Class Analysis of How Pan’s Fits the Fantasy Genre
Reflection on the Genre Analysis
Similarities:
- Pan’s Labyrinth has some very generic locations including long corridors, mysterious forests, etc.
- Pan’s has a particularly generic archetypal villain – Vidal.
- The story has the generic struggle between good and evil.
- Ofelia sacrifices herself to save her brother instead.
- Pan’s includes a generic chase scene of the main character being chased by some evil.
Differences:
- The Faun doesn’t fit in with generic conventions – he expects Ofelia to follow him blindly and it makes the audience unsettled and untrusting of the Faun.
- Ofelia’s death defies generic fantasy conventions – based on the genre, we do not expect Ofelia to die.
- Pan’s does not include a large battle scene as per other fantasy films, but instead multiple smaller, more tense scenes.
- Ofelia does not prevail over the evil, other characters kill Vidal at the end.
- The use of war tropes and props such as Carmen’s wheelchair contrasts the fantasy tropes – this creates the more serious elements of the film as well as putting forward some of the overarching themes (i.e. the impact of war on children).