TH - I also agree that the message is the necessity to resist oppressive authority, but the medium in which this message is delivered is mythology, so I think it’s appropriate to criticize this aspect.

I feel that the creatures of the underworld are deceptive and evil, and lured Ofelia into believing that she was the princess Moanna, and to complete the tasks (which led to the disobedience of her mom (dirty dress), the big fight between the Captain and her mom (mandrake rook) and ultimately led to her death). Perhaps it’s just me, but I recall that Pan can sometimes be a deceptive and tricky faun in the legends? The faun has horns, and so does the devil (deception and temptation of a princess title) and the creature seemed to be hiding sometime from Ofelia all the time and overwhelmingly pleased when she obeyed and performed the tasks that he asked of her….leading him to believe that she would soon complete the final task of killing her little brother. The faun was also devious and quickly changed the subject when Ofelia asked…who was the baby on the stone in the middle of the labyrinth (Faun had said that the taller figure was him, the girl was Ofelia….).

Mercedes said in the beginning that the labyrinth was very old, older than the mill, it has been around for a while. Would it be possible that the underworld creatures have existed for a while, luring every young girl that comes around with the 3 tasks, hoping to either gain the innocent blood of their baby siblings (or of the girls themselves, should they refuse) to flow in the 7 circles surrounding the stone…in order to keep the portal open between the underworld that that of the living world? How many other little girls have died at the labyrinth? (The vision Ofelia has at the end could just be a coping mechanism with death, or a real occurance—> the underworld can let you see what you WANT to see)

Mercedes also remarked that she doesn’t trust fauns…and she doesn’t believe in fairies any more. Could it be that when she was a young girl, she was also approached by the underworld creatures and offered a title of “Princess Moanna”, but that she refused to make it to the 3rd task (seeing as her little brother Pedro is still alive). Mercedes was the one who pulled Ofelia away from the labyrinth at the beginning, and who also seemed to know that she would find Ofelia at the labyrinth when she saw the chalk door beside the bed.

About the toad scene, I don’t think it is giving it justice to treat it as a poorly-made scary sequence. The passage is more about an initiation than an act of bravoury eventhough it clearly sets Ofelia’s own courage and determination, two features also important in Spanish culture. Her determination can be compared to that of Kirikou when he kills the monster from inside the water source cavern in ‘Kirikou & la sorciere’. I found the tension build-up more the result of how she was bound to ruining her mother’s expectations for that day (first the shoes, then the dress, then the time running out) than that of the Capitan.

About the discussion between Faun/Pan or Hades. There is clearly a bush setting throughout the movie. The timber houses sqreak at night, and the bedrrom night scenes gives the feeling of the hous being nested in a tree. Beside, it can be assumed that Ofelia, as her child her age and left without vigilance, her mother being incapacitated, spends most of her time during the day in the forest (episode in the fig tree where she leaves in the morning to come back only late at night, probably also the location where she would have found the mandrake root) and away from the military compound, where the capitan reigns.

The two ‘converging arcs’ or fantasy and reality. I have to agree with Lois, in that interpretation given outside the movie, even if by the director itself, should not be taken into account. A piece of art, becomes an independent object once achieved. In my own view, del Toro has managed to keep the two contrasting worlds, Ofelia’s imaginary one, and the brutal realism of the fascist Guardia Civil camp, impervious to each other and without any apparent contradiction throughout the movie. You will note, for instance that Ofelia didn’t loose her shoe in the Pale Man’s episode which couldn’t have been explained otherwise. If del Toro intended to give us the sense that the supernatural was reality, he did in my opinion a poor job: through the movie, one can believe in it or equally not believe in it. The chalk drawing against the walls could be a passage or just a child’s drawing, the mother may or may not have been aware of the mandrake root cries, Ofelia may have taken advantage of the camp disorder to find her way to the Capitan’s room or may have used the magic chalk, etc…).

About the Pale’s Man scene. Since Freud, dreams are an expression of desires. This scene takes place at night and is most probably a dream. As a little girl who went to bed without dinner, she had to be tempted. Also the scene apparent uncoherence gives the impression of a going through a dream. The pale man eating the elves is reminiscent of some Goya painting such as Chronos eating his children (also drawn from the horrors of the war in his native Spain – with Napoleon at the time).

Another interesting contrast between the two world is perception of time; on the one hand an ancient kingdom, the old fig tree, the ancient carved stones, all give an impression of being detached from temporality and on the other hand, the Capitan’s ticking precision watch that regulate life in the camp.

The end is particularly grasping and is reminiscent of that epic moment in the history of movies when Gary Cooper, in as Peter Ibetson, is dying in his jail cell and found himself re-united with his true love, dying too in the same magical instant 1000s of miles away.

I don’t think del Toro added anything original in that interview–he just pointed out what was already openly there.

It’s always a curious thing when an author clarifies a mystery: sometimes it is very valuable and enriching; other times I find I prefer my own interpretation and wish the author has just let the work speak for itself.

But this is into mileage varying territory again, as I am often unclear about spatial relationships, such as those found in mazes.