Synopsis

In 1944 Francoist Spain, young Ofelia moves with her pregnant mother to a remote military outpost commanded by her brutal stepfather. Drawn into an ancient stone labyrinth, she encounters a mysterious faun who claims she is a lost princess and assigns her three dangerous tasks. As violence closes in around her, Ofelia turns increasingly to the fantasy world for courage, escape, and meaning.

Factoids & Trivia

• The film was produced as a Spanish-Mexican co-production and was released internationally in 2006. Its original Spanish title refers to a faun, while the English title uses "Pan" even though the creature is not the mythological god Pan.

• The story grew from Guillermo del Toro's notebooks, which contained years of drawings, ideas, and handwritten notes. During production, he accidentally left the notebooks in a London taxi, but the driver later returned them.

• Del Toro wrote the English subtitles himself after being dissatisfied with the subtitles for his earlier Spanish-language film "The Devil's Backbone."

• The fantasy creatures were created largely through practical makeup, animatronics, and puppetry rather than computer-generated imagery. The Faun's makeup took several hours to apply, and the performer wore elevated legs to create the character's unusual silhouette.

• "Pan's Labyrinth" received six Academy Award nominations and won three Oscars: Best Cinematography, Best Art Direction, and Best Makeup.

• The film is often regarded as a thematic companion to "The Devil's Backbone," another Spanish Civil War-era fantasy that explores childhood, violence, and the supernatural.

• The giant toad's design was inspired by the maze creature in the 1956 film "The Maze."