Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio

With less than 1/4 of the budget of the soulless Disney live action remake earlier this year, Del Toro & Co. Have managed to craft a version of Pinocchio with more personality, heart, and soul than Disney could have dreamed of crafting.

It injects new life into the character by telling a story that is vastly different both narratively and thematically than any version we've seen on screen before.

This tale deals with the malleability of identity, unconditional love, the impressionable nature of children, and the close link between joy and sorrow. And it does so with dark wit, refreshingly complex three-dimensional characters, and stunningly haunting stop-motion animation.

However, I do think this could have benefited a bit from cutting down on the plethora of plot points and having Pinocchio and Geppetto spend more time together. This version lacks the tight focus and brisk pacing of the 1940 version.

But aside from this, I was thoroughly entranced by this dark fairy tale. It has a spine and a soul, and unlike it's titular protagonist, it's far from wooden.

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!).

Guillermo Del Toro's Pinocchio is exactly that, a beautiful and unique interpretation of a classic that explores death and grief in ways that are often emotional and heartbreaking whilst still delivering a fun adventure with gorgeous animation against a classically disturbing Del Toro backdrop.

Gregory Mann gives an incredible lead performance, imbuing Pinocchio with a boundless warmth and naivety that thankfully never becomes annoying. Ewan McGregor makes for a terrific comic relief and is an absolute joy to hear whenever he's on screen.

David Bradley is so good as Geppetto, subtly bringing so much pain to his character that breaks your heart and makes his moments of happiness all the better to experience. Rounding out the cast is Christoph Waltz, on point as usual with another truly evil character.

Guillermo Del Toro's and Mark Gustafson's direction is absolutely phenomenal, everything from the movement of the characters, to their designs and the vibrant colour palette is gorgeous and endlessly watchable. The music by Alexandre Desplat is amazing, giving the film a perfect sense of whimsy for a fairytale.

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.

Hot on the heels of the Disney released Tom Hanks starring misfire that has found little fanfare around the world after its release on Disney+, Netflix's high profile and ambitious take on Carlo Collodi's beloved children's tale courtesy of the overseeing of Guillermo del Toro and his co-director Mark Gustafson is an artistic triumph that successful re-imagines the tale of a wooden boy and his creator/father in a way that brings new life and freshness to a story that unquestionably wasn't in need of yet another cinematic adaptation.

Transporting the fantastical adventure of Pinocchio (hear voiced by Gregory Mann) from the setting of 1800's Italy to pre-World War 2 Italy under the dictatorship of Benito Mussolini and his National Fascist Party, del Toro and Gustafson's tale is a lot more mature and adult-minded than we've seen most times previously in film versions of this tale but as is to be expected from anything with the Mexican artists touch, the film still manages to offer up whimsy, heart and laughter around all the more serious elements that are sure to affect adult viewers here even more than any little ones that give the film a go.

Currently the longest stop-motion feature film ever made, every frame of Pinocchio is a significant feat of artistry come to life and vision explored, with one left wondering how on earth the team behind this effort managed to pull off such exemplary feats of animation to birth this tale into existence and whether its colourful cities, mangy looking monkey sidekicks, rabbit filled underworlds or a belly of a giant sea beast there is no doubt every inch of this Netflix original is right up there with the best of 2022's feats of film-making, making this film as close to a shoe-in as possible for this years Best Animated Film Oscar.

While there is so much to enjoy in a visual and aesthetics point of view not everything else in del Toro and Gustafson's film works to the same high level with some of the films infrequent hit and mostly miss humour (a frequently explored joke of Ewan McGregor's mistreated Cricket grows wearisome), hammer over the head reminder that fascism is bad, Mann's slightly irritating voice work of Pinocchio and most tellingly a collection of songs that feel slightly underused and questionable in a sense that perhaps this film might have worked perfectly fine ditching the song and dance numbers all together, combine to stop Pinocchio from operating in other departments as highly and memorably as it does in a purely artistically viewed point of analysis.

Undoubtedly Pinocchio can be viewed as a success and head and shoulders above the other 2022 film of the same name but when it comes to what cinematic version of Collodi's tale still remains best, the 1940 Disney animation must still be regarded as the king.

Final Say -

An outstanding artistic achievement that fails to inspire the same level of magic and awe as its technical prowess elsewhere, Netflix's Pinocchio is a good film that could've been an all round masterpiece if other pieces had come together to reach the same levels of its artistry.

3 1/2 hot chocolates out of 5

Jordan and Eddie (The Movie Guys)