Sweet Shoppe Designs

Synopsis: In this fairy tale, a small family in Spain moves into an old house in 1943 after the rise of Fascism. Their eldest daughter, at age 12, falls in love with a fawn that lives in the old ruined labyrinth which resides behind their new decrepit home.

This film was completely amazing, down to every detail. When I first saw the trailer, I was immediately drawn in by the character design and the beautiful soundtrack. I originally expected the film to be a child’s fantasy that was magical and fun, but upon reading reviews prior to seeing it, I learned that it was much more than that. This film is deep, and dark and amazingly creative. I wouldn’t consider this a film for small children because of the depth of the storyline, and sometimes hard to watch violence. The film was in spanish and completely subtitled..which I found added to the beauty of the film. The story goes beyond fantasy, into a reality world that is filled with such sadness and such darkness, that You want to cry along with Ofelia, the child who is desperate to escape her real life situations. The music is gorgeous from beginning to end. The costumes are completely hand-crafted and there is very little digital editing. The scenes are sometimes terribly suspenseful and even scary. Guillermo del Toro has made a fan out of Me with this film. This is definately a must see for anyone who would like to have a departure from the typical storyline. Those who are not prepared to sit through 112 minutes of beautiful spanish dialogue, need not bother. This has truly become one of My favorite all time movies, and will surely be the best of 2007.