I've never been able to connect with the original Pinocchio story. The peak of crappiness was reached a few months ago with the new Disney film. Fortunately, Guillermo del Toro does a much better job. Despite the fact that the core of the story is the same as in previous adaptations, del Toro adds some interesting elements. It was a particularly wise decision to relocate the plot to fascist Italy in the 1930s.
I liked the prologue very much right away. It does a good job of portraying what Geppetto's emotional state is like. Also, del Toro manages to let his penchant for dark fantasy shine through during Pinocchio's first appearance and several later moments. Almost every time the wooden puppet begins to speak, however, he is just as annoying as he was in the other films.
The biggest strength of this movie is definitely the look. The animation style is not at all like what you are used to seeing. It is perhaps the most beautiful animated film of the year. The soundtrack is also fitting. Only the few musical interludes did not appeal to me. They always seemed a bit out of place. When there is no singing, the voice actors are consistently strong, though.
In the end, del Toro did not manage to make me a fan of the original Pinocchio story. But whenever he deviates from the source material, he delivers. Moreover, the film is a feast for the eyes. If you have a Netflix subscription, you can definitely have a good time watching it.
I’m sure we all agree that Pinocchio shouldn’t have any more adaptations, especially now that we finally got a nearly perfect one. Del Toro uses Pinocchio as a universal figure and manages to reimagine his own tale while retaining the spirit of the original. The setting has been changed to Fascist Italy, with Pinocchio acting as the spiritual opposite of Mussolini’s “Believe, Obey, Fight” slogan. The most abused puppet in literature questions everything, doesn’t listen to anybody, and is emotionally incapable of entering into a conflict. He will ultimately find out the true meaning of life and humanity, yet without having us go through the same episodes that we’ve already witnessed countless times in other adaptations.
Although the anti-totalitarian message is on point for most of the movie, it sadly loses its focus near the end. While I was expecting things to take a grittier direction and deliver the final message, the plot suddenly changes route to bring back the dogfish from the novel and leave the rest behind.
Other than that, I found the movie brilliant and capable of speaking to all kinds of audiences, often striking my heart with the simplest considerations about life. The production design is astonishing, even though it might scare off young children in a couple of moments.
Del Toro's is simply the finest Pinocchio adaptation that I've seen. This film combines gorgeous stop-motion animation, peerless voice acting talent, a warm-hearted story to appeal to younger viewers, and enduring themes that will resonate with older audiences as well.
From the moment the Wood Sprite answers the mournful Gepetto's wish, Pinocchio dances with manic joi de vivre. Against the background of fascist Italy, the wooden boy embodies spiritual freedom and defiance -- challenging the village Podesta "Who's pulling your strings?"
Of course, as in most versions of the tale, Pinocchio's naive pleasure-seeking exposes him to manipulation and exploitation. The circus manager Volpe lures Pinocchio away with promises of chocolate and fame. Pinocchio performs as the "puppet without strings," thinking that half of the money his shows earn goes back to Gepetto. Sadly, the con man Volpe never pays anyone.
In Disney's 1940 Disney feature, Pinocchio goes from "Honest John's" circus to a worse trap called Pleasure Island. There, he and other foolish boys grotesquely mutate into donkeys, ready to be put to unpaid work. Instead of becoming a Real Boy, Pinocchio nearly becomes even more of a puppet, a voiceless instrument in someone else's hands. Thoughtless pleasure-seeking enslaves the boys. Jiminy Cricket ultimately helps Pinocchio to escape -- but his friends do not.
By contrast, Mussolini-era setting enables del Toro to develop a story with different themes. While Mussolini's rhetoric is as omnipresent in the film as in Fellini's Amarcord, Pinocchio seems only interested in its spectacle. Clownish and chronically defiant, he ruins a performance for Il Duce himself by lacing a patriotic song with fart and poop jokes. But circumstances ultimately force Pinocchio into a fascist youth camp. There, he bonds with the village podesta's son, Candlewick. Both boys long to please disappointed fathers. But life in the camp only teaches them that they love life and friendship more than war and death, that defiance is braver than fascist obedience. And, in this version, Pinocchio finally starts on the path toward Real Boyhood when he realizes that life is precious because it's fleeting. A final act reunites him with Gepetto, on a seaborne caper reminiscent of Terry Gilliam's The Adventures of Baron Munchausen. The conclusion dwells on life, death, and renewal -- and leaves you wondering what being a Real Boy means, after all. Beautiful.
All in all, I wish that I'd been able to see this version instead of Disney's 1940 adaptation when I was a kid. I might not have run out of the room midway through. That Pleasure Island bit really upset me when I was five or so ...
I didn’t even know that Guillermo del Toro had made an adaptation of Pinocchio until my daughter and oldest son told me they wanted to watch it during our traditional movie evening yesterday. Wow, that was a different take on Pinocchio indeed.
Pinocchio, the original, is not surprisingly, one of the movies I watched as a kid and which is quite dear to me. A movie from the time when the name Disney actually meant something and when they made actual family movies instead of woke crud for the small but loud-mouthed and fanatical minority. Needless to say I have not even contemplated to watch Disney’s latest remake of the original.
But then, Guillermo del Toro movies I often like and, well, the kids (who are also very anti-woke) wanted to watch it so I did not have much choice but to watch it.
I do indeed have some reservations about the theme used in the movie but overall it was a good movie.
The movie is more geared towards adults or at least young adults than Disney’s original. It is much more dark and less humorous. But then, with Guillermo del Toro at the helm that is not really a surprise is it?
Since I did not know anything about this movie until I started to watch it I sat through the entire movie wondering if it was done with stop-motion figures or CGI made to look like stop-motion. It turnes out that it is indeed stop-motion and damned impressive stop-motion at that. Really well done.
The story, which has little to do with the original Disney one to be honest, is not bad but here we come to my main gripe with the movie. I did not really like the setting in fascist Italy with a lot of the movie preaching about fascism. It is really beating a dead horse and it made the movie darker than it had to be. I know Pinocchio is an Italian story so they could not really have set it in communist Russia, even though that would have been much more relevant if they really wanted to have some background bad guys. Still, I just wished they would have found some other theme.
The ending is also nothing like the original Disney movie. It is not entirely a tragic ending but it is certainly not an overly happy one either. It is a good ending but, again, more an adult ending than a children’s story ending.
Overall though, I liked the movie. It was a good movie and an intelligent and technically very well done adaptation of the Pinocchio story.
Review by AcoucalanchaVIP 4BlockedParent2022-12-11T05:22:27Z— updated 2024-03-24T16:46:46Z
Guillermo del Toro brings the best Pinocchio yet in this carefully handcrafted stop-motion adaptation. It feels very del Toro and you can see the love and passion that was put into it. The stop-motion animation is some of the most beautiful i've seen it has a distinctive appearance and the movements are fluid I forgot it was animation at times. Such an impressive cast they all did amazing and Ewan McGregor as Jiminy Cricket (or should I say Sabastian J. Cricket) was absolute perfection. It deals with father son relationships, family, staying true to yourself, self-acceptance and more mature themes like death and what it means to be human. The story is rich and layered and it's easy to get an emotional attachment. One thing they did right this time is they added so much backstory and context to how Pinocchio was created it really immersed me into the character and the world. Guillermo's usual aesthetics are felt and they make this even better I loved the sea creature and the darker themes. My only criticism is the songs could of been better and they weren't memorable but at least we got Ewan McGregor to sing. Overall a beautiful film I would definitely revisit. Did we get another Pinocchio this year I can't remember?