Yesterday I saw actor Doug Jones made a Happy 15th Birthday post to Guillermo Del Toro's PAN'S LABYRINTH. I'm not quite sure the math adds up there, according to a quick check of IMDB, but I'm certainly not going to argue with someone as lovely as Doug Jones (the actor, mind you).
This was my first real exposure to Del Toro as an auteur. I was a huge fan of the first HELLBOY movie, which is I think why I was so amped about this flick. I had seen BLADE 2 and MIMIC, but had no idea at that point that they were made by the same person. It would be another few years before I was able to track down CRONOS or THE DEVILS BACKBONE.
This was also one of the last flicks my dad and I went to see together, just the two of us. (I should mention that he is alive and well, and we still have a solid relationship; he just doesn't care for movie theaters much any more.) The two of us, based on the trailers that had been showing on TV leading up to the films release, were expected a sort of slightly dark fantasy adventure; similar in tone to the HELLBOY flick. Obviously, anyone that has seen the movie knows that wasn't what happened.
This movie cracked my head wide open. I remember leaving the theater and being pretty much speechless. My dad was rather let down, not being a huge fan of movies heavy with social commentary, and very much not being a fan of subtitled flicks. But the imagery, the colors, the structure of the story, the score; everything about PAN'S LABYRINTH clicked for me. And while not all of Del Toro's flicks since that have lined up quite as perfectly with my tastes, this one made it certain that I'd be there on opening night for anything he released for the rest of my life.
This illustration was done a year or two ago, when I was really starting to get comfortable working in ProCreate. Anyway, hope y'all have a good Friday.
XOXO -Adam