Pan's Labirythn Discusion (spoilers involved)

[dknightx]

there is one reason that may support that is it NOT all in her head. basically how when she put that root/milk thing under the mom's bed, the mom somehow got "better", and then when the evil dude puts the root in the fire, somehow things go wrong from there. Maybe just a coincidence ...

[pete fabrizio]

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there is one reason that may support that is it NOT all in her head. basically how when she put that root/milk thing under the mom's bed, the mom somehow got "better", and then when the evil dude puts the root in the fire, somehow things go wrong from there. Maybe just a coincidence ...

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She also uses her magic chalk to break into the captain's room.

[casaubon]

I think the one thing that answered a lot of the "was it real or in her head" questions for me was when I asked my girlfriend (phd in film, we geek out on this stuff) who actually told the story, and she said "oh, I thought it was mercedes telling the baby a story."

And it occurred to me how parallel Mercedes and Ofelia's adventures are, and that the entire story is in fact the story of how his big sister saved his life, and how she's in a happier place.

that didn't come out quite right, but you get the gist. I don't think it's either real or imagined, but something reimagined from a point outside the movie.

[pete fabrizio]

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I think the one thing that answered a lot of the "was it real or in her head" questions for me was when I asked my girlfriend (phd in film, we geek out on this stuff) who actually told the story, and she said "oh, I thought it was mercedes telling the baby a story."

And it occurred to me how parallel Mercedes and Ofelia's adventures are, and that the entire story is in fact the story of how his big sister saved his life, and how she's in a happier place.

that didn't come out quite right, but you get the gist. I don't think it's either real or imagined, but something reimagined from a point outside the movie.

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Yeah that's such a film-studies kind of interpretation. But that's really just another vote for fairy-tale, albeit based on a true story.

[El Diablo]

GA and others,

When you say it's all in her head, are you talkng about just the fantasy parts, or the real world parts around those as well.

Specifically, something like the dinner party where she ruined her dress when she went into the tree. Do you think that was made up too, or that was real and she really did sort of sleepwalk or whatever?

This is one of those movies I really do want to go sit through again.

[pete fabrizio]

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GA and others,

When you say it's all in her head, are you talkng about just the fantasy parts, or the real world parts around those as well.

Specifically, something like the dinner party where she ruined her dress when she went into the tree. Do you think that was made up too, or that was real and she really did sort of sleepwalk or whatever?

This is one of those movies I really do want to go sit through again.

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The theory would be that the whole toad mission was just an imagined story about why her dress was all messed up.

[Wires]

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When you say it's all in her head, are you talkng about just the fantasy parts, or the real world parts around those as well.

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Just the fantasy parts. Unfortunately for Ofelia the rest of the world is real and the reason why she regresses into this fantasy world.

[Alobar]

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Specifically, something like the dinner party where she ruined her dress when she went into the tree. Do you think that was made up too, or that was real and she really did sort of sleepwalk or whatever?

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That would be real. I mean that she really ruined her dress crawling around in the mud with some rocks she found that she pretended were magic. It wouldnt be anything like sleep walking, just the imagination of on a young child,. her enviroment is real, but her actions in it are based on her imagination.

[divides_by_zero]

I think everyone gets so caught up in the question of "was it in her head or was it real?" question that they ignore the real question of: What is reality?

What is real for one person may not be real for another. There is no way to know since we cannot experience another's reality.

I think saying that Ofelia is making it all up to cope is far too simplistic and dismissing. She's a child, it's fantastic, so of course it's all in her head. I say - so what? What does that change?

The kingdom is no less real for her because of our disbelief.

[traz]

I guess I'm sort of naive, but I never really thought of it in terms of everything being in her head. I just kind of assumed that the fantasy events really happened, and she was the only one who saw them because she was the one.

I have to rethink things now