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Pan’s Labyrinth and The Shape of Water are both directed by Guillermo Del Toro, which established himself as an auteur that has an eye for the unconventional. Although these two films have unique settings, characters and thematic ideas, they share many similarities in their style of directing, story and imagery.

    Both of these movies are period pieces set in a historical war. Pan’s Labyrinth is set in a small Spanish town right after the Spanish Civil War while The Shape of Water is set in Baltimore, USA during the Cold War in 1962. In both films, the setting is crucial to the thematic ideas of the story in terms of the Historical and Social context. In the Shape of Water, one of the main focuses is how people that are either disabled, homosexual or black get treated like outsiders or objects. The sea creature represents all of these peopl as it is a creature that is intelligent and capable of understanding emotion,  yet still treated like a monster that is unworthy of love. These people are also portrayed as if they didn’t have a voice in society, which the main protagonist literally embodies since she’s a mute woman who couldn’t speak up. Since this film is set during the Cold War, a time period where there is no trust between nations and where people have blind hatred for things they don’t understand, these themes are all the more relevant to its time. Pan’s Labyrinth, on the other hand, is set in the Post Spanish Civil War where the entire world was portrayed as cruel, horrifying and full of bloodshed. However, this story is told from Ofelia, a little girl’s perspective, and she is the embodiment of innocence and good in the world, and also the children who have to suffer because of men’s violence and greed.

    

    These two films have some very similar Story elements and imagery that show Guillermo Del Toro’s artistic vision and style as an auteur. Del Toro’s fascination for humanoid fantastical creatures is apparent throughout his work and especially in these two films. In both films, Del Toro uses extremely intricate makeup for the creatures, while also using the same actor, Doug Jones to physically portray them. This adds more humanity and believability to the creature than CGI would. Del Toro’s distinctive use of colour is also apparent in these two films. In the Shape of Water, Del Toro used Aqua Green as a primary colour to represent the connection between Amphibian creature and the Main Protagonist. Pan’s Labyrinth uses the same gritty dark teal and orange colour palette for both the fantasy world and the mortal world to make both seem equally nightmarish. The endings of the films follow a similar concept of the main character dying at the hands of the villain, but then goes through some form of resurrection, letting them live on happily ever after in an other-worldly place. Both of the heroines in these two films come from fantastical origins and are brought to the human world, which is portrayed as cruel, unforgiving and full of evil.