Pinocchio

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).

From the get go, this movie had everything going for it. Guillermo del Toro knows how to make a good film, and this was definitely no exception. Now I'm a fan of the 1954 Pinocchio, and I'll say right off the bat that this is not a remake! Don't be foolish and think that, because this is an adaptation of the book more than anything. This movie took some creative liberties, some really good creative liberties, in fact. The movie is set during World War II, in an Italy under Mussolini. War plays a huge role in this film, and I think Del Toro did a good job of taking the basic ideas from the original story, and expanding on them. For example, a certain island setting from the original story is not present in this film, but in its place is a genius substitute that serves practically the same kind of purpose in a way. Every character is interesting and the worlds are very dense with details. While having a dark tone, the movie also finds a way to be upbeat and charming at times. Also, the music is great, the musical songs are pleasing to the ear. Best of all, the visuals are stunning, the puppets capture emotion even though they're puppets. This movie beats Disney's remake by a long shot, and I hope it gets lots of credit for that. Watch this movie if you like the story of Pinocchio, but expect differences and a darker tone. Your kids will like it, and you will love it. 10/10 totally recommend.

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.

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)