Guillermo del Toro’s ‘Pinocchio’ Introduces Ewan McGregor’s Cricket in First Teaser (Video)

You’ve heard of Jiminy Cricket, but have you met Sebastian J. Cricket? You will, in Guillermo del Toro’s take on Carlo Collodi’s classic “Pinocchio.” The cricket is introduced as the one who “lived — actually lived — in the heart of the wooden boy” in the first teaser for the film — and indeed the first look at footage from this long-awaited adaptation.

The stop-motion film has had its share of changes, setbacks and delays as it’s been one of del Toro’s passion projects for years, but it is finally coming to Netflix this year. According to the teaser, “Pinocchio” will hit the streaming service in December, telling “a story that you think you know, but don’t.” Of course, we do know some of it.

As always, “Pinocchio” will tell the story of a puppet who turns into a real boy, recounting his “mischievous and disobedient adventures… in his pursuit of a place in the world.” You can watch the teaser for the movie here and above.

Ewan McGregor voices the cricket we meet in the footage: Sebastian. Presumably, that’s Jiminy’s real first name — as Sebastian notes his middle initial is J — but there’s no telling for sure just yet. He’s simply billed as “Cricket” in the film’s official synopsis.

Along with McGregor, David Bradley voices Geppetto, and the film will introduce Gregory Mann as Pinocchio. Other cast includes Finn Wolfhard, Cate Blanchett, John Turturro, Ron Perlman, Tim Blake Nelson, Burn Gorman, Christoph Waltz and Tilda Swinton.

Mark Gustafson directs with del Toro, and del Toro wrote the script with Patrick McHale.