Inspiration for Pan's Labyrinth

Del Toro was inspired mainly by the symbolist movement of the late 19th century. He includes allusions and pastiches together the art styles of Felicien Rops, Goya and Arthur Rackham. Fairytales and the Brothers Grimm were a huge influence of his initial sketches.

The symbolist movement was a reaction to realism and passivity in artwork and literature. It was a reversion back to the gritty and dark realities of Gothic Romanticism. It ties in nature and the human body, taking primordial ideals and making them into artwork.

Obviously, it uses lots and lots of symbols. They are extremely deep and to some extent ambiguous as to their exact meaning. Nonetheless, Guillermo del Toro believed similarly that the imagination is activated through art.

Artists' works seen in Pan's Labyrinth:

• Goya. He used lots of symmetry, was very even and made the "Third of May" painting. It's bloody division is much like the Fascist and rebel clash in Pan's Labyrinth. Particularly the colour of the uniforms are alluded to. His contrast of colours is blunt and fairytale like in its simplicity. The Pale Man is inspired by the painting "Saturn Devouring his Sons". Frescoes are in the Pale Man's lair depicting the bloody devouring of children without mercy. The fact that they are part of the set dressing is a comment on both the Church and Fascism itself. Franco is devouring the freedom and innocence of Spain that once was. They are now forced into uncertainty without any choice about it. It could also be seen as the Church restricting freedom of self or that we are consumed by beliefs that are - to del Toro - no longer true. Ironically however, Pan's Labyrinth is all about faith: faith in oneself, in imagination, that there is something more than just life.

• Arthur Rackam. Depicted innocent children in dark and terrifying worlds. Sound like Ofelia to you? He illustrated lots of Grimm fairytales in the early 20th century publications. Particularly Alice in Wonderland and Peter Pan. Ofelia is directly paralleled to our picture of Alice (dress before Greedy Frog confrontation) and also her place in the Underground Realm. Notice she is always a figure clad in white against a dark and bluish background where creatures such as the faun emerge from the shadows? She learns to trust the dark. Again she and del Toro go against our usual connotations with light and dark in cinema. By breaking the unspoken "rule" of mainstream cinema techniques we must be actively involved in the deciphering of what to and what not to trust. This is why we are so surprised to find that it is not reality that we can trust, but that which is ourselves and our interpretation of right and wrong. It is not the world which is wrong, but our perception of the world which determines whether or not we think it is wrong. Del Toro guides us along the way to this discovery.