Pan's Labyrinth 10/16 Blu-ray (Rental)

An Academy Award winning dark fable set five years after the end of the Spanish Civil War, Pan s Labyrinth encapsulates the rich visual style and genre-defying craft of Guillermo del Toro (The Devil s Backbone, Cronos). Eleven-year-old Ofelia (Ivana Baquero, in a mature and tender performance) comes face to face with the horrors of fascism when she and her pregnant mother are uprooted to the countryside, where her new stepfather (Sergi López), a sadistic captain in General Franco s army, hunts down Republican guerrillas who refuse to give up the fight. The violent reality in which she lives merges seamlessly with a fantastical interior world when Ofelia meets a faun in a decaying labyrinth and is set on a strange, mythic journey that is at once terrifying and beautiful. In his revisiting of this bloody period in Spanish history, del Toro creates a vivid depiction of the monstrosities of war infiltrating a child s imagination and threatening the innocence of youth. DIRECTOR-APPROVED BLU-RAY SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES - Newly graded 2K digital master, supervised by director Guillermo del Toro, with 5.1 surround DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack - Alternate DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1 surround soundtrack - Audio commentary by del Toro from 2007 - New interview with del Toro by novelist Cornelia Funke about fairy tales, fantasy, and Pan s Labyrinth - New interview with actor Doug Jones - Four 2007 making-of documentaries, examining the characters, production, special effects, themes, and music of the film - Interactive director s notebook - Footage of actor Ivana Baquero s audition for the film - Animated comics featuring prequel stories for the film s menagerie of creatures - Programs comparing selected production storyboards and del Toro s thumbnail sketches with the final film; visual effects work for the Green Fairy; and elements of the film s score - Trailers and TV spots - PLUS: An essay by film critic Michael Atkinson