Genre Analysis of Pan’s Labyrinth

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).

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