The Dissolve does a nice job summing it up:

This is why Del Toro makes such great fantasy films about and for children: he’s still a kid at heart, with as much enthusiasm for this stuff as he had when he was dreaming about it as a boy.

Here's video evidence of that, with Del Toro—and two of his Pacific Rim actresses, Rinko Kikuchi and Ashida Mana—running around Japan and buying ice cream and being great and charming and super stoked about giant robots. (Which Japan, as a nation, is also super stoked about.) My favorite thing I've heard today comes 15 seconds in, when the TV host realizes he's looking at one of Del Toro's sketches for Pacific Rim. It is the sound of happiness.

Via The Mary Sue.