We just got back from seeing Pan's Labyrinth.

Wow. Just, um, wow. Jess, what was it you wanted to talk to me about, waaaaay back when you saw it?

I'm seeing it today!

Jess, what was it you wanted to talk to me about, waaaaay back when you saw it?

I wanted to know your opinion of the fantasy stuff, particularly the ending.

I've found that people who assume that all the fantasy elements are real and really exist come away with a much more positive view of the ending (when her earthly body has to die so that she can BE A FAIRY PRINCESS FOREVER) than people who think it's a story about a war-traumatized child who escapes into her imagination and then DIES.

Um, you can probably guess which side I fall on...

I...but...what? Why? WHO? WHY WHY WHY?

...I think I just had a minor heart attack.

I suspect this is how the LOTR bibliophiles felt when the films were being made, only they didn't make the Hobbits AMERICAN.

I wondered if that was what you wanted to ask me! Of course the fantasy elements were real. (You knew I'd say that.) And yes, the fact that her earthly, mortal existance had to end so she could return to her life in the Underworld not only made perfect sense to me, but made it a happy (well, happy-ish, because I felt bad for the mortals left behind mouring) ending to me.

The two moments that apparently made me gasp out loud (I'm assuming that's what caused Pete to turn and look at me) were when she showed the bug the picture of the picture of the fairy and the bug changed its shape, and when the faun gave her the mandrake root and told her what she needed to do with it. Tho' I will admit my initial suspicions about the mandrake in the bowl of milk were wrong; I thought it was going to turn into a changeling baby that she would end up swapping for her brother (after her mother died, because I knew that was going to happen), and then she would take her human brother into Fairyland with her. But I quickly realized that couldn't be it; that the nature of the tasks set for her would mean that she was going to be told she would need to spill blood to return to Fairyland, and that she (of course!) would not harm her brother, which would turn out to be the right choice.

Which means, yeah, I guessed the ending about half-way through the movie. But I didn't mind, because I wanted to see how it was done, and I think it was done perfectly. It had a very classic fairy-tale feel to it, and I loved loved LOVED it.

Pete and I were just talking about this: how would people who think all the fantasy elements weren't real explain how she escaped the captain in the labyrinth? Because she was at a dead end, and if the walls opening and taking her to the center was just in her imagination, then the captain should have found her in that dead end when he got there a few minutes later.

But I didn't mind, because I wanted to see how it was done, and I think it was done perfectly. It had a very classic fairy-tale feel to it, and I loved loved LOVED it.

Oh yes, it's done so perfectly that I would have been disappointed if I hadn't been able to see the ending coming -- it's a fairy tale, so it needed a fairy tale ending.

I loved that bit with the fairy changing shape.

And I loved that the monster in the final task was Vidal, bringing the two storylines together like that. Of course it had to be, but it was just so perfectly done.

And relatedly, I loved that the evil stepparent was an evil stepfather, and that it didn't occur to me until afterward that that particular trope had been regendered.

I haven't seen the answer to that laid out, but my guess would be that he was still reeling from the drugs, and just took a wrong turn. She went down a path with an exit, he didn't, and so he had to backtrack.

But Guillermo did tell E in his interview that there's one moment in the film that can't be explained unless you believe in the fantasy, and I wonder if that's what he was talking about.

Oh yes, it's done so perfectly that I would have been disappointed if I hadn't been able to see the ending coming -- it's a fairy tale, so it needed a fairy tale ending.

I wonder if there are going to be some viewers who, not being as thoroughly grounded in fairy tales as some of us, are going to be very upset by the ending. Okay, maybe upset isn't the right word, but who will not get it, and feel a little bit betrayed by the classical fairy-tale structure.

Y'know, I didn't even stop to think about how novel it was that the wicked step-parent trope was changed from tradition. And it should have, because we recently watched Nanny McPhee (which was pretty cute, actually), and one of the kids in that movie actually mentions how step-mothers are a bad breed, that anyone who reads knows that.

I think that anyone who would make the argument that she went down a path with an exit, and he made a wrong turn just wasn't paying attention, but I'm a bit ... inflexible in my viewpoint about How The World Works in those types of stories.

But Guillermo did tell E in his interview that

Oooh, I wonder. Could you please give me a link to the interview again, now that I've seen the movie and it's safe for me to read it?

Here you go -- Deconstructing Pan's Labyrinth.