Release Date:
05/16/2007
It's not often we give a nearly perfect rating to a fairy tale about a little girl who longs to be a princess that is done entirely in Spanish. Thing is, director Guillermo del Toro (Blade II, Hellboy) never gives us a minute to doubt it. It may have the basis of a kid's movie, but given the grotesque violence, moments of sheer terror, and some of the most innovative visual effects and monsters, there's no way in hell it was made for little runts. The story, set around the Spanish Civil War in 1944, is about a girl who opts to live in the fantasy world rather than deal with the realities of war and her evil military stepfather. Among the extras (a second-disc loaded up with 'em), in the video prologue del Toro explains how this movie almost killed him. We know what he's saying, because watching a little girl do things that would make us shit our pants nearly put us in the hospital, too.