In the opening sequence of Del Toro’s Pan’s Labyrinth the audience learns about representation of gender, age, ethnicity and about fascists.

In terms of gender, the film sets up gender stereotypes and then tears them down later in the film to show issues with sexism against women and toxic masculinity. One of the first things we see is Carmen, an adult pregnant woman, needing help from a man with her pregnancy issues. This presents the stereotype that women are in need of men’s help and cannot cope alone. The character Vidal, only cares about his son. He removes his glove to touch Carmen’s belly which is more personal than with Ofelia as he puts his gloves back on before greeting her and crushing her hand. He also doesn’t great Carmen lovingly, he forces her to do things she doesn’t want to such as sit in the wheelchair, ‘Do it for me’, for the sake of the baby being okay. This controllement  is also a stereotype of men with women, that women are more passive. He gives the baby bump, a better greeting than the other characters and throughout the film he makes it very clear that when it comes to trouble in the pregnancy, the doctor should save the baby. Suggesting, that Vidal views women as baby making machines and only cared about passing down his family name. Plus, he never considers that the baby might be a girl, he always assumes that it’s a boy, showing the stereotype that boys are more desirable and the one that should pass down the family name like Vidal wants. Therefore overall, women have been shown to be the weaker, more passive and the undesirable gender and that men have control and are more aggressive. This stereotype is broken in the rest of the as women such as Mercedes, surpass expectation and have a key role in taking down Vidal and breaks all gender stereotypes and Ofelia, is able to do the three dangerous tasks as a female also breaking down these stereotypes.

The audience immediately knows about Vidal and his men as fascists because of mise en scene,  the cars have the fascist symbol on them. Plus, the cars themselves are expensive suggesting the title of Vidal as a captain and how he, a man, has power. We learn immediately through Vidal’s performance that he is a leader and punctual as his first line is ’15 minutes late’ and he’s watching his watch rather than the car with his wife and child in it, which  presents him as a cold character. It also suggests that the people in this film feel that men are fit to be leaders and women aren’t as Vidal as a man is captain but the lower down workers such as cleaners and cooks are women (such as Mercedes). Showing this unfair treatment and the real side to women throughout the film .breaks these gender stereotypes.

The representation of age in the opening scene shows the impossible standards that children are supposed to meet. Ofelia has to help take care of her sick mother, which is an adult responsibility. Plus, her mum Carmen doesn’t want her to be reading the fairy tale books suggesting Carmen wants her to act more grown up in-front of Vidal. However, Carmen also talks down on Ofelia and Ofelia is presented as having the curiosity of a child as she wonders off immediately to explore. Therefore, Ofelia acts both childlike and mature, and is treated both like a child and an adult, suggesting the impossible standard that has been placed upon children. This has links to one of the film genres being bildungsroman, Ofelia is becoming a woman and more mature and therefore has to overcome this complicated boundary between child and woman.

Ofelia, a child, suggests the hope that children are to the future of Spain by rejecting fascism. We know that Vidal is a fascist and that his men are fascists, and we learn that Ofelia instead is more left wing. When she greats Vidal, she goes to shake his hand using her left hand suggesting that she is more left wing, contrasting to the fascist Vidal who says she’s supposed to use her right hand, linking him to fascism. This could be the film suggesting the end to the Spanish Civil War aftermath and the toxic views such as fascism coming to an end with the next generation.

Although Vidal is evil, he is a victim of toxic masculinity. This is one reason why he treats women as though he is above them in status just by being a man. His father, would have given him the idea that he needs to act like a man and die like a man, he gave Vidal a watch that he smashed when he died so that Vidal would know when he died. Vidal goes on to try and do this during the ending, showing that the toxic masculinity had been passed down to him. He also tries to pass it down to his son, by asking Mercedes to tell him when he died, Mercedes refuses marking the end to the passing of toxic masculinity. Vidal trying to give commands throughout the film and be punctual all the time is a suggestion of how he believes he has to act like a man.

The characters are all Spanish and white, this could have a contextual link  to Spain at the time the film was set, after the Spanish Civil War which ended in 1939.