Wow, I thought this was an excellent movie. Yes, I'm biased that it was directed by Guillermo del Toro, well a little. I don't remember liking Hellboy or even seeing it. But I loved his movie El Espinazo del Diablo (Devil's Backbone). Both it and Labyrinth take place post-Spanish civil war, and both movies involve supernatural things that children are experiencing--both stories with an escape as well as possibly a learning experience and/or transformation of character.
Anyway, Pan's Labyrinth was stunning, graceful, soft, sad, intense, and suspenseful. The CGI was actually quite good, even though the film itself doesn't have that big-guns feel that summer blockbusters have. Also, though the movie is about a child, I could see it as being a trifle scary for children to watch. I think it's more of an adult movie.
Anyway, as in Espinazo, Toro creates an alternate universe for his main character, as a cushion against the harsh realities of war and inhumane acts surrounding the facist repression. In this case, Franco's Spain. The young Ofelia, who loves fairy tales, is unhappy with her widowed mother's decision to remarry and now carry the child of a cruel captain.
The mother Carmen is in a constant stage of weakness and ill-health during a troublesome pregnancy, and is contrasted by strong-natured Mercedes, assistant to the captain Vidal, and also a spy who works with a doctor to get first-aid supplies to rebels out in the woods.
Anyway, Ofelia's delusions or alternate realities happen quickly in the movie as she meets a fairy, who leads her to the underworld, where she then meets an interesting faun, who is very dualistic in nature. Turns out Ofelia is really the reincarnation of a princess, and she must perform three quests to prove her immortality. Her universes bounce back and forth between fantasy and reality, and sometimes they do intercept, but both grow from somewhat hopeful to grim.
The quests involve a big frog, a pale man, the fairie, and the faun. The frog was brilliantly designed. That whole scene reminded me a lot of Alice in Wonderland. The faun drips with incredible trickery and deception. The pale man was a decidedly evil character, and a very unique one with eyes in his hands, and a new twist on what might be a traditional undead type of creature.