2008 Woodie Awards
Creature features worth shedding 'the blood of innocents'
Julia Eckhardt
In the featurette, "The Power of Myth," director Guillermo Del Toro explains his life-long fascination with fairy tales and how he has chosen to interpret it through his film.
Another interesting feature is called "Pan and the Fairies," where we get a glimpse into everything about the monsters in- cluding the makeup and prosthetic process used for the amazingly well-constructed Faun and Pale Man.
"The worst thing an effects house can do, or a director can do in creating a movie, is just to reference other movies," said Del Toro of movie monsters. Every monster in "Pan's Labyrinth" had to be recreated and conceptually reshaped to be as original as possible.
The "Director's Notebook" is absolutely gorgeous. The notes and sketches are from Del Toro's actual notebooks. As you flip through it, some pages allow you to open a mini-feature where Del Toro explains the growth of a particular idea and how it made the cut for the film.
The most interesting special feature is a three director interview on "The Charlie Rose Show" with Del Toro and directors Alfonso Cuaron ("Y Tu Mama Tambien," "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban") and Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu ("Amores Perros," "21 Grams"). The three directors have been friends for as long as a decade and continue to call each other for advice and support.
And comic book fans, don't think you were left out. There is an entire section where some monsters and film moments are turned into a DVD comic. The coolest comic is definitely the Pale Man, showing how actor Doug Jones becomes the creepy creature. The character's caption reads, "His only sustenance was the blood of innocents."
Although this 2-disc DVD is
loaded with features, just listening
to Del Toro's thick Latin accent
explain all the philosophical concepts of this film makes watching "Pan's Labyrinth" Special Edition
again and again even better.
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