Pan's Labyrinth=Amazing

After watching the trippy adult fairy tale that is "Pan's Labyrinth" one thing stuck with me, perhaps this is due to the fact that I had been taking notes on it throughout the entire film but the set design in "Pan's Labyrinth" was breathtaking. After taking notes on the set design I tried to pull up some extra features and commentary tracks on the making of the film but this only comes with the two disk feature set. Feeling a bit helpless I finally struck gold on a YouTube search "Pan's Labyrinth Set Design". This was just what I was looking for, a commentary segment by the director, Guillermo del Toro and the set designer, Eugenio Caballero. This commentary focuses most of it's attention towards the differences between the set design of the "real world" and the "magical/mythical world" seen throughout the film. Caballero and Del Toro collaborated together on the set design, in the commentary Del Toro points out that he wanted the "real world" to look very cruel and cold, he was able to accomplish this by using diagonal and straight lines, everything in the set is rough and textured so the set seems more unforgiving. Del Toro uses cool colors like blue and black to establish the sadness and loneliness that Ofelia, the main character is experiencing, it is almost always raining as well, this adds to the dispair that she feels. By collaborating together Del Toro and Caballero are able to paint a realistic portrait of the line between a world of cruelty and evil and a world of hope and love. The magical world is seen as a sort of safe haven for Ofelia as she strives to escape the cruelties that surround her. The sets of the magical world are amazing to me because they all seem so real, the truth is the sets for the mythical world are all big models. Del Toro chose to do it this way because he wanted it to lie on the fine line between reality and a mythical place. Caballero uses many rounded objects and soft light in his set designs for the "magical realm", quite the opposite of his "real world's" sets. The use of soft colors like red, yellow, and gold help lighten the mood when things in the real world are violent and terrifying. At certain points during the film the set designs echo each other, Ofelia's stepfather, a tyrannical military officer throws a dinner party with his "yes men" and their wives. The table they are eating on is a long and ornate hand crafted piece , at the head of the table sits this cruel man that kills with no remorse, later on in the film we return to Ofelia's quest and she must complete a task, in the set of this scene the very same table is present and at the head of the table a terrible monster awaits Ofelia like a spider luring in it's prey. Del Toro mentions in his commentary that, "The set design is trying to tell us that the girl, (Ofelia) is trying to understand the real world through the fantasy. For the most part the sets were constructed by the set design crew with exception to those that were digitally retouched, (The Ruins). Del Toro adds his own thoughts when he gives the woods a glowing affect full of life and mysteries, one thing that I noticed that added a bit of mysticism was the floating particles seen throughout the air that gave the film a nice dreamlike quality. Overall there weren't many problems that got in the way but Del Toro and Caballero are so smooth in their directions that there was little room for error, It is not hard to see why Pan's Labyrinth is Guillermo Del Toro's proudest film.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u4pbPUqain4