How characters vary in different cultures...

There is a clear cultural difference in American and Spanish movies. In Pan's Labyrinth, the fictional character were portrayed in a very interesting way. In American movies, the "good guys" are usually handsome, or beautiful and portrayed nicely (Ex: Disney princesses, the Incredibles family, Harry Potter, etc.) whereas the "bad guys" are usually scary or gross (Ex: Voldemort from Harry Potter, Sloth from the Goonies, Syndrome from the Incredibles, I don't know who the guy next to him is but he's ugly, the Disney villains, and the clown from IT). 

However, in the Pan's Labyrinth film, it was hard to tell who was bad and who was good. This is because of the language and cultural barrier. At first, I thought that the fascist leader Vidal was a good guy because he seemed nice and put together, until he grabbed Ofelia's hand harshly. That made me start to question him, still I didn't think he was a villain but rather a strict man. I also thought the Faun was bad because of how ugly it was and I could not tell the tone of its voice because of the language barrier. Sometimes in the languages and cultures, things that people would usually think is harsh or insensitive would be seen as totally normal in that culture. For example, in Russian culture, it is weird to smile at people that you do not know and it is totally normal to tell someone they are looking chunky. People who have not experienced the Russian culture might think it's rude. 

Because of the way the Spanish auteur portrayed the characters through his personal lens, it was hard to tell who was good and who was bad until the film started to unfold. Even the fairies who were good looked creepy. Interestingly, Vidal was handsome but was probably the biggest monster in the whole film.