Guillermo del Toro's acclaimed fantasy epic gets the Special Edition treatment.

At first glance, the phrase "from the director of Hellboy" hardly seems like a persuasive pitch for a serious dramatic film. But Guillermo del Toro infused a surprising amount of warmth and depth into his CGI-laden comic book movie, proving that technology and human feeling really can coexist on celluloid. With his latest effort, Pan's Labyrinth, del Toro has found the ultimate vehicle for his unique skillset, creating a world at once beautiful and terrifying.

The story, told through the eyes of a precocious 10 year old named Ofelia (Ivana Baquero), takes place in Spain in 1944, when dictator Francisco Franco first began inflicting his unique brand of fascism on the war-weary nation.

While staying at the mountain chateau of her pregnant mother's new husband, the fiendish Franco henchman Capitan Vidal (Sergi Lopez), Ofelia encounters a tiny fairy-like creature. The creature seems taken with the girl and leads her through a dark forest labyrinth, at the center of which lies a mysterious staircase leading to dark and treacherous underground kingdom. There she encounters an elderly faun (which we assume is Pan) who insists that Ofelia's true identity is that of Moanna, Princess of the Underground Realm. Before she can return, however, she must complete a series of quests in order to prove that her essence is intact.

Alternating between the real and surreal worlds, del Toro creates a kind of fairy tale for adults, a vivid allegory for the climate of fear and repression experienced by Spanish citizens in the early days of Franco's brutal regime. It's a perfectly suitable method for del Toro's objective; indeed, for most of us the prospect of fascist rule seems so remote as to be a fairytale. It takes something as bold and imaginative as Pan's Labyrinth to remind us of the horrors wrought by fascism and its variants.

Baquero shines as del Toro's wide-eyed muse, while the incomparable Doug Jones, a longtime del Toro collaborator, excels as both Pan and the Pale Man (one of the more frightening creatures Ofelia encounters in the underground realm).

Pan's Labyrinth represents Guillermo del Toro's finest work to date. The only director working today with comparable skills is Lord of the Rings wizard Peter Jackson. With more efforts like Pan's Labyrinth, del Toro could soon surpass him.

ReelzChannel Rating: 

What's on the DVD:

Guillermo del Toro has never been one to skimp on his DVDs, and this two-disc edition is jam-packed with extras. Disc one features a short "Video Prologue" in which del Toro describes Pan's Labyrinth as "the movie that almost destroyed me." The director also recorded an entertaining audio commentary track.

Disc Two Contents:

Four Featurettes: The Power of Myth, Pan and The Fairies, The Color and the Shape and The Lullaby.

Director's Notebook: Del Toro's sketches and notes, storyboards and thumbnail sketches.

The Charlie Rose Show: Rose interviews del Toro, Alfonso Cuaron and Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu.

DVD Comics: Short animated prequels providing the backstory for The Giant Toad, The Fairies, Pan and The Pale Man.

DVD Rom/Online Features

Check out ReelzChannel.com's Pan's Labyrinth page for interviews, clips from the film and more!