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.