Two Exits From Pan’s Labyrinth

This edit splits Pan's Labyrinth into its two main themes, one surrounding the war and one around Ofelia's fantasy adventure. A superb idea but very difficult to pull off due to how intertwined the two storylines are in the original. I watched Episode 2 (the war cut) first.

LA GUERRA DEL CAPITAN MALVADO
Audio editing was mostly good, spotted a few transitions. Two flash frames at 25:44, 26:03, otherwise well edited visually.
There is some minor elements left over from the fantasy side - namely the insect from the beginning, Ofelia observing her birth mark in the bathroom, reading the faun's book in the bathroom - but these are mostly minor, and perhaps not possible to cut and keep the story making sense. Cutting out the mandrake was done very well given the footage acvailable.

This part isn't as enjoyable as a standalone film, as it's weaker than the fantasy storlyine, and so worked better in the additional film as a support to the fantasy side, although it does work well narratively speaking.

OFELIA PRINCESA DE LAS PROFUNDIDADES
Not much to say here - the fantasy cut as a standalone FanFix is superb. Probably even more could've been cut but then the pace would be too high. Noticed one audio fade, and the audio cut is slightly late at 50:25. Everything else editing wise was invisible or close enough. Fade outs are used appropriately.

OVERALL COMMENTS
I think the edits (particularly the war cut) could've benefited from more aggressively cutting to certain POVs in order to reduce the overlap between the material (although potentially hurting the narratives a bit, and requiring one another to work as a whole - like an anthology). But that's just my take as that was not the intention here, and this edit definitely succeeds in its goal of presenting two alternate views of the film's events, each with clear narratives of their own that work as standalones.

I will say that watching these two parts back to back highlights some interesting things I hadn't spotted before - e.g. Ofelia's mother parroting Vidal's words (the real world isn't a fairytale) and the faun being subtly presented to be similar to Vidal (the faun demands Ofelia to "do everything i tell you, without question", and the doctor says something to Vidal along those lines as well).

The intro and outro credits for both cuts are very cool, would like to see more editors make them like this.

Note: 
If you're going to watch both parts, then i recommend warching episode 2 (the war cut) first, as it is the weaker half, and it works better first - the fantasy storlyone revelas additional details not shown in the war cut, and the ending of the war cut leads into the beginning of the fantasy cut. However, if you're not very interested in the war side, and just want Ofelia's story, then I'd watch the fantasy cut first as there is a good amount of overlapping material, which makes watching the fantasy cut right after the war cut a little more tedious than it would've been when watched first.

In conclusion, this is quite an impressive edit that clearly had a lot of work put into it, and while I appreciated the war cut, the fantasy cut in particular is the selling point here. It's a really fun way to rewatch the film whilst avoiding the politics, brutality, and torture of the original. If I rewatch Pan's Labyrinth in the future, I might just go with OFELIA PRINCESA DE LAS PROFUNDIDADES instead.

Thank you to Boon for making this, and to thecuddlyninja for resurrecting it.

Fantastic concept which is really interesting despite varying degrees of "working" for me. Of the two stories, the fantastical cut only works narratively if you're familiar with the original. And there were a couple shots (Mercedes grabbing the knife, for example) which stuck out as not belonging here. Conversely, the 'real life' version worked extremely well for me. It focuses on the themes of living up to heroism in a time with no war, which was among my favorites of the film itself. This edit doesn't do anything new, but it does break apart the themes of the theatrical cut into two, to good effect.

Technically, couple awkward fades and a couple of flash subs, not perfect but nothing major.

November 17, 2008 @ 4:29 pm

*This rating was given before reviews were required*

June 17, 2010 @ 4:13 am

*This rating was given before reviews were required*