For anyone who has ever seen The Shape of Water is a labor of love. Guillermo del Toro is an author who tells stories taking into account even the smallest detail of what he does, and many times those details tell more of the story than they seem.
The Shape of Water is no exception, this is a film about love and a labor of love, it all adds up here, but there were small details that reaffirm the story which are those little things that perhaps another director would not notice.
This is a highly color-coded film, the asset and Eliza have the same color palette, except the one "that" happened from that moment when Eliza color palette turns red (red coat, red headband and red shoes). The shoes are the detail that catches my attention. They are the same that Eliza sees in a showcase at the beginning of the film, but they are also a strong reference to The Wizard of Oz,"there's no place like home. Once Eliza changes color palette, this entails that she has found her place in the world. Perhaps there is also something of Cinderella, after all, Eliza takes care of the toilet and the love to measure is represented as a shoe in the story.
Always being a fairy tale, The Shape of Water is a Beauty and the Reverted Beast, here "The Beast" is captive and the beauty is "on the side" of her captors, until she falls in love.
But another way to see The Shape of Water is about the idea of monsters. The Creature is not the only "out of the ordinary" being in this world, Eliza herself, the artist and her best friend are part of exclusive minorities, the real monster is the human being who does not see beyond what he does not understand.