Pan's Labyrinth

The dark fairy tale from Guillermo del Toro is an elemental "Alice in Wonderland" amidst the horrors of Francisco Franco's reign of terror in 1944 Spain. While her brutal and cold-blooded stepfather (Sergi López) hunts down the remnants of the anti-Fascist rebellion, our imaginative young Alice (in this case, a girl named Ofelia, played with innocence and strength by Ivana Baquero), discovers a magic world of fairies and meets an enigmatic faun (Doug Jones) who sends her on a terrifying odyssey through an underworld of monsters. Del Toro's fantastical creatures have a primal, earthy quality, like ancient beings hewn from the earth who have been resurrected after centuries of decay and neglect. Yet for all the terror Ofelia confronts -- and del Toro reaches deep into the mythological subconscious of early fairy tales for his primal visions -- the haunting shadow worlds of imagination and nightmares pale next to the evil of the real world. Maribel Verdú co-stars as the caring housekeeper with a double life, and Ariadna Gil plays Ofelia's ailing pregnant mother. It won Academy Awards for Best Cinematography, Best Art Direction and Best Makeup.

The single-disc edition features a video prologue and commentary by Mexican director/writer Guillermo del Toro, who describes his inspirations, colors and textures with more articulation in his second language than most American directors can muster in their mother tongue. The two-disc platinum series edition features a collection of documentaries that bring the viewer into the creative process and evolution of ideas as they morph into images, characters and stories. The 30-minute "Pan and the Fairies" follows the fantasy creatures from design to screen and, through raw production footage, shows you exactly (and ingeniously simply) how del Toro created the Faun's goat-leg walk without animation. Another highlight is the complete 50-minute episode of "The Charlie Rose Show" featuring del Toro with his friends and fellow filmmakers Alfonso Cuarón and Alejandro González Iñárritu, and their byplay is so warm and full of laughter you can feel the depth of their fellowship and their mutual admiration.