Comic-Con 2026: Pan's Labyrinth 3D Footage

And the hoops to jump through just to see it.

I will get to the footage description, I promise. But I plan to spin this into a bit of a story first.

Smaller outlets like mine don’t often get Comic-Con party invites, so I was delighted to get this one — I suspect it was via the Critics Choice Association, as one of our members had compiled a list of people going and sent it around, and Guillermo Del Toro loves film critics, quite literally as he married one.

The invite sounded to me like a party, but I later heard from friends who said it sounded like a screening. After the whole thing was over, I looked back at my confirmation, and it read:

“Transforming into the mystical realm of Pan’s Labrinth, fans can celebrate the 20th anniversary of the film at PARQ with a happy hour, special screening of the film and an exclusive live DJ set from producer and DJ Flying Lotus.”

“Special screening of the film,” eh? The film which is being released in an updated 4K 3D conversion, and isn’t finished yet? No, not quite.

I waited in line — the VIP line, at that — for almost an hour. At the end of it, we were taken into a room that looked like a bar decked out like a forest. We were given a cardboard key, and special Pale Man 3D glasses, which also look like something Art the Clown might wear.

There was no bartender to serve us, and ropes in front of an area into which those who got in ahead of us must have disappeared.

At least we could sit down. Eventually, the ropes opened and we got to go into the next room — a larger club area. I was told I could sit in the VIP section, which consisted of all of four booths, only one of which even had room for a single person. Comfier than a metal folding chair, though.

The screens showed a loop of the Pale Man putting his hands up to his eyes, and a loop just as short of the soundtrack. It got tedious just because it was such a short bit played over, and over, and over.

Finally, the lights darkened, and GDT himself came out.

He told us that he first tried post-conversion 3D on Pacific Rim, and listened to James Cameron saying you have to take 300 days and do it frame by frame…”and no FOCKING A.I.!!” he said, to cheers, adding that if you haven’t seen Pacific Rim in Imax 3D, you haven’t seen it.

For Pan’s Labyrinth’s 20th anniversary, he’s redoing the colors, adding new sounds, an converting to 3D. He always saw the original as a dysfunctional family film, and now that it’s in 3D, he can watch and enjoy it for the first time. Like in Coraline, the 3D will help separate the two worlds: the real one, with cool tones and hard edges, is “two-and-a-half-D” while the fantasy world is much deeper…and it’s reds and golds and round shapes are meant to evoke a mother’s womb. Yeah! Did you know that?

What he was to show us did not have the new sound, but did feature finished 3D. It was two quick bits…

The first is the scene where Ofelia enters the labyrinth and meets Pan for the first time. Nice depth to this, really foregrounding the fairy who guides her. The subtitles are interesting — sometimes the faun is more foregrounded that the subtitle, but others, the subtitle seems to be deeper into him, like the first part of it is embedded in his body.

Oh, and who recalled that Ofelia’s fantasy princess name is…”Moanna”? You’re welcome.

The second scene had Ofelia entering the chamber of the Pale Man, which stretches deep into the frame. As she looks ta the paintings of him hurting children, on the walls, there’s a real sense of distance to it. We didn’t get far enough to see the Pale Man move, but i was struck by how much he looks like Mitch McConnell.

So after that, we were herded downstairs to a room with two bars, where we could cash in our cardboard key for one, just one, free drink. And this is where the party misread the room, badly.

Congoers are tired and hungry after a day of walking around with swag bags and no place to sit. They expect, at these exclusive parties, a minimum of some free hors d’hoeuvres and maybe a happy hour. My friend wanted to leave, but was urged not to, because there would be “a surprise” at 9:30.

Yeah, we were skeptical too. My friend surmised that if DJ Flying Lotus was the surprise, he being an A-lister going on with no opening act, and a resentful, hungry crowd, wouldn’t get the desired response.

Welp, guess what the surprise was. At 9:30, we were herded back upstairs, for, yep, Flying Lotus. As we sat down, a security guy urged as, “C’mon, get up and show some love for DJ Flying Lotus!” No, we said, we were old and needed to sit, and we were VIPs and entitled to sit. Those who did rise kinda just stood there.

All things considered, DJ Flying Lotus had some nice remixes of the film’s soundtrack, but nobody danced.

I had gotten bored enough to order a drink for actual money; a well drink for $16. “Two dollars more and I can give you Jack,” said the bartender. “Nahh, I’ll take the cheap shit,” I said, and gave him two dollars as a tip instead.

We left before the DJ set was over, because, and I’ll put this in language GDT can understand, “NO FOCKING APPETIZERS AND ONLY ONE FOCKING DRINK.” I was hungry, damn it.

I went back to the hotel and a had a cereal bar, a banana. and Julia’s left-over fish slider from Rubio’s, which hit an amazing spot despite being cold and crunchy.

Pan’s Labyrinth in 3D is gonna be good. Just buy your snacks in advance.

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