "Pan's Labyrinth" is as much a horror movie as a fantasy. ...read the complete Pan's Labyrinth movie review at Deseret News, Salt Lake City

Houston Chronicle (Amy Biancolli)

Pan's Labyrinth plays with dark magic, a hideous enchantment spun with grief and torment. It is emotionally devastating and sensuously rich: Details are as sharp as the ching of a straight-edge razor, as strange as the squeal of a magic root. ...read the complete Pan's Labyrinth movie review at Houston Chronicle (Amy Biancolli)

Palo Alto Weekly (Jeanne Aufmuth)

A brilliant juxtaposition of truth and imagination guaranteed to lay waste to every emotion. ...read the complete Pan's Labyrinth movie review at Palo Alto Weekly (Jeanne Aufmuth)

Wall Street Journal (Joe Morgenstern)

As each turn of events proves more menacing than the last to the young heroine of Pan's Labyrinth , her mother admonishes her: "Life isn't like your fairy tales." But it is. That's the secret at the center of Guillermo del Toro's magnificent film. ...read the complete Pan's Labyrinth movie review at Wall Street Journal (Joe Morgenstern)

IOFilm

According to the 80's classic, Labyrinths are huge mazes full of strange Jim Henson creations, jolly musical interludes and David Bowie's gigantic crotch. My tip of the day is this: Do not expect the same from Pan's Labyrinth. ...read the complete Pan's Labyrinth movie review at IOFilm

rec.arts.movies.reviews (Louis Proyect)

An imaginary garden with real toads. ...read the complete Pan's Labyrinth movie review at rec.arts.movies.reviews (Louis Proyect)

Toronto Star (Geoff Pevere)

It's not every day that you see a movie that not only references both Victor Erice's creepy modernist classic Spirit of the Beehive and Ray Harryhausen's Seventh Voyage of Sinbad with equal reverence. ...read the complete Pan's Labyrinth movie review at Toronto Star (Geoff Pevere)

Plugged In

After her father dies in the Spanish Civil War, it's understandable why the almost-adolescent Ofelia isn't excited about moving with her pregnant mother to her new stepfather's military outpost in the Spanish countryside. Once there, her dread is almost ...read the complete Pan's Labyrinth movie review at Plugged In

St. Paul Pioneer Press (Chris Hewitt)

So, yes, the Spanish-language "Labyrinth" takes place in a world of ruined castles, magical creatures and going to bed without your supper. But it's also set during the aftermath of the Spanish Civil War in the household of a warlord who supports the ...read the complete Pan's Labyrinth movie review at St. Paul Pioneer Press (Chris Hewitt)

The Arizona Republic

The director of this astoundingly imaginative adult fairy tale is Guillermo del Toro, who directed several middling movies for Hollywood (Mimic, Blade 2 and Hellboy), while creating two terrific films mostly on his own: The Devil's Backbone (2001) and ...read the complete Pan's Labyrinth movie review at The Arizona Republic

Big Picture Big Sound (Joe Lozito)

Set in pro-Franco Spain at the end of World War II, "Pan's Labyrinth" tells the story of Ofelia (Ivana Baquero), a young girl uprooted to live at a military outpost by her pregnant, widowed mother. ...read the complete Pan's Labyrinth movie review at Big Picture Big Sound (Joe Lozito)

KYW Newsradio (Bill Wine)

The real one is a highly dangerous, war-filled place where instant death is never more than a heartbeat away. Fortunately for powerless Ofelia, there's also her fantasy world, which is a mythical kingdom that she can retreat to when the real world is too ...read the complete Pan's Labyrinth movie review at KYW Newsradio (Bill Wine)

Pan's Labyrinth (2006) scores a combined 3.50 out of 4 stars for

Back in the 1960s Mexican science fiction, horror, and fantasy films started showing up on television and to a lesser extent in theaters. Many would feature as stars professional wrestlers such as Santo and/or homegrown monsters such as the Aztec Mummy ...read the complete Pan's Labyrinth movie review at

The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel

The best fantasies are not escapist fare but are anchored to the real world like the roots of an ancient tree. And so it is with "Pan's Labyrinth," Guillermo del Toro's sobering yet stirring fable that, like his earlier ghost story "The Devil's ...read the complete Pan's Labyrinth movie review at The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel

Sun Newspapers of Cleveland

Any movie with a young child as the central character runs a risk, but it's even more perilous in a film for adults. Ivana Baquero is that rare youngster who proves to have acting chops. She is wonderful as young Ofelia, a sweet and innocent child ...read the complete Pan's Labyrinth movie review at Sun Newspapers of Cleveland

The Hollywood Reporter

Rooted in the grim pessimism of totalitarian Spain, the film begins with a prologue about the fate of a long-lost princess and the promise of her return. As the tale is told, a pregnant and sickly woman, Carmen (Ariadna Gil) and her daughter Ofelia ...read the complete Pan's Labyrinth movie review at The Hollywood Reporter

Comingsoon.net

The Faun's intentions are relatively innocent compared to Capitan Videl, Ofelia's future step-father, a sadistic and cruel man who will do whatever it takes to squash the resistance, often shooting or striking first and asking questions later. This ...read the complete Pan's Labyrinth movie review at Comingsoon.net

The Dallas Morning News

The film, written and directed by Mexico's Guillermo Del Toro, takes us to a rural countryside in northern Spain circa 1944. Francisco Franco rules the country; unrest is rampant. Postwar fascist repression is peaking, and a remote mill has been ...read the complete Pan's Labyrinth movie review at The Dallas Morning News

Mark Reviews Movies (Mark Dujsik)

Billed as a fairy tale for adults, Pan's Labyrinth (El Laberinto del Fauno) is a dark, creepy, sad tale of incorruptible innocence and ultimate sacrifice. Writer/director Guillermo del Toro has created a work of profound imagination, juxtaposing the ...read the complete Pan's Labyrinth movie review at Mark Reviews Movies (Mark Dujsik)

Filmtracks (Christian Clemmensen)

Pan's Labyrinth: (Javier Navarrete) It's not often that films with two concurrent storylines stand equally as strong as the two in Mexican director Guillermo del Toro's Pan's Labyrinth. A highly complex film with rich connections between its real and ...read the complete Pan's Labyrinth movie review at Filmtracks (Christian Clemmensen)

Qwipster's Movie Reviews (Vince Leo)

Set in rural northern Spain in 1944, following their Civil War, Pan's Labyrinth tells the tale of Ofelia (Baquero, Romasanta), a young girl who travels to a military camp with her pregnant mother (Gil, Belle Epoque) in order for her stepfather, the ...read the complete Pan's Labyrinth movie review at Qwipster's Movie Reviews (Vince Leo)

BBC Films

Ofelia is journeying to meet her facist stepfather, a ruthless captain chasing leftists in the hills of Northern Spain, with her painfully pregnant mother in tow. Unknown to Ofelia's stepfather, the leftists have secretly infiltrated his household. This ...read the complete Pan's Labyrinth movie review at BBC Films

Talking Pictures (UK)

Guillermo Del Toro's Pan's Labyrinth has been called a fairy tale, but it is one without the color, warmth, or wonder we normally associate with films of this type. ...read the complete Pan's Labyrinth movie review at Talking Pictures (UK)

New York Magazine (David Edelstein)

It also centers on a literal rebirth-on the advanced pregnancy of a black fugee, Kee (Claire-Hope Ashitey), whose best hope of survival rests with the fishes' ability to deliver her to a supersecret international organization. ...read the complete Pan's Labyrinth movie review at New York Magazine (David Edelstein)

U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops

2006 was already a banner year for Mexican filmmakers with exemplary year-end releases from Alfonso Cuaron ("Children of Men") and Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu ("Babel"). And now comes Guillermo Del Toro's "Pan's Labyrinth" (Picturehouse), a ...read the complete Pan's Labyrinth movie review at U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops

Movie-Vault.com (Mel Valentin)

Ofelia remains alone and lonely (children her age are nowhere to be found), retreating into her books and her imagination. Only the head housekeeper, Mercedes (Maribel VerdÃº), makes any effort to befriend Ofelia. Wandering alone at night, Ofelia ...read the complete Pan's Labyrinth movie review at Movie-Vault.com (Mel Valentin)

Movies 101 (Robert Glatzer)

Is this to be the decade, or at least the year, of the Mexicans? With Alfonso Cuaron's astounding "Children of Men," Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu's "Babel," and now Guillermo Del Toro's "Pan's Labyrinth" getting notice and awards all over, it certainly ...read the complete Pan's Labyrinth movie review at Movies 101 (Robert Glatzer)

Frank's Reel Reviews

Starting with the much-heralded Cronos and continuing though The Devil's Backbone, Blade II, Hellboy and now Pan's Labyrinth, del Toro has honed his skills of using man-made evil and wrong-doing as a symbol of horror. In Pan's Labyrinth, man's evil is ...read the complete Pan's Labyrinth movie review at Frank's Reel Reviews

TotalFilm

A young girl draws a magic chalk door on her bedroom wall and pushes it open. She steps into a banquet hall, where a slumbering monster sits at a table loaded with food. ...read the complete Pan's Labyrinth movie review at TotalFilm

New York Daily News (Jack Mathews)

The fantasy lives of children have always fascinated adult storytellers but rarely have the real and imagined worlds of a child been fused with the sublime and scary perfection of Mexican writer-director Guillermo del Toro's "Pan's ...read the complete Pan's Labyrinth movie review at New York Daily News (Jack Mathews)

Combustible Celluloid (Jeffrey M. Anderson)

The Mexican-born director Guillermo Del Toro always makes exciting, curious blends of horror and fairy tales, and, like Terry Gilliam and Tim Burton, often draws inspiration from the childlike. He has quickly established a singular visual style, filled ...read the complete Pan's Labyrinth movie review at Combustible Celluloid (Jeffrey M. Anderson)

Cutting Edge

gemak deze twee verhaallijnen door elkaar en behandelt beiden met evenveel aandacht. Hij wisselt scÃ¨nes uit het oorlogsverhaal af met die uit de sprookjesachtige mythologie en laat ze af en toe zelfs samenlopen. Het hoogtepunt van de samenvloeiing van ...read the complete Pan's Labyrinth movie review at Cutting Edge

Wolf Entertainment Guide (William Wolf)

Del Toro soars in visualization of Ofelia's thoughts and dreams, as well as in depicting the labyrinth into which she wanders as her mysterious refuge near the abandoned old mill that the captain has set up as his headquarters. ...read the complete Pan's Labyrinth movie review at Wolf Entertainment Guide (William Wolf)

Variety (Justin Chang)

There's plenty of blood -- both literal and figurative -- coursing through the veins of Pan's Labyrinth, a richly imagined and exquisitely violent fantasy from writer-director Guillermo del Toro. ...read the complete Pan's Labyrinth movie review at Variety (Justin Chang)

Movies for Guys

I didn't think I'd live long enough to be able to describe a movie about a young girl and faerie creatures as being more sadistic than even Rob Zombie could stand. I was wrong. Pan's Labyrinth is easily one of the most visually creative and well ...read the complete Pan's Labyrinth movie review at Movies for Guys

Q Network Film Desk (James Kendrick)

Pan's Labyrinth (El Laberinto del Fauno), a masterpiece of fantasia by Mexican director Guillermo del Toro, is at turns exquisitely beautiful, horrifying, and heart-wrenchingly sweet. Del Toro's ability to balance all these conflicting tones in a film of ...read the complete Pan's Labyrinth movie review at Q Network Film Desk (James Kendrick)

Maxim (Pete Hammond)

A haunting, but beautifully conceived mix of fantasy and reality that is like no other film released in 2006 - or any other year. ...read the complete Pan's Labyrinth movie review at Maxim (Pete Hammond)

Newsweek (David Ansen)

Suspended between the brutally graphic and flights of lyrical fancy, Pan's Labyrinth unfolds with the confidence of a classical fable, one that paradoxically feels both timeless and startlingly new. ...read the complete Pan's Labyrinth movie review at Newsweek (David Ansen)

Window to the Movies (Jeffrey Chen)

I wish I could say Pan's Labyrinth was one of my favorite movies of the year because it certainly contains one of my favorite sequences of 2006. It happens right about the middle of the movie. A young girl named Ofelia (Ivana Baquero) finds herself in a ...read the complete Pan's Labyrinth movie review at Window to the Movies (Jeffrey Chen)

Window to the Movies (Jeffrey Chen)

Del Toro's obvious strength here is his forceful vision of a night-time fantasy and his ability to bring that vision to pulsating life. ...read the complete Pan's Labyrinth movie review at Window to the Movies (Jeffrey Chen)

Cinema Signals (Jules Brenner)

By juxtaposing inhuman military brutality with the idealism and imagery of a fairy tale, del Toro integrates the two, creating a credible tension between both. ...read the complete Pan's Labyrinth movie review at Cinema Signals (Jules Brenner)

Bullz-Eye.com

Set during the violent aftermath of the Spanish Civil War, the story begins as the young Ofelia (Ivana Baquero) is sent to live with her pregnant mother, Carmen (Ariadne Gil), and her new husband, the sadistic Captain Vidal (Sergi Lopez). While Carmen ...read the complete Pan's Labyrinth movie review at Bullz-Eye.com

MTV (Kurt Loder)

The dream horrors of the labyrinth mirror the human horrors of the world above in the way that classic fairy tales, in their unexpurgated form, always have. ...read the complete Pan's Labyrinth movie review at MTV (Kurt Loder)

The Independent (Anthony Quinn)

Guillermo del Toro's audacious fable is almost two movies in one, but its handling is so assured that the compound of fairy tale and realism becomes all of a piece. Set in the aftermath of the Spanish Civil War (as was Del Toro's ghost story, The Devil's ...read the complete Pan's Labyrinth movie review at The Independent (Anthony Quinn)

filmcritic.com (Chris Barsanti)

In 1944, Ofelia (Ivana Baquero), a bookish 12-year-old arrives with her pregnant mother Carmen (Ariadna Gil) at an isolated farmhouse in northern Spain. Here, amidst the dark woods and quietly subservient peasants, her new stepfather Vidal (Sergi ...read the complete Pan's Labyrinth movie review at filmcritic.com (Chris Barsanti)

DVDActive (Chris Gould)

After the death of her husband, Ofelia's mother has remarried to Vidal (Sergi Lopez), a fascistic captain in Franco's army. ...read the complete Pan's Labyrinth movie review at DVDActive (Chris Gould)

The Film Asylum (Stuart Crawford)

...read the complete Pan's Labyrinth movie review at The Film Asylum (Stuart Crawford)

eye WEEKLY

Like the director's 2001 ghost story The Devil's Backbone, this gorgeously designed but darkly hued fable is set during the Spanish Civil War, Guillermo Del Toro again suggesting that the evils of fascism trump anything the supernatural can muster up. ...read the complete Pan's Labyrinth movie review at eye WEEKLY

The Nation (Stuart Klawans)

Now think of a fully human stepfather: a fascist military officer serving in Franco's victorious army. The gloomy lair of this Captain Vidal is an old mill, set in the woods and mountains where he has been sent to hunt a few remaining partisans. Your ...read the complete Pan's Labyrinth movie review at The Nation (Stuart Klawans)

stylusmagazine.com (Paolo Cabrelli)

The basic narrative is thus: a young girl, Ofelia, travels with her pregnant mother and adoptive father to a rural area in Northern Spain, 1944. Soon drawn into an old stone labyrinth, Ofelia is told by a faun that she is an immortal princess of the ...read the complete Pan's Labyrinth movie review at stylusmagazine.com (Paolo Cabrelli)

Not Coming to a Theater Near You (Jenny Jediny)

Utilizing a young girl as his heroine, the lovely, dark haired Ofelia, del Toro places not only fantasy but also children at the forefront of his fable. As the connecting thread, Ofelia opens the film on a journey to her new home in the Spanish ...read the complete Pan's Labyrinth movie review at Not Coming to a Theater Near You (Jenny Jediny)

South Florida Sun-Sentinel (Phoebe Flowers)

Pan's Labyrinth , with its unblinking sense of the baroque, may be a tough sell for anyone generally not interested in fantasy. But the film is one of the most original and spectacular of the year. ...read the complete Pan's Labyrinth movie review at South Florida Sun-Sentinel (Phoebe Flowers)

kids-in-mind

Set in 1940s Spain, during the authoritarian rule of Francisco Franco: A lonely and imaginative girl, whose mother marries a successful but brutal military captain, creates fantastical creatures and an imaginary world that transports her far away from ...read the complete Pan's Labyrinth movie review at kids-in-mind

"Mark R. Leeper"

Back in the 1960s Mexican science fiction, horror, and fantasy films started showing up on television and to a lesser extent in theaters. Many would feature as stars professional wrestlers such as Santo and/or homegrown monsters such as the ...read the complete Pan's Labyrinth movie review at "Mark R. Leeper"

hoopla.nu

What bothers me is that my opinion of Pan's Labyrinth on the surface simply doesn't make sense. Labyrinth is my favourite film of all time, and in 2005 Mirrormask made it into my top ten, so this film should be right down my alley. In terms of visual ...read the complete Pan's Labyrinth movie review at hoopla.nu

Film Journal International (Kevin Lally)

In 2001, Mexican writer-director Guillermo del Toro ingeniously melded a tale of supernatural horror with the real-life carnage of the Spanish Civil War in the brilliant and haunting The Devil's Backbone. With Pan's Labyrinth, del Toro returns to that ...read the complete Pan's Labyrinth movie review at Film Journal International (Kevin Lally)

Indiewire

"A fairy tale for grown-ups!" exclaim the mindless reviewers who can't get their noses out of their press kits. In fact, nothing could be further from the truth. Aside from its highly exploitative and infantile use of graphic gore, this one is strictly ...read the complete Pan's Labyrinth movie review at Indiewire

The Phantom Tollbooth

Filmmaker Guillermo del Toro (Hellboy and Blade II) has taken Spain's Civil War and written how the anguish and violence of war would be seen through a child's eyes. In this case, the child is a young girl, Ofelia (Ivana Baquero looking for all the world ...read the complete Pan's Labyrinth movie review at The Phantom Tollbooth

RevolutionSF (Matthew Pook)

Pan's Labyrinth (originally titled El Laborinto del Fauno) is as dark hearted a fairy tale as you will see all year, a tale mired in the final days of the resistance following the Spanish Civil War. As the fascist Falangists, victors over the left wing ...read the complete Pan's Labyrinth movie review at RevolutionSF (Matthew Pook)

Mutant Reviewers From Hell

The film is curiously cold, actually. It depends almost completely upon two crucial elements: the absolute perfect casting of Ivana Baquero as precocious young bookworm Ofelia who functions wonderfully as both a worrisome young girl placed in a ...read the complete Pan's Labyrinth movie review at Mutant Reviewers From Hell

CineScene.com (Howard Schumann)

Guillermo Del Toro's Pan's Labyrinth has been called a fairy tale, but it is one without the color, warmth, or wonder we normally associate with films of this type. ...read the complete Pan's Labyrinth movie review at CineScene.com (Howard Schumann)

Washington Post (Ann Hornaday)

Every now and then, a movie comes along that is so extraordinary -- so breathtaking in its artistic ambition, so technically accomplished, so morally expansive, so fully realized -- that it defies the usual critical blather. Just see it, you want to tell ...read the complete Pan's Labyrinth movie review at Washington Post (Ann Hornaday)

Perihelion Journal (Jay Antani)

a captivating, albeit unstable, blend of anti-Fascist social commentary and a visually sumptuous childhood fable ...read the complete Pan's Labyrinth movie review at Perihelion Journal (Jay Antani)

<dnb@dca.net>

Squeaking in amidst much hullabaloo for year-end Oscar(r) consideration--and playing to a standing-room-only art-house crowd who had no doubt gotten a heady whiff of some of that pre-awards hoopla--the fantasmagorical Spanish-language film "Pan's ...read the complete Pan's Labyrinth movie review at <dnb@dca.net>

Movie Habit (Marty Mapes)

Maybe Del Toro wanted to make two different movies and decided to merge them together. ...read the complete Pan's Labyrinth movie review at Movie Habit (Marty Mapes)

The Seattle Times (Moira Macdonald)

Asked by a child if she believes in fairies, a weary-eyed housekeeper (Maribel VerdÃº) says that she doesn't anymore, but that she did when she was younger. Back then, she says, "I believed in a lot of things I don't believe ...read the complete Pan's Labyrinth movie review at The Seattle Times (Moira Macdonald)

<<dnb@dca.net>>

Squeaking in amidst much hullabaloo for year-end Oscar(r) consideration--and playing to a standing-room-only art-house crowd who had no doubt gotten a heady whiff of some of that pre-awards hoopla--the fantasmagorical Spanish-language film "Pan's ...read the complete Pan's Labyrinth movie review at <<dnb@dca.net>>

Juicy Cerebellum (Alex Sandell)

Guillermo del Toro is one of the best in the business. Starting with The Devil's Backbone, moving through Blade II and Hellboy and into Pan's Labyrinth -- the screenwriter/director can seemingly do no wrong. Mr. del Toro doesn't film a motion-picture ...read the complete Pan's Labyrinth movie review at Juicy Cerebellum (Alex Sandell)

Lobo Howls (Judith Wolfe)

If you like your films dark, scary, nerve wracking and visually stunning, this film is for you. Be warned, there is graphic violence, torture and bad things do happen to good people. This is NOT a film for children. ...read the complete Pan's Labyrinth movie review at Lobo Howls (Judith Wolfe)

Tracksounds! (Cap Stewart)

The narrative centers on Ofelia, a young girl struggling to survive in war-torn Spain while also embarking on a quest into a literal world of fantasy. Though it may sound thematically similar to the Narnia series, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe ...read the complete Pan's Labyrinth movie review at Tracksounds! (Cap Stewart)

Reeling Reviews (Robin and Laura Clifford)

Pan's Labyrinth is a stylish fantasy film that is about escape. Ofelia is thrust into the cruel world of her ruthless stepfather ordered to suppress leftist rebel attacks in the north of Spain. ...read the complete Pan's Labyrinth movie review at Reeling Reviews (Robin and Laura Clifford)

Boxoffice Magazine

Ofelia, fascinated by fairytales, discovers an overgrown, ruined labyrinth behind the mill. In the heart of the labyrinth she meets Pan, an ancient satyr (Doug Jones, beneath thick layers of special effects), who claims to know her true identity and her ...read the complete Pan's Labyrinth movie review at Boxoffice Magazine

Greenwich Village Gazette (Eric Lurio)

It's June 1944. War is raging everywhere but Spain, or at least that's the official story. Even though the Republic finally collapsed under assault from Franco's fascists in early 1939, an insurgency was still going on, and would continue into the 1950s. ...read the complete Pan's Labyrinth movie review at Greenwich Village Gazette (Eric Lurio)

Metromix.com (Matt Pais)

An escape from everyday dreariness of which you'll want more than the film will offer. ...read the complete Pan's Labyrinth movie review at Metromix.com (Matt Pais)

Richmond Times-Dispatch (Daniel Neman)

The Spanish-language film, which perhaps has earned more praise than it deserves, tells two stories at the same time (and occupies two worlds) that are at odds with each other. ...read the complete Pan's Labyrinth movie review at Richmond Times-Dispatch (Daniel Neman)

San Diego Union-Tribune (David Elliott)

Pan's Labyrinth , like del Toro's previous and related The Devil's Backbone , is a saturated vision, an artist's work. What it lacks is successful unity. ...read the complete Pan's Labyrinth movie review at San Diego Union-Tribune (David Elliott)

Charlotte Weekly (Sean O'Connell)

Del Toro has realized a work of art that's too terrifying and politically motivated for young audience members who should be swept up in Ofelia's royal dreams. ...read the complete Pan's Labyrinth movie review at Charlotte Weekly (Sean O'Connell)

In Film Australia

Much has been said of the slick otherworldly panache of Guillermo Del Toro's Pan's Labyrinth, which juxtaposes a nightmarish fantasy world with an even scarier vision of reality (circa 1944 in fascist Spain). It surprised nobody that the film ...read the complete Pan's Labyrinth movie review at In Film Australia

Tiscali UK

Greeted in some critical circles as the cinematic equivalent of the Second Coming, Guillermo del Toro's latest venture returns in part to the world featured in his 2001 offering The Devil's Backbone: the Spanish Civil War and its particular effect on the ...read the complete Pan's Labyrinth movie review at Tiscali UK

Planet Sick-Boy (Jon Popick)

If Tim Burton and Jan Svankmejer had teamed up to make The Chronicles of Narnia, the result probably would have looked something like this picture, which drops a cute but bookish little girl (Ivana Banquero) into a very rural woodsy area in Northern ...read the complete Pan's Labyrinth movie review at Planet Sick-Boy (Jon Popick)

Lee's Movie Info (Craig Younkin)

For those who don't know, the story is based during the Spanish Civil War, where a young girl named Ophelia (Ivana Baquero) is brought to live on the army base of her sadistic stepfather, Captain Vidal (Sergi Lopez). Her mother is dying from pregnancy ...read the complete Pan's Labyrinth movie review at Lee's Movie Info (Craig Younkin)

Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Compelling performances carry the film's emotional resonance, one underlined by a bittersweet ending that reminds us that despite its physical limits, imagination nourishes hope. ...read the complete Pan's Labyrinth movie review at Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Slant Magazine

Pan's Labyrinth is a fancy retooling of The Devil's Backbone: the political context is the same, except a girl replaces a boy, a forest subs for a vast desert plain, fantasy usurps horror, and escape is a more prominent obsession than revenge. A young ...read the complete Pan's Labyrinth movie review at Slant Magazine

Salon (Stephanie Zacharek)

his is a somber, lovely picture, set in Franco's Spain a few years after that country's civil war. It's rich both in metaphorical terms and in literal ones. Del Toro's imagery is so vivid and concrete that it's likely to change the color of your sleep: A ...read the complete Pan's Labyrinth movie review at Salon (Stephanie Zacharek)

ReviewExpress.com (Michael Black)

The acting is superb, and Baquero steals the movie. ...read the complete Pan's Labyrinth movie review at ReviewExpress.com (Michael Black)

Sacramento News & Review (Jim Lane)

...as repellently fascinating as watching a snake devour a rabbit. ...read the complete Pan's Labyrinth movie review at Sacramento News & Review (Jim Lane)

Flak Magazine (Sara J. Brenneis)

What allows Pan's Labyrinth to stand out is the seemingly effortless way in which the director connects the dots between the chaos, confusion and horror of war and these same elements manifested in a young girl's personal imaginings of war: Her fantastic ...read the complete Pan's Labyrinth movie review at Flak Magazine (Sara J. Brenneis)

Haro Online

The mind of Guillermo del Toro is a strange and beautiful place. Del Toro is best known for his two most recent films, Hellboy and Blade II, but is more renowned for earlier films like The Devil's Backbone and Cronos. Pan's Labyrinth is most similar to ...read the complete Pan's Labyrinth movie review at Haro Online

The Age

The latest effort from Mexican horror/fantasy specialist Guillermo del Toro is a strained, ultra-violent mishmash of noble intentions that literally begs its audience to study it rather than watch it. ...read the complete Pan's Labyrinth movie review at The Age

"Steve Rhodes"

PAN'S LABYRINTH (EL LABERINTO DEL FAUNO), by writer and director Guillermo del Toro (HELLBOY), is filled with images as imaginative and fascinating as they are sometimes frightening and gross. They are quite magical as well, and some aspects of the ...read the complete Pan's Labyrinth movie review at "Steve Rhodes"

Pan's Labyrinth (2006) scores a combined 2.00 out of 4 stars for

This R-rated fairy tale for adults features magical roots, monster-sized belching toads, and a creepy creature who looks like a ghostly old man with sagging skin and with removal eyeballs in the palms of his hands. Actually the first creature we ...read the complete Pan's Labyrinth movie review at

d+kaz. Intelligent Movie Reviews (Daniel Kasman)

Judging film direction, let alone characterizing it, always seemed to me an ineffable, difficult activity, as the number of factors direction includes takes it far beyond simple qualitative observations and moves into a territory of generalities and ...read the complete Pan's Labyrinth movie review at d+kaz. Intelligent Movie Reviews (Daniel Kasman)

The Stop Button (Andrew Wickliffe)

Pan's Labyrinth is a pretty film. Gorgeous cinematography, great locations, intricate make-up (bad CG, but it's only really noticeable once). Guillermo del Toro does a decent job directing the film but has these really annoying transitions--the back of ...read the complete Pan's Labyrinth movie review at The Stop Button (Andrew Wickliffe)

Boulder Weekly (Thomas Delapa)

... a maze of naive politics and gruesome brutality. It's no more about Franco's Spain than a can of Franco-American spaghetti is about Italian food. ...read the complete Pan's Labyrinth movie review at Boulder Weekly (Thomas Delapa)

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