# Pan's Labyrinth



## Chris (Jun 10, 2007)

Pretty cool flick, definitely different. 

I had no idea it was in Spanish.  When I first turned it on, I was looking in the DVD menu for the English version.


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## ohio_eric (Jun 10, 2007)

I saw it not too long ago and I relly liked it. It reminded me of the original Aesop's fables, they're very dark. I miss movies and stories in general that can be somewhat dark.


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## NegaTiveXero (Jun 10, 2007)

Chris said:


> Pretty cool flick, definitely different.
> 
> I had no idea it was in Spanish.  When I first turned it on, I was looking in the DVD menu for the English version.



Neither does anybody else. I work at Blockbuster and NO ONE reads the back of the DVD case. We're actually required to tell everyone it's spanish now. Just to cover our asses so people don't come back and complain. 

It's funny though, the number one response I get when I tell them it's Spanish is, "Is that the only version?" or "Where's the English version?" As if they'd go through the trouble of recording the movie in two languages.  

But, yeah, the movie is awesome. Totally worth the subtitles.


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## dpm (Jun 10, 2007)

Great film


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## Naren (Jun 10, 2007)

I really enjoyed this movie. Thought it was very cool. 



NegaTiveXero said:


> Neither does anybody else. I work at Blockbuster and NO ONE reads the back of the DVD case. We're actually required to tell everyone it's spanish now. Just to cover our asses so people don't come back and complain.
> 
> It's funny though, the number one response I get when I tell them it's Spanish is, "Is that the only version?" or "Where's the English version?" As if they'd go through the trouble of recording the movie in two languages.
> 
> But, yeah, the movie is awesome. Totally worth the subtitles.



I absolutely hate dubbing. I always watch movies with subtitles regardless of the language (well, I watch English movies with no subtitles and Japanese movies with no subtitles), whether it's Spanish, German, Chinese, Korean, or whatever. When re-dub a movie, it almost always becomes a joke. 

Personally I don't think any movie should be dubbed. I once accidentally rented a Chinese movie (because someone had recommended it to me) that only had the dubbed version. The story was very good and I THINK the acting was very good, but the dubbing was so horrible that it almost came off like a comedy to me.


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## Ryan (Jun 10, 2007)

I liked it a lot! I think a dubbed version would be lame too.
Mainly because Pan's voice was so awesome and the way he spoke the spanish made it really dark. 

@ Nick - I'm convinced most customers are illiterate anyways.


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## Awakened Sleeper (Jun 10, 2007)

Excellent flick! +1 to all the anti-dubbing comments, I fuckin' hate dubbing. It just makes pretty much any movie look cheap.

If you haven't already done so, I thoroughly recommend Del Toro's earlier movie The Devil's Backbone, while maybe not as fantasy-based it had a very similar vibe.


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## JJ Rodriguez (Jun 10, 2007)

I really liked the movie, but I felt they easily could have shaved about half an hour off the movie, because it was so slow moving at times. And I generally like really long movies, it just seemed that there was a whole lot of nothing going on at times.


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## Mastodon (Jun 10, 2007)

I just watched it the other day and loved it as well.

I asked my spanish teacher if we could watch it this week since we'd be doing nothing in class and she said she would love to let us watch it but the whole foreign language dept. forbade the teachers from showing movies this week.


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## Nick1 (Jun 10, 2007)

Very very good movie! I liked it alot!


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## settite (Jun 10, 2007)

Spoiler



Best part of the movie was when the zombie like thing ate the head off of the faeries imo!


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## 7 Dying Trees (Jun 11, 2007)

Very cool film. Dubbing would just take away from it, such an excellent ending as well. Must watch it again as the girlfriend bought it on DVD 

Besides, isn't spanish one of the most spoken languages in the world anyway?


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## NemesisTheory (Jun 12, 2007)

I loved this movie too. It was beautifully done all around. The sound editing was incredible when you hear it in the theater. Particularly when Pan was moving around, you could hear all these individual creaking sounds through the various speakers. Coolest rendition of Pan I've seen, and you had to love the freaky child-eating monster. That guy was spooky! 

Scott


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## Chris (Jun 12, 2007)

SPOILERS AHOY! 



Spoiler



So, what do you guys who have seen it think of the ending? Was she dead?


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## settite (Jun 12, 2007)

Spoiler



I think she was dead but you can take that end a few different ways. Also if you think about it how would the mind of a child who read fantasy books be in such a dark time and surroundings be? It may be have all been real in her reality but not others. But it depends on how you percieve fantasy and seperate it from reality.


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## Mastodon (Jun 12, 2007)

Chris said:


> SPOILERS AHOY!
> 
> 
> 
> ...





Spoiler



Yeah, I interpreted it as she died and the scene where she met her "real" parents was just her finally achieving her "happy" place.


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## cadenhead (Jun 17, 2007)

Finally watched this last night.  

That child eating monster was cool as hell too.


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## Blexican (Jun 18, 2007)

Great movie. Loved it all the way through.

Anybody know how to cover up spoilers?


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## Naren (Jun 18, 2007)

Blexican said:


> Great movie. Loved it all the way through.
> 
> Anybody know how to cover up spoilers?



 Uh... just don't highlight them? 

... Is this a trick question?


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## Mastodon (Jun 18, 2007)

Naren said:


> Uh... just don't highlight them?
> 
> ... Is this a trick question?



Nah, he's asking how to use the spoiler tags.

Type [ spoiler ] at the beginning

and then [ /spoiler ] at the end.

Edit: Without the gaps inbetween the bracket and first letter.


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## Rev2010 (Jun 18, 2007)

Spoiler



Well, I would think she died in the mortal world but as the story tells she went back to her realm. If it was all in her imagination then how did she use chalk to get into the captains locked room - remember when the faun tells her to make her own door? Then there's the mandrake root, how would she have known a spell that actually worked?


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## Chris (Jun 20, 2007)

^ Good point.


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## Karl Hungus (Jun 20, 2007)

I don't know why I don't post on this board more often, I'm a huge film buff, and I like to think I'm fairly well read too...

Anyway, Pan's Labyrinth was a phenominally good film. One of the best of last year. I'm quite a big fan of director Guillermo Del Toro, I've seen all his films, and have most of them on DVD. He's also the guy who directed Hellboy too, just in case anyone here didn't know. 

I'll mirror the sentiments about The Devil's Backbone too, which was an exceptionally good movie. I'm also looking forward to another spanish language film he's doing called 3993, which seems to be along the lines of the aforementioned Devil's Backbone.


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## Thomas (Jun 22, 2007)

Saw this a few days ago. I'd expected it to be a kids' movie, but it was quite delightful to find out I was wrong.


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## Blexican (Jun 22, 2007)

Spoiler



I loved the scene where Vidal smashes that one guy's nose in with that beer bottle. I'm kind of a gorehog when it comes to movies, and that one gave me a mental chubby.


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## noodles (Jun 22, 2007)

^ That scene was awesome.


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## Nerina (Sep 3, 2007)

Yeah this was very good, different for a change, I agree, I'm glad they used subtitles instead of dubing,that would have ruined it.The special effects were great as well.


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## El Caco (Sep 3, 2007)

I haven't watched the movie but on the dubbing topic, I watched a dubbed Jet Li movie once with subtitles on at the same time, if I remember correctly it had two or three languages in the original.

Anyway watching it dubbed with subtitles was hilarious as both translations were totally different, they changed the english dubbing to match the mouth movements and in doing so they changed the movie but made it funny as to watch.


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## sakeido (Sep 3, 2007)

I always watch Japanese and Chinese movies with subtitles. For me, people talking in Nihongo, Cantonese, Mandarin or whatever just sounds awesome. Nihongo is the most epic sounding language evar.


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## noodles (Sep 4, 2007)

I'm on the fence about dubbibng. On one hand, dubbing does usually come out sounding a bit ridiculous. On the other, I feel like I am missing something while I'm reading all the subtitles. I feel like I can never really relax and just watch/listen to what is going on.


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## Vegetta (Sep 4, 2007)

I prefer subtitles - Ususally I can kinda sorta follow Japanese 
(I'm a chambara (Samurai movie) junky) I find when they dub to synch with the mouth movements the story gets changed too much from the original



Mastodon said:


> Spoiler
> 
> 
> 
> Yeah, I interpreted it as she died and the scene where she met her "real" parents was just her finally achieving her "happy" place.



That is what i thought also


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## Leon (Nov 12, 2007)

i just watched this yesterday, and thought it was awesome. though, the ending left me wanting. not in that it was ambiguous, i liked that. but,


Spoiler



she was a princess of a powerful world, and left behind a few people she cared about in a world in turmoil. i wanted to see her come back in a year's time or so, with full force, and crush the shit out of Franco and the fascists in a sort of LOTR's fashion.

the least she could have done was brought along her little brother!


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## Jason (Nov 12, 2007)

Good flick I thought as well.


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## bostjan (Nov 12, 2007)

I loved Pan's Labrynth. I thought it was perfect just the way it was, not too long, not too spanish.

Most likely my favorite movie of 2007.

I also just saw The Fountain. Also a very interesting dark movie. I loved the part just before the end. Reminded me of the ending of Pan's Labrynth in a way.


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## Regor (Nov 12, 2007)

Leon said:


> i just watched this yesterday, and thought it was awesome. though, the ending left me wanting. not in that it was ambiguous, i liked that. but,
> 
> 
> Spoiler
> ...



Leon:


Spoiler



That's because the whole thing was imaginary! It was all made up in her head. It was her way of escaping reality. Remember when the dude who shot her walked up on her when she was holding the baby next to the entrance to the labyrinth? When the camera panned to his view, she was standing there holding the baby and talking to nothing. But in her mind, she was talking to Pan about sacrificing the little brother. The other world didn't exist at all. All in her head.


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## sakeido (Nov 12, 2007)

bostjan said:


> I loved Pan's Labrynth. I thought it was perfect just the way it was, not too long, not too spanish.
> 
> Most likely my favorite movie of 2007.
> 
> I also just saw The Fountain. Also a very interesting dark movie. I loved the part just before the end. Reminded me of the ending of Pan's Labrynth in a way.



I loved the Fountain  The ending was epic and not to mention the special effects in that last scene where he is heading up there were amazing!


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## Naren (Nov 12, 2007)

noodles said:


> I'm on the fence about dubbibng. On one hand, dubbing does usually come out sounding a bit ridiculous. On the other, I feel like I am missing something while I'm reading all the subtitles. I feel like I can never really relax and just watch/listen to what is going on.



I'm of the school of thought that movies should always be seen in their original language and, if you don't understand that language, there should be subtitles.

Most dubbed movies come across almost as comedies. For some Chinese kung fu movies, it might be okay that way, but when it's a very serious depressing movie in the original language, the dubbing completely alters what kind of a film it is. In their native land, the main actor might have one "best performance of the year" for the film, but with the dubbing, it comes across like B flick-level acting.

Besides, watching Germans talking with American accents or Spaniards talking with British accents or Koreans talking in English with heavy non-native Asian accents is just unusual.

The thing I find almost offensive is that the Asian dubbed movies usually have them talking in English with the really heavy Asian accents. It's like, "Yeah, they really talk like that to each other. They aren't even fluent in their own language!" 

I do understand the idea that you can relax with a dub, but I think that the movie experience with a dub and with subtitles are drastically drastically different. It could be the difference between the best dramatic film of the year and the moderately-okay semi-comedic drama that you don't really remember all to well afterwards.



bostjan said:


> I also just saw The Fountain. Also a very interesting dark movie. I loved the part just before the end. Reminded me of the ending of Pan's Labrynth in a way.



The Fountain was excellent, as was the director's other films: Requiem For A Dream and Pi.


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## bostjan (Nov 12, 2007)

I'm also anti-dubbing. I'll take subtitles anyday.

I thought the Fountain was a little deeper than Requiem for a Dream and a little more exciting than Pi, though. I enjoyed both of those movies, even though they had their moments where I felt a little disgusted.

Pan's Labrynth was pretty balanced on the excitement to depth level, too. Pretty strong messages in there. Easily just as good to watch the second time around. I don't buy movies that I have to watch twice before I enjoy them (some of the murder-mystery dramas with seemingly too many twists), and I don't buy movies that I can't enjoy watching a second time (most of M. Night Shamalan's stuff). But I bought Pan's Labrynth even though I barely had enough money to do it.


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## Naren (Nov 12, 2007)

bostjan said:


> I thought the Fountain was a little deeper than Requiem for a Dream and a little more exciting than Pi, though. I enjoyed both of those movies, even though they had their moments where I felt a little disgusted.



Of the three, Requiem for a Dream was my favorite and Pi was my least favorite, The Fountain falling inbetween there. Sure, the Fountain was deeper, but it's a film that's completely about death, whereas Requiem for a Dream is about drug addiction. From hearing just that, The Fountain would intentionally be deeper.


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## bostjan (Nov 12, 2007)

I dunno, there are some films out there about drug addiction that go pretty deep, and there are some films out there about death that are really not deep. I don't see what is so deep about death...when something dies, it stops doing anything, whereas life in general is some very complicated stuff.

But then Requiem for a Dream was about a lot of other things that go along with drug addiction, as the Fountain was about a lot of things that go along with losing a loved one.

If I was to make a top 100 films list, I'd probably include all three, though.


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## Naren (Nov 12, 2007)

I personally wouldn't include Pi. It was good, but not top 100 films-level.

I tried to rent The Fountain about a month ago, but the rental shop near my house didn't have it.  I want to see it again.


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## Leon (Nov 13, 2007)

Regor said:


> Leon:
> 
> 
> Spoiler
> ...





Spoiler



i realize that, but it still doesn't quench my desire to see the fascists pay epicly


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## Shawn (Nov 13, 2007)

I saw this movie Saturday night on HBO. It was pretty cool.


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## ElRay (Nov 13, 2007)

Awakened Sleeper said:


> Excellent flick! +1 to all the anti-dubbing comments, I fuckin' hate dubbing. It just makes pretty much any movie look cheap.


+1


Awakened Sleeper said:


> If you haven't already done so, I thoroughly recommend Del Toro's earlier movie The Devil's Backbone, while maybe not as fantasy-based it had a very similar vibe.


+1 here too.

Almodovar is one of my favorite Directors period, but would have to be my #1 Spanish (and Spanish Speaking) director.

Ray


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## smueske (Nov 21, 2007)

Yeah, I agree that this is a cool movie. I saw it the same time I saw Children of Men, which is another cool movie (if you like dystopian themes).


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## Karl Hungus (Nov 27, 2007)




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## sakeido (Nov 28, 2007)

Karl Hungus said:


>



OMG my heart, it melted!


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