'Guillermo del Toro's Pinnochio' is the Best 'Pinnochio'
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If you're gearing up for a family movie night this weekend, you might experience some déjà vu upon opening your Netflix homepage. Today, Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio debuts on the streaming service. It's a decidedly unique take on the classic fairytale—the Oscar-winning Pan's Labyrinth and Shape of Water director's grim style is immediately evident from the puppet's creaky, carved grin. Yet, something about the release might feel vaguely familiar. Sure, the 1940 Disney original with puppeteer Geppetto and narrator Jiminy Cricket comes to mind. But... wasn't there just another Pinocchio remake?
Let me get ahead of this: Yes, there was. In fact, there were already not one, but two Pinocchio remakes this year alone. Though you might (rightfully!) wonder if even one Pinocchio remake was necessary this year, hear me out. Though I don't have a lie detector built into my nose to back me up, take my word that the third Pinocchio of the year is the best Pinnochio of the year.
I know three Pinocchios in one year is a lot to process. And some questions might come to mind! How about: “Why?” Or: “At what cost?!” After all, 2022 has already seen enough Pinocchio adaptations to have us begging filmmakers not to resurrect the poor puppet's weary wooden bones.
First, there was Lionsgate’s inexplicable, English-dubbed rerelease of a Russian Pinocchio iteration–which became the subject of so many memes that stories about Pinocchio’s shocking voice reveal in the trailer superseded any kind of legitimate criticism of the film. Then there was the Disney live-action reboot that even a Tom Hanks-as-Gepetto couldn’t save from a 27 percent rating on Rotten Tomatoes. The latter of these films, of course, is entirely more watchable than the former. It is Disney, after all. But the film didn't seem to provide a coherent argument as to why, exactly, Disney had chosen to dust off the 82-year-old film from its vault.
There’s no telling what kind of shift in the algorithm paved the way for three different studios to release Pinocchio adaptations in 2022. Especially considering that the source material, the Italian children’s novel The Adventures of Pinocchio by Carlo Collodi, was published nearly 140 years ago. Perhaps it can be chalked up to the same type of parallel thinking that allowed cinematic doppelgängers Friends With Benefits and No Strings Attached to both debut in 2011—or, say, A Bug’s Life and Antz to share the box office in 1998. (Granted, an early-2010s hot people try casual hookup pledge rom-com feels slightly more predictable than a late-1990s, computer-animated ant blockbuster frenzy.)
Whether we wished upon a star for it or not, the 2022 Pinocchio Multiverse is now a fever dream come true. And it's a reality we'll have to embrace—or, at least one we’ll need to look past—in order to give a proper welcome to Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio.
Having del Toro’s namesake in the titl feels important—and not just because it helps us tell the film apart from its 2022 predecessors. The director's fingerprint is apparent from one look at the film’s trailer, both literally and figuratively. Del Toro, along with co-director Mark Gustafson, employed stop-motion animation tactics, using puppets that could be manually manipulated by animators to create a stunningly tactile world. Often one to incorporate his background as a special-effects and make-up designer into his work as a director, the film’s visuals are inextricably linked to its underlying themes of imperfection and non-conformity.
Del Toro recently told Vanity Fair that part of his choice to veer from the visual precedent of Disney’s 1940 Pinocchio (even choosing to make his Pinocchio fully wooden) was also out of reverence for the original. “I think it is a pinnacle of Disney animation. It’s done in the most beautiful, hand-drawn 2-D animation.”
Thematically, the film is also undeniably del Toro. For one, the filmmaker's penchant for reclaiming the morbid and grotesque immediately shines through in Pinocchio’s origin story. In del Toro’s Pinocchio, Geppetto drunkenly crafts Pinocchio while mourning the unexpected death of his son—who is killed in a freak accident church bombing. Plenty of other elements mark del Toro’s deviation into darkness, like swapping the original “Blue Fairy” for the Tilda Swinton-voiced Wood Sprite (which feels eerily accurate to biblical descriptions of seraphim angels with eye-laden wings). The film also explores an entirely uncharted underworld, which the immortal Pinocchio frequently visits after temporarily dying multiple times in the film.
Of course, del Toro’s love of positioning fantasy within history also sneaks its way into the classic fairytale. Much like Pan’s Labyrinth and Shape of Water, the historical setting of Pinocchio plays a major role in the film—as Pinocchio navigates childhood amidst early 20th-century Italy. Though the first appearance of a character doing a fascist salute feels a bit jarring, the political backdrop significantly aids del Toro in subverting the original moral of Pinocchio. Rather than a cautionary tale against lying, del Toro said at the film's BFI premiere that he strived to "celebrate" Pinocchio’s disobedience—using the metaphor of conformants as “puppets” to drive the point home. (One of Pinocchio’s many deaths in the film occurs after he ridicules Benito Mussolini to his face at a circus and is immediately ordered to be shot. Yeah. I'm serious.)
Del Toro also uses the paternalistic authority of Italian fascism to subvert the original fable’s lessons on child-rearing, instead showing why Geppetto should love Pinocchio as he is—rather than Pinocchio learning how to be a "real boy" deserving of love. It makes for a fairly loaded take on a children's fairytale, to be sure. But it's a gamble that pays off—and one that serves as a reminder that children's movies, and animated movies in general, are still worth betting big on. Fellow 2022 Best Animated Feature frontrunners like Marcel the Shell with Shoes On contribute to a similar argument, offering up art that is fit for all ages amidst a market often dominated by transparent cash grabs.
From its incredibly dedicated animation process, to a script that plays to the very top of its PG audience's intelligence, to even delivering new lessons for old fans, Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio truly breathes a second wind into the fairytale genre's stilted bones. Forget its 2022 predecessors—and even the Pinocchio of your vague VHS memories. Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio will sneak its way into even the most hardened, petrified hearts. Hell, if Guillermo del Toro isn't above another Pinocchio remake, why should we be?
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