Merkuri
Explorer
Has anybody seen Pan's Labyrinth? Awayfarer and I saw it last night and I thought it was pretty good. Away was kinda "meh" on it because he expected more of the fantasy world and not so much WWII.
I think it did a great job reminding me of the way fairy tales felt when I was younger. Most of the fantasy related stuff I read nowadays has no wonder left in it. Everything is explained or otherwise made to feel normal. But the mythology in Pan's Labyrinth felt fresh and mysterious. They didn't go into very many long explanations, and the explanations they did give left a lot to the imagination. The lack of explanations didn't feel like a hole in the story, either, it just felt like that was the nature of the fantasy world. It didn't have to make sense.
I don't want to give away any spoilers, but I definitely loved the second trial. Very very creepy. I liked the idea of the book as well. It seemed like it could be a good plot-driving magic item in a D&D campaign. I wish it was used a little more in the movie.
The faun himself (not actually Pan, but they thought the literal translation of the title, "The Labyrinth of the Faun" might make audiences think of a baby deer instead of a fantastic creature) was awesomely done. He moved very realistically. I was afraid he would look more animatronic, but all of his movements (aside from his eyes and ears) were made by an actor wearing a complicated suit, including the faun legs. He's very lifelike, looking neither like a cartoonish computer animated creature nor a machine.
Though it's full of fairy tales, this movie is not for children. The real life portions (and even a few of the fairy tale ones) can be graphic and disturbing. The movie's full of complicated emotions that children would probably have a hard time relating to as well. It's also in Spanish. I always prefer subtitles over dubbing, so we didn't bother to see if the DVD had an option for English dubbing, but the subtitles were well done. Apparently the writer did his own translations for the subtitles after having problems with the subtitles in previous movies.
All in all I loved it, and would recommend it to D&D folks with the caveat that there is a lot of WWII-ish elements in the story (it's set in fascist Spain near the end of the war and features a sadistic captain trying to defend his region against communist rebels) so those who love movies like Lord of the Rings and the Harry Potter series, but hate movies like The Great Escape, or Dirty Dozen won't like this as much.
I think it did a great job reminding me of the way fairy tales felt when I was younger. Most of the fantasy related stuff I read nowadays has no wonder left in it. Everything is explained or otherwise made to feel normal. But the mythology in Pan's Labyrinth felt fresh and mysterious. They didn't go into very many long explanations, and the explanations they did give left a lot to the imagination. The lack of explanations didn't feel like a hole in the story, either, it just felt like that was the nature of the fantasy world. It didn't have to make sense.
I don't want to give away any spoilers, but I definitely loved the second trial. Very very creepy. I liked the idea of the book as well. It seemed like it could be a good plot-driving magic item in a D&D campaign. I wish it was used a little more in the movie.
The faun himself (not actually Pan, but they thought the literal translation of the title, "The Labyrinth of the Faun" might make audiences think of a baby deer instead of a fantastic creature) was awesomely done. He moved very realistically. I was afraid he would look more animatronic, but all of his movements (aside from his eyes and ears) were made by an actor wearing a complicated suit, including the faun legs. He's very lifelike, looking neither like a cartoonish computer animated creature nor a machine.
Though it's full of fairy tales, this movie is not for children. The real life portions (and even a few of the fairy tale ones) can be graphic and disturbing. The movie's full of complicated emotions that children would probably have a hard time relating to as well. It's also in Spanish. I always prefer subtitles over dubbing, so we didn't bother to see if the DVD had an option for English dubbing, but the subtitles were well done. Apparently the writer did his own translations for the subtitles after having problems with the subtitles in previous movies.
All in all I loved it, and would recommend it to D&D folks with the caveat that there is a lot of WWII-ish elements in the story (it's set in fascist Spain near the end of the war and features a sadistic captain trying to defend his region against communist rebels) so those who love movies like Lord of the Rings and the Harry Potter series, but hate movies like The Great Escape, or Dirty Dozen won't like this as much.
