Revealing mistake: Near the end, when the captain is walking out of the labyrinth holding the baby, you can tell it's a dummy. The baby does not move in the slightest, you can't even see it breathe.
Pan's Labyrinth (2006)
Directed by: Guillermo del Toro
Starring: Doug Jones, Maribel Verdu, Sergi Lopez, Ivana Baquero, Ariadna Gil
Continuity mistake: As Mercedes flees after cutting the captain, her hair is done up in a braid, but in the next shot her hair is down and flowing. (01:34:05)
Continuity mistake: When Mercedes flees through the forest to escape the soldiers, the blood pattern, thickness and color of blood on her face changes between shots. (01:33:00 - 01:35:30)
Trivia: The faun is not actually Pan. The film's correct title translated into English is 'The Labyrinth of the Faun'. However, the director, Guillermo del Toro, thought that the English-speaking audiences would get confused between a 'faun' (mythological creature) and a 'fawn' (baby deer). Therefore, for all English-speaking countries, the title is 'Pan's Labyrinth'.
Trivia: In a recent interview del Toro said that he tried to create subtle parallels between the "real world" and the fantasy world. One example of this is in the scene where Captain Vidal's dinner guests arrive in the rainstorm; the umbrellas they use are very similar to the heaving black flesh of the Giant Toad.
Trivia: Director Guillermo del Toro originally had the fairies from this film designed for a short sequence in his film Hellboy. Modified versions of the fairies are still visible in the Director's Cut DVD, where they can be seen pickled in a jar, though they appear somewhat different. Del Toro later used the exact same fairies from Pan's Labyrinth in Hellboy II: The Golden Army, during the Troll Market scene.
Capitán Vidal: Tell my son the time that his father died. Tell him.
Mercedes: No. He won't even know your name.
Rey: Arise, my daughter. Come. You have spilled your own blood rather than the blood of an innocent. That was the final task and the most important.
Pan: And you chose well, Your Highness.
Carmen: Come here with me, and sit by your father's side.
Question: All realistic indication by the end of the movie points to the fantasy actually being real, based on strong evidence. (Such as the magical door and chalk, etc.) Is there any strong theories that the fantasy is not real? I know is is ultimately up to the viewer to decide, I am just curious as to whether or not there is any concrete proof the fantasy might not be real.
Question: Could Ofelia's second task possibly have been to kill the Pale Man? Because after she retrieved the dagger the faeries flew towards the Pale Man before Ofelia picked the grape.
Answer: I saw nothing in the movie indicating that. Ofelia's task seemed to be to retrieve the blade, she failed because she didn't follow Pan's instructions about not touching the food.
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Answer: Evidence from the film:1) The image of a ram appears frequently in the house, including over the mother's bed and the twisted growth of the tree. An image such as this suggests that the fawn was created from common images.2) The first image is of the magical realm. The the following show Ofelia reading a fantasy book. This inidicates that the movie will be mostly from the point of view of a child who spends time developing her imagination. 3) The images of fascist, war-torn Spain are bleak aand desaturated while the images of the magical realm are bright. Even the monochromatic images of el Fauno are supersaturated. This filming technique suggests that Ofelia creates the fantasy.4) At the end of the movie, the General cannot see Ofelia talking to el Fauno. Therefore, at least for him, the kingdom is fantasy.The proof exists for both. The flower at the end of the film has been cited as evidence that the magical world certainly exists but only for those who choose to see it. This means that the kingdom is both real and not real - a paradox.