Pinocchio director Guillermo del Toro honors late mother at world premiere: 'This was very special for her'
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Guillermo del Toro took to the stage and honored his late mother, Guadalupe Gómez, before the world premiere of his animated movie Pinocchio at the BFI London Film Festival on Saturday.
The visionary director, who is the mastermind behind the imaginative worlds of Pan's Labyrinth and Crimson Peak, became emotional as he revealed to the audience that his mother had died just one day before the British Film Institute event, reports Variety.
"I just want to say, my mother just passed away, and this was very special for her and me," he said. "This is not only the first time you'll see the movie, it's the first time she'll see the movie with us. Thank you."
Netflix; Jerritt Clark/Getty for The Consulate General of Canada in Los Angeles Geppetto (voiced by David Bradley) in 'Pinocchio'; director Guillermo del Toro
While speaking on stage, del Toro said he and his mother both felt a very strong connection to the original 1940 Disney classic and its themes of love, loyalty, and honesty.
"I saw the film as a kid, and it's a film that bonded me with my mom for an entire life," he explained. "It affected me because Pinocchio saw the world the way I saw it. I was a little bit enraged that people demand obedience from Pinocchio, so I wanted to make a film about disobedience as a virtue, and to say that you shouldn't change to be loved."
Pinocchio is del Toro's first foray into stop-motion animation, but it's an art form he takes very seriously. "Everybody who is here believes that animation is not a genre," he told moviegoers. "That animation is art. Animation is film."
The movie itself has been a longtime passion project for del Toro, who first teased it back in 2008. Fourteen years later, and with a little help from co-director Mark Gustafson (Fantastic Mr. Fox), his Pinocchio arrives as a reimagined take on the beloved Carlo Collodi fairy tale set in fascist Italy before World War II.
Gregory Mann — whose 13th birthday coincided with the premiere — voices the titular wooden boy in the upcoming Netflix film alongside David Bradley as Geppetto and Ewan McGregor as Sebastian J. Cricket. The star-studded cast also includes Tilda Swinton, Christoph Waltz, Finn Wolfhard, Cate Blanchett, John Turturro, Ron Perlman, Tim Blake Nelson, and Burn Gorman.
While chatting with EW back in 2012, del Toro noted the similarities between his retelling of Pinocchio and Mary Shelley's horror classic Frankenstein.
"They are both journeys of understanding, and journeys of evolution of the spirit," he said. "When we started working on Pinocchio, we knew very clearly that we wanted to make it different in the sense that it is not just a fairy tale, but a fairy tale that actually moves you and emotionally affects you. It deals with ideas that are relevant to everyone, to all mankind in a way."
Pinocchio opens in select theaters in November and premieres Dec. 9. on Netflix.
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