Pan’s Labyrinth

Faun again

RELEASED 2 July 320 pages | Hardback/ebook

Authors Guillermo del Toro, Cornelia Funke Publisher Bloomsbury

It’s fitting that a film as in love with books as Pan’s Labyrinth should get a tome of its own. This belated adaptation – penned by Inkheart trilogy novelist Cornelia Funke in collaboration with director Guillermo del Toro, and subtitled The Labyrinth Of The Faun – expands upon the film, while retaining its melancholy mix of fairytales and fascism.

It’s 1944, and young Ofelia moves into the Spanish countryside with her pregnant mother, Carmen. They’re there to unite with Captain Vidal, Carmen’s new beau – a brutal sadist hunting rebels in the woods. Frightened and isolated, Ofelia retreats into her books. Then, one day, she encounters a fairy and a faun who tell her that she is, in fact, Moanna, princess of the Underworld. She’s given a series of perilous tasks to complete that will verify her heritage. Meanwhile, Carmen’s health deteriorates and Vidal’s murderous schemes spell danger for everyone…

The novel leans into the fantasy aspects a little more than the film, fleshing out the fairy tales that are narrated onscreen. Still, the core of the story remains the same. The old maxim, “As above, so below”, is reflected in the mirroring of the real world and the magical Underworld. Funke and del Toro’s prose expertly captures the tragedy and melancholy of the tale, while also digging deeper into the fear and cruelty that make Vidal such a loathsome psychopath.

Of course, the film was rendered truly magical, in part, by its visuals and spectacular creature work. The book makes up for the lack of all that with beautiful illustrations by Allen Williams. They follow the designs from the film but add Williams’s own gothic spin.

Is it essential? Arguably no. The film remains the definitive version. Still, it makes a compelling alternative, and cements the story of Ofelia and the Faun as a true 21st century fable. Will Salmon

A true 21st century fable

A spiritual sequel film, 3993, was planned, again using the Spanish Civil War as its backdrop. Alas, it was never made.