Pan's Labyrinth-A Fairy Tale that's not for small children???

Upon viewing the first five minutes of Guillermo del Toro's Pan's Labyrinth, my first thoughts were, "oh this might be kinda cute." Of course, these thoughts were almost immediately beaten to a bloody pulp. This is probably one of the most violent movies I have seen in a while. I do have to say though, it is very good movie. The first few minutes suggest that it will be a nice fairy tale much like you would tell to your children. It's a story about Ofelia (Ivana Baquero), who finds out that she is actually the reincarnation of the daughter of the king of the underworld. She is brought with her mother to her stepfather Vidal's (Sergio Lopez) outpost. He is a general in the Spanish army during the Spanish Civil War. Ofelia is told that in order to reclaim her throne as princess of the underworld, she must complete 3 tasks by midnight of the third day or all of the underworld will die. Sounds pretty rational right? Right. del Toro does a good job of playing this entire plot out right down to the very last detail, and leaves it with plenty of twists that'll leave you wondering. Aside from the obvious parts, nothing in the movie seems to extravagant. It's all played out in such a way that makes it seem natural . The few conversations that Ofelia and her mother have with Vidal make the viewer just want to punch him in the face. You can definitely tell that hey do not get along very well. All of these things combine together to make for a relatively hopeless feeling towards Ofelia. The acting in this film is very good. I say this only because of the performance given by Sergio Lopez. I discovered that the acting is good when you want to punch the character in the face, and that's exactly what happens with this particular character. His character is supposed to be this very mean, don't-take-shit-from-anybody kind of army general, and that's exactly what Lopez portrays. He even goes as far as to hit his little daughter. The sets, naturally, are a little far fetched. It's not every day that a director calls for a giant slimy frog inside of a mud filled tree trunk. But that's exactly the kind of thing that you see in this movie. Obviously these play a critical part in the film, because of what the story is. It's a fairytale, so naturally there have to be some set that aren't exactly realistic. One thing to take note of is the lighting that's associated with Vidal. Every time he is around the lighting is very low key. And he's never completely in the light. Either his face or some other part of his body is in the dark. Overall I was very pleased with this movie. It's a good story, with a bit of excess gore. I feel that it would have been that much more enjoyable had del Toro decided to tone down the violence a bit.