Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio

Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio (2022) follows a father's wish that magically brings a wooden boy to life. Unfortunately, I don't like this film as much as others do. It's a good film to put on in the background but I found it incredibly hard to pay consistent attention to.

Where this film really stands out is in its animation, the stop motion is done very well and the movie has such a unique look to it. The visuals are very dark and fit the gritty tone of the story. There's also some nice colour palettes at times.

The film includes a lot of songs, and for the most part I found them fairly forgettable. The voices also sound way too auto-tuned which gets quite annoying. However, the score itself is pretty decent and there's some good sound design, especially at the end where it really adds a lot of emotion to the story.

The voice acting from everyone was impressive, but unfortunately I found a lot of the characters to be fairly unlikeable. Ewan McGregor is great as the cricket, and probably my favourite character. Also, Tilda Swinton is perfect and I can't imagine anyone else doing better in her roles. Pinocchio, for me, comes across as very annoying, so it's hard to route for him at times. Additionally, I wasn't keen on Geppetto.

The film starts off with a sad and gripping first act, but I slowly lost my interest as the film progressed. I just don't find it entirely engaging and I feel it tries to balance way too many subplots at once, it completely lost me on more than one occasion. Unfortunately for me, I feel this movie drags a lot.

Geppetto's carved and chiselled a new son, replacing Carlo who was tragically taken, made from fine Italian pine, dovetailed, screwed and fixed with twine, just imagine his surprise when he awakens; as a Wood Sprite's taken pity on this fellow, who's sorrow, grief and sadness make him bellow, taken all internal strife, the grain now imbued full of life, though he won't age, he might just season, but never grow (except for an inbuilt polygraph). A cricket helps, to make sharp edges round, untying knots that seek to limit and to bound, but there's danger in the town, someone else would like to own, it's not too long before Pinocchio's has gone; whisked away, by the unscrupulous Count Volpe, who's recognised a fortuitous, new pay day, a puppet without strings, will make his tills ka-ching and ring, with some swindling alongside a small betray.

A dark and tenebrous retelling of the tale of the wooden boy that introduces some additional tangents and places it during the turbulent times of war and conflict. Great animation, some great dialogue, only tarnished by the fact that it's a perpetually told story, and you know what familiarity invariably brings (if you're of a certain age).

This film is NOT meant to have the light-hearted happy-go-lucky vibes of Disney's 1940 Pinocchio movie, but rather a modernised take praising the wonders of childhood, faith and friendship; up against the all-consuming tyranny of fascism (its take on Mussolini is hilarious), deceptive show-business tactics; and the double-edged sword of Time (and Life) itself.

Pinocchio is a conceptually HEAVY film that doesn't condescend on its younger audiences nor it's older ones: it respects all the age groups equally and without compromising the story and fairytale-qualities of the Pinocchio story at its core. It's like a hard-boiled folktale that knows when to be optimistic and when to be cautionary in equal measures; and that's the magic Guillermo Del Toro does so goddamn well in SPADES.

This is 2022's best animated feature film, and one of Netflix's best film offerings in years. And it was worth the wait on Del Toro's part too.

All in all, Pinocchio was WORTH IT; big time! And hella better than Disney's 2022 live-action turd too.

It's a 5/5 star experience.

A new Guillermo Del Toro movie is always something worth getting excited about, and I think his take on Pinocchio is another winner. While it might not live up to his very best films, it's another strong addition to his filmography... though it's also worth mentioning that he co-directed this one. Mark Gustafson is the other director, and he's not going to get as much credit as Del Toro, being the lesser-known name. But I imagine you don't get credited as a co-director unless you do a good deal of the work, so he shouldn't go ignored.

It's easy to see why this take on the Pinocchio story was appealing to Del Toro. It's a fairly dark fairytale, it deals with child characters in a cruel world, it blends fantasy and real-world conflict (here, it's set in Italy I think either before or at the start of WW2), and it's also a story with big emotions, being heartfelt and also surprisingly sad in places. All these themes/directorial trademarks can be found in Del Toro's other films, which makes this one feel right at home among them (even if it's the first to be animated).

The animation looks unique and is great to look at throughout. Unlike other animated movies with unique looks, I didn't feel like this one took a while to get used to. It pulls you in right away, and I think the music helps a great deal, too. It's overall a nice-looking and nice-sounding movie, with pretty good voice-acting, too.

The fact that it deals with mature themes (surprising amounts of death and Fascism in this movie) and might look unsettling to some, while also having child-friendly comic relief and music numbers do make it feel a bit odd tonally. I appreciate the effort that went into making this a movie with elements that'll appeal to younger viewers, and elements that'll appeal to older viewers, but I'm not sure the variety of tones is always balanced expertly. If I had any criticism, it's that, but otherwise, this is a very good animated movie, and another triumph for Del Toro (and his co-director!).

Right from the get go there're some loop holes, and themes that seems a bit odd but then it grew on me. While my brain is processing and nitpicking the logic, my eyes and heart enjoys this. After finishing the movie, other than shedding some tears, I don't really feel anything much but entertained. Half day in, the movie is now stuck in my mind. Took me awhile to process the meaning of life I took from this movie, and the beauty, the growth, the love, the treasuring the time we have together, precious time. It is now in a special place in my heart. Hands down the best Pinocchio movie I have the honour of watching, in my lifetime. Thank you.