{"id":1816,"date":"2006-12-26T12:37:00","date_gmt":"2006-12-26T12:37:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2006\/12\/del-toro-pans-labyrinth-and-narnia-redux\/"},"modified":"2006-12-26T12:37:00","modified_gmt":"2006-12-26T12:37:00","slug":"del-toro-pans-labyrinth-and-narnia-redux","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2006\/12\/del-toro-pans-labyrinth-and-narnia-redux.html","title":{"rendered":"Del Toro, Pan’s Labyrinth, and Narnia redux"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"\"<\/a>
The Associated Press<\/a> has a new interview with Pan\u2019s Labyrinth<\/a><\/i> director Guillermo del Toro<\/a> that foregrounds the Narnia<\/a><\/i> connection which, until now, had only been mentioned in passing \u2014 if at all \u2014 in the other interviews that I have read:<\/span><\/p>\n

Guillermo del Toro was asked to direct \u201cThe Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe,\u201d but he turned it down because, as a lapsed Catholic, he couldn\u2019t see himself bringing Aslan the lion back to life.<\/p>\n

Instead, he put his dark, fervid imagination to work on an original story, \u201cPan\u2019s Labyrinth,\u201d a bloody and harrowing fairy tale that incorporates elements from C.S. Lewis\u2019 beloved Christian allegory and various other classics of children\u2019s literature.<\/p>\n

Set during the aftermath of the Spanish Civil War, \u201cPan\u2019s Labyrinth\u201d shows why del Toro\u2019s sensibility is somehow both perfectly suited and utterly alien to the gentle \u201cNarnia.\u201d He subjects his hero, an 11-year-old girl whose mother has married a captain in Gen. Francisco Franco\u2019s army, to shocking violence and vexing moral quandaries.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not proselytizing anything about a lion resurrecting. I\u2019m not trying to sell you into a point. I\u2019m just doing a little parable about disobedience and choice,\u201d del Toro said. \u201cThis is my version of that universe, not only `Narnia,\u2019 but that universe of children\u2019s literature.\u201d . . .<\/p>\n

Del Toro said Ofelia is an amalgam of himself and his 10-year-old daughter. His movies frequently incorporate autobiographical elements and center on children whose parents are absent or dead. Although del Toro\u2019s parents are alive and he says he has a good relationship with them, he was raised largely by his conservative Catholic grandmother (\u201cShe was like Piper Laurie in `Carrie\u2019,\u201d he said).<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve spent the rest of my life recuperating from my first ten years,\u201d del Toro said. \u201cIt\u2019s a brutal time of learning, and I think that I tried to bring the violence that I felt \u2014 moral, spiritual, and even physical \u2014 into the movies.\u201d . . .<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

FWIW, the press screening for this film was one of several that I missed this month, due to a very busy schedule, but I believe the film opens in Vancouver in a few weeks, so I\u2019ll catch it then.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Associated Press has a new interview with Pan\u2019s Labyrinth director Guillermo del Toro that foregrounds the Narnia connection which, until now, had only been mentioned in passing \u2014 if at all \u2014 in the other interviews that I have read: Guillermo del Toro was asked to direct \u201cThe Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1116,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1816","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nDel Toro, Pan's Labyrinth, and Narnia redux<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The Associated Press has a new interview with Pan's Labyrinth director Guillermo del Toro that foregrounds the Narnia connection which, until now, had\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2006\/12\/del-toro-pans-labyrinth-and-narnia-redux.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Del Toro, Pan's Labyrinth, and Narnia redux\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Associated Press has a new interview with Pan's Labyrinth director Guillermo del Toro that foregrounds the Narnia connection which, until now, had\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2006\/12\/del-toro-pans-labyrinth-and-narnia-redux.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"FilmChat\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2006-12-26T12:37:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/photos1.blogger.com\/x\/blogger\/7991\/933\/400\/824163\/panslabyrinth.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Peter T. 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