‘Pan’s Labyrinth’ Returns to Theaters in 3D and Dolby Atmos

20 years ago, Guillermo del Toro wrote and directed “Pan’s Labyrinth,” an unclassifiable blend of Spanish history, political commentary, and fantasy focused on a child but with an unblinking sense of horror aimed at adults. The story of a young girl (Ivana Baquero) on a mythical quest just after the Spanish Civil War, “Pan’s Labyrinth” was a hit with both critics and audiences thanks to its potent blend of beauty and brutality and its lush, vivid imagery.

One might have thought that any attempt to improve upon or alter that imagery would be a fool’s errand, but now del Toro and a team of trusted collaborators have created a 3D version of the film with a new color grade and sound mix that give “Pan’s Labyrinth” an even more immersive quality than before. Opening in North American theaters on October 9 (del Toro’s birthday), the 3D conversion retains the spirit and emotional impact of the film del Toro made 20 years ago while taking advantage of several technological advancements that have transpired in the years since.

According to sound editor and designer Scott Gershin, the guiding principle was to modernize the film while maintaining fidelity to del Toro’s original vision — a task made more straightforward by del Toro’s intimate involvement with and supervision of the project. “If you’re restoring a Model T, you get Model T parts,” Gershin told IndieWire. “You don’t get Model T parts.” Gershin began by accessing some elements and stems from the original mix, which he found to be slightly dated by 2026 standards.

“The digital technology being used at the time definitely had its own sound,” Gershin said. “From a sonic standpoint, we wanted the film to be the film you thought you heard 20 years ago. We didn’t want to add much.” The fact that del Toro was converting the film to 3D, however, had consequences for the sound as well as the image; Gershin realized that with the added visual depth came a need for sound that expanded to fill the space.

“When Guillermo first contacted me, I didn’t even know it was going to be in 3D,” Gershin said. “He just said, ‘Listen, would you be willing to go back into the film and modernize it, make it a little more theatrical?’ Then I saw the 3D, and it looked amazing. I realized we needed to increase the level of the audio to match the picture.” To that end, Gershin added more backgrounds and foley, adding detail and supervising a pass in Dolby Atmos, all along being careful not to betray the intentions of the original work.

“It got to the point where we forgot what was original and what was new,” Gershin said. “A lot of the sounds we used were sounds of the era. The cars at the beginning didn’t really play before; now the cars come in, and they’re a little rusty; they’re like cars of their time. I also wanted the foley to have a bit of rawness to it, to not be too pristine. Same thing with the backgrounds, we really went in there matching what was done before and then just building on it and opening it up a bit.”

For Aaron Parry of SDFX Studios, who oversaw the film’s 3D conversion, there was a similar intention to expand upon rather than reinvent the original style. “ Quite often, when a film gets updated to 3D, they make it smoother, or modernize it so it looks great on an 8K TV,” Parry told IndieWire. Del Toro was insistent that the texture and grain of the original movie, which was shot on film, remain. “He wanted to really say, this is the film, but playing it in 3D is going to add so many more layers of fear and anxiety and mystery. So we worked really hard to be non-destructive and preserve everything.”

Parry had worked with del Toro on the director’s first foray into 3D storytelling, “Pacific Rim,” and felt that “Pan’s Labyrinth” lent itself to del Toro’s interest in the form. “A lot of people think of 3D as something you put on an action movie,” Parry said. “But fantasy and drama play so well with a dimensional approach. ‘Pan’s Labyrinth’ made a lot of sense, because you’ve got the real world and the fantasy world, and we can use 3D to separate those story points and tell the story in a new and elevated way. Guillermo just wanted to bring people deeper into the story, and I think 3D was his solution.”

‘Pan’s Labyrinth’Courtesy Everett Collection

Colorist Stefan Sonnenfeld, like Parry and Gershin a longtime collaborator of del Toro’s, noted that while the new version of “Pan’s Labyrinth” is essentially a new and improved version of the original, there were places where the filmmakers tweaked mistakes that had always bothered del Toro. “Guillermo had a few hotspots in the film that he never really got to address,” Sonnenfeld told IndieWire. “Part of that had to do with technology, in terms of crude visual effects, and part of it had to do with the tools that were available at the time. We massaged some of those scenes with the tools we have now that are common, everyday things.”

To that end, Sonnenfeld subtly “massaged” some shots that didn’t match and blended the visual effects to look more convincing in the context of the overall film. “With older films, you don’t contemporize them, but you are trying to take some of the roughness out so that when you’re remastering, you feel like there’s a benefit; it’s not just replication,” Sonnenfeld said. “The benefit is in nuanced color and shaping, and Guillermo had a very good sense of the things that troubled him that he wanted to make better and the areas where he wanted to make sure we preserved everything.”

Gershin, Parry, and Sonnenfeld agreed that beyond the work itself, the greatest pleasure of the “Pan’s Labyrinth” project was simply getting to hang out with del Toro. “Guillermo is one of the most kind, generous, intellectual, enjoyable people that ever sits in my room,” Sonnenfeld said. “That’s what’s important to me these days. I really want to spend time with somebody I care about who appreciates filmmaking, who appreciates the art and empowers all of us to do what we do.”

The new 4K restoration of “Pan’s Labyrinth” opens in theaters on October 9.