PAN'S LABYRINTH (2006)
Label: Warner Bros. Home Entertainment
region Code: Region-Free (4K), A (Blu-ray)
Rating: R
Duration: 119 Minutes
Audio: Castillian Spanish DTS-HAD 5.1, DTS-HD 7.1 (Blu-ray Only) with Optional English
Subtitles
Video: 2160p HD Widescreen (1.85:1), 1080p HD Widescreen (1.85:1)
Director: Guillermo del Toro
Cast: Sergi López, Maribel Verdú, Ivana Baquero, Doug Jones, Ariadna Gil, Álex Angulo
Synopsis: Following a bloody civil war, young Ofelia enters a world of unimaginable cruelty when she moves in with her new stepfather, a tyrannical military officer. Armed with only her imagination, Ofelia discovers a mysterious labyrinth and meets a faun who sets her on a path to saving herself and her ailing mother. But soon, the lines between fantasy and reality begin to blur, and before Ofelia can turn back, she finds herself at the center of a ferocious battle between good and evil.
Guillermo del Toror's Pan's Labyrinth (2006) is what I would consider his absolute masterpiece so far, a horrific children's tale of a young girl growing up in the summer of 1944, following the Spanish Civil War, during the Franco-ist fascist period. At the start of the film young Ofelia (Ivana Baquero, Romasanta) joins her mother Carmen (Ariadna Gil, Appaloosa), who is with-child, to join her new husband, Captain Vidal (Sergi López, Dirty Pretty Things). Vidal is a cruel and sadistic Francoist militant who has been assigned a post in the countryside rounding up small pockets of Republican rebels. Soon after arriving young Ofelia sees a strange looking stick insect which she follows into the woods, where it reveals itself to be a fairy, leading her to a ancient stone labyrinth located in the nearby woods. this opens her up to a fairy-tale world inhabited by a deer-like humanoid creature named Faun (Doug Jones, Hellboy) who believes Ofelia to be the reincarnation of a long-lost fairy-tale Princess named Moanna. Faun gives her a magical book and sets her on three tasks which will confirm her true lineage, which if proven true will allow her to take her place among a magical kingdom hidden away from the real world.
Naturally a young girl growing up in fascist regime would yearn for the fantastical refuge of fairy tales, the film makes no bones about the horrors she's experienced in life and now in the hands of the cruel Captain Vidal, which the film makes clear is a man who only married her mother to sire an heir of his own, His feelings towards the young Ofelia are truly unpleasant and only get worse as the film rolls along. However, the young girl finds a real-world friend by way of the sympathetic housekeeper Mercedes (Maribel Verdú, Y tu mamá también), who it turns out is a rebel sympathizer who assists the rebellion right under the nose of the Captain, which will prove to have some serious consequences.
The imagery of the film is sublime, a deep forest fairy-tale set in a mountainous region, with magical creature by way of Faun, the deeply unsettling Pale Man - a child-eater of the fairy-tale world, and a giant toad that lives deep within the roots of a magical tree. The transition from the horrors of the real world to the fairy-tale world are organic and well-done throughout the entire film. The cast is also superb, young Ofelia's curiosity and sadness are deeply felt, as are the cruelties of her fascist stepfather. Obviously a film about sad little girl and magical kingdom might beg the question is any of this magical stuff real, or is it just escapist imagination in the mind of a troubled young girl, and I don't think the film itself answers that question, but I certainly wanted to believe their was more to this young girl's life that the hard reality of her situation, and regardless of what was intended the film is a magic bit of fantasy.
Audio/Video: Pan's Labyrinth arrives on 4K Ultra HD in 2160p HD widescreen (1.85:1), the image is fantastic looking, vastly improving upon the previous Warner Bros. Blu-ray edition with deep true blacks and pleasing shadow detail. Thankfully the compression and black crush that marred that previous release are nowhere to be seen here. Colors are strong throughout, tastefully emboldened and deepened by the HDR10 enhancement which looks excellent, there's also a nice uptick in fine detail and clarity throughout the presentation.
Audio on the 4K Ultra HD disc comes by way of a Spanish DTS-HD 5.1 surround mix with optional English subtitles. It's a solid and immersive track, though I do find it a bit baffling that we do not get a Dolby Atmos remix, or even the previous DTS 7.1 mix from the previous Warner Blu-ray release. That said, it's a solid track that is dynamic and nicely nuanced, with the Javier Navarrete (The Devil's Backbone) score having a nice presence in the mix.
The only extra on the 4K Ultra HD disc is the audio commentary with Guillermo del Toro, with the other extras being on the accompanying Blu-ray disc which is the same exact disc as the previous Blu-ray, it does not feature a new scan of the film, but does feature the previous DTS 7.1 mix that s not present on the 4K disc, plus we get the previous Warner Bros. Blu-ray extras, nothing new here, this does not contain any of the Criterion extras from their 2017 Blu-ray release.
The 2-disc release arrives in a black eco-case with a one-sided sleeve of artwork with a slipcover containing the same art. Inside there's a digital redemption code for the film.
Special Features:
- Audio commentary by Guillermo del Toro
- Video prologue by Guillermo del Toro *
- The Power of Myth (14 min) *
- The Faun and the Fairies (30 min) *
- The Color and the Shape (4 min) *
- The Director’s Notebook (5 min) *
* Blu-ray Only Extra
Pan's Labyrinth (2006) looks absolutely wonderful on 4K from Warner Bros., the lack of a Atmos audio option or new extras is disappointing but the archival extras are still excellent and the picture quality is superior to both the previous Warner and Criterion releases.
