Del Toro's comments

Thank you, AP Comp test: I've missed the ending of Pan's Labyrinth due to thou. Luckily, I've had it ruined for me. I liked the combined aspects of mature film and the rather simplistic qualities of fairy tales used in this Del Toro film. I never got to understand the analytical aspects of these tales of Spain until today most notably, the importance of the number three. 3 sisters, 3 trials, 3 chances, 3 doors. In this film, the pairs of 3 are certainly noticable. There are 3 doors that Ofelia can open with the key (although she ends up botching that up well), the fascists came in pairs of three (didn't notice that one), there are three tasks Ofelia must perform, and the rather nasty incident where the Captain forces a stutterer to count to three without stuttering to escape torture. However, the pairs of three within this film were different in the fact that it played with my perceptions of fairy tales. For me the signs had changed. By the end of the film, I was trained to believe the signs of 3 ended up being anything but good news. True, I probably can't talk because the last thing I saw was the captain's face get mutilated. However, it only resulted in Ofelia being abandoned to the real world, the death of the stutterer, and waking up a thing with funny eyes on his hands. Del Toro said he wrote this film with a purpose of staying within convention of the traditional "heroic journey" narrative. However, that was only the feel. The heroic journey was followed, but it broke smaller norms on the way. Congratulation, Del Toro.