Essay

Pan’s Labyrinth vs. Another Cinderella Story

            Pan’s Labyrinth’s storyline follows very closely with Another Cinderella Story. The traditional Cinderella stories are about a young vulnerable girl who is stuck living with an evil step- parent and step- sisters. The classic Cinderella always escapes to a grand ball where she falls in love, and the man she is after is always the ultimate goal in the movie. Pan’s Labyrinth and Another Cinderella Story don’t follow this traditional storyline completely, but they are similar to the original story as well as have their similar-differences.

            The ‘Cinderella’ in Pan’s Labyrinth is a young girl named, Ofeila. Ofeila is a strong child who realizes early in the movie that she is a princess, and must complete three tasks to be exposed to her Kingdom where she can be princess. From the moment she finds out she is a princess, that is her goal, and she does her best to listen to the Faun’s tasks so she can accomplish this dream. The ‘Cinderella’ in Another Cinderella Story is a young woman named, Mary. Mary is a talented dancer, and her goal throughout the movie is to get into Manhattan Academy of Performing Arts, where she can grow in skill and follow her dreams. In order to do this, she must complete a task, which is to be discovered at a Dance Competition. Both Ofeila and Mary have a dream, and have a task or tasks that they must complete to reach their goals.

            Ofeila and Mary struggle throughout this movie due to their step- parents. Ofeila is dealing with her step- father, who is also Captain. He is a very powerful man, and also the father of her new brother. Mary struggles with her step-mom, who does not support her dreams and uses different ways to stand in between her and her dream. Even though Ofeila and Mary have people standing in their way or making their lives harder, they each have supporters too.

            The classic Cinderella story includes a Fairy God mother to guide Cinderella. Pan’s Labyrinth and Another Cinderella Story also have someone to represent this Fairy God mother but in another form. Ofeila has the Faun, who gives her tasks as well as guides her so she can reach her dream and enter the kingdom. The Faun isn’t as sweet as the original Fairy God mother; however, the Faun still does lead Ofeila to her dream. The Faun also helps Ofeila help her mom get better, which was an obstacle she was struggling with. Similarly, Mary struggled to get to the Dance Competition. Mary’s friend comes to her rescue and drives her to the competition, as well as provides her with emotional support throughout this movie. Ofeila and Mary both have someone to guide them throughout these movies.

            Another similarity between these two movies is that although these main characters have support, they are alone at home. Ofeila’s mom was on bed rest for the majority of the movie before she died. She was friends with Mercedes in the home, but she couldn’t tell her anything about her goal, which caused her to be isolated. Similarly, Mary wasn’t able to discuss her dream of being a dancer because her stepmother and stepsisters belittled her and didn’t take her dream seriously. Therefore, she isolated herself when she was at home.

            Ultimately, both Ofeila and Mary reached their goals. Ofeila completed the three tasks and from what we see, she ends up in the Kingdom and is reunited with her mother and brother. Mary won the competition and was scouted by a representative from the school she wanted to attend. Both Ofeila and Mary overcame their personal struggles and reached their dreams, as all good fairy-tale protagonists’ do.

            The main difference between the visual styles of Pan’s Labyrinth and Another Cinderella Story is that Pan’s Labyrinth centers around imagination. The viewers learn by the end of the movie that a lot of what was occurring was all in Ofeila’s head. The main instance where this is seen is when the Captain sees Ofeila talking to what looks like herself, but we know it was the Faun. In a way, Ofeila uses her imagination to escape the real world. In Another Cinderella Story, there is no alternate world, and what is happening is Mary’s reality. The obstacles or tasks that Ofeila must overcome are not realistic. For example, one obstacle was she had to enter a giant frog. This isn’t something that really happened, and couldn’t ever actually happen. In comparison to Another Cinderella Story, one of Mary’s obstacles was she couldn’t get to the dance competition because her step- mother had assigned her a time consuming task to complete at home, which is a realistic task. It is very interesting how these two stories can be so similar but the way they are viewed seems very different because one is more magical, whereas the other is more realistic. Another visual style that is different is that in Pan’s Labyrinth there is little lighting, even when the scene is outdoors the colors are not very bright or vibrant. In Another Cinderella Story the colors are light, which gives the movie more of a modern feel. The lights also give the viewers hope for positivity, whereas in Pan’s Labyrinth the viewers are always anxious and feel something dark is about to occur.

            I believe the director of these movies chose to tell these stories through myths because Cinderella is a familiar story to most people that can be altered in various ways to still make it unique. The director from Pan’s Labyrinth show viewers a classic myth of Cinderella’s story can be turned to something dark but still follow a similar story line as the original Cinderella. The director of Another Cinderella Story added a modern twist to this myth by making the main character desire a personal goal like being a dancer. People can interpret the same story in several different ways, and these directors might have interpreted Cinderella’s story differently, or could have had their own hopes for what they wish Cinderella would have been like. They were able to make their versions of Cinderella come alive through their movies.