Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio

Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio

During the rise of fascism in Mussolini's Italy, a wooden boy brought magically to life struggles to live up to his father's expectations.

  • Released: 2022-12-24
  • Runtime: 120 minutes
  • Genre: Animation, Drama, Fantasy
  • Stars: Gregory Mann, David Bradley, Ewan McGregor, Christoph Waltz, Tilda Swinton, Cate Blanchett, Ron Perlman, Finn Wolfhard, Tim Blake Nelson, John Turturro, Burn Gorman
  • Director: Guillermo del Toro, Mark Gustafson
 Comments
  • bwkuettel - 5 March 2024
    Guillermo's best since Pan's Labyrinth
    Beautiful, can tell this was a real labor of love! It's great that 2022 was lowkey the triumphant return of glorious stop-motion animated films for whatever reason. While I loved Marcel slightly more, Pinocchio was still in my top 5 of the year and is a glorious work of art. Manages to explore themes of mortality and darkness of our world the way classic fairy tales did, and achieves real emotional resonance by the end with where the characters end up. My favorite thing Guillermo's been involved in since Pan's Labyrinth. He's an earnest and versatile auteur, exuding his childlike wonder to make visually stunning genre films, this time without his trademark strong violence or grotesque imagery which results in a stunning animated dark fairy tale that sort of brings to mind, and lives up to, the better Tim Burton movies.
  • scaryjase-06161 - 13 February 2024
    Not bad at all!
    This is another one I'd not have bothered with under normal circumstances, but del Toro is never boring so I'm intrigued as to what he's done with it.

    And, well, he's certainly done loads with it - it all gets very existential indeed. Pinocchio is created by Gepetto to replace his son (who was killed in an bombing raid) and throughout the film he runs off to join the circus, makes friends with a monkey, performs for Mussolini, gets enlisted in the army, gets swallowed by a giant fish and repeatedly visits the underworld (which is obviously run by rabbits). All the while, posing questions on the very nature of parenthood, friendship, fascism, sacrifice and death - and it has a VERY charming ending indeed.

    It all very well told and it looks fantastic - the animation is really well done with some really subtle touches in it. It is, however, hard to tell who they're making the film for - it must be aimed at the family market but it's not like del Toro's name is really going to help sell it there and I'm also not sure which ages of children would actually like it. The songs are also an odd choice - it feels like they're trying to Disney-fy it, but they're very average and instantly forgettable so they give up on that idea halfway through the film - and in some cases they give up on a song a couple of lines in!

    The voice acting through is pretty good - David Bradley and Gregory Mann both deserve special praise for their excellent work as Gepetto and Pinocchio. I'm going to mention Tilda Swinton for her third "appearance" of the year - and yes, she's playing some weird characters but, to be fair, there are a lot of weird characters in this film! I also need to mention that Mussolini is played by Tom Kenny who you probably don't recognise from the name, but he voices Spongebob Squarepants - which is quite a pair of names to have on the CV.

    Wikipedia tells me this film won an Oscar, making del Toro the first filmmaker to win Academy Awards for Best Director, Best Picture and Best Animated Feature for different films, for The Shape of Water and Pinocchio, respectively.

    I actually quite enjoyed this - it was a clever story in a clever setting and there were some real moments of tension and heart nicely scattered throughout the film. I'm not sure I'd say it's really one of the best films of the year and my life would have been perfectly fine without seeing it, but it was a diverting two hours which I don't feel were wasted. As I said previously though, I'm not really sure who it was aimed at so I'm not sure I really feel I can recommend it - but if you fancy it, it's there on Netflix for you.
  • freethinkingworld - 10 January 2023
    After Thoughts
    Another great, fun, and dark journey from Guillermo Del Toro! This is by far the best adaptation of Pinocchio from 2022! I love claymation movies, so when I saw Guillermo Del Toro was doing a claymation film I was stoked. Ewan McGregor and David Bradley were amazing in this film, thier voice work were superb! It was also a blast trying to figure out who was voiced by Ron Perlman 😅😅. Also Guillermo Del Toro's work really shines in the afterlife parts and with the Spirits. I also really really loved seeing the story of Geppetto before he made Pinocchio. I think that really added a lot to the story and made Geppetto my favorite character!
  • dominikahornakova - 6 January 2023
    Pinocchio is not a fairy tale
    Altough there were some bright moments (for example he most touching scene for me was when young solider refused to obey his father and other scenes with very nice moral compass referenes). But there were just few and even those were lost somewhere in very flat storytelling. I felt very dissapointed after watching this movie - it was too dark, too much drama, annoying scens, voices, annoying behavior of the main character ..... after all I had to make a break from movie and continue to watching it after one week because I really want to understand why is this movie so applauded. But sorry, I didnt find it there.

    I suppose it is not appropriate movie for young children.
  • inzablia - 3 January 2023
    Good children's film, better adult film
    Guillermo Del Toro once again shows his amazing talent and creativity bringing with his interpretation of Pinocchio. Great choice to use stop motion and bring this unused medium to his own interpretation of this old story, bringing in unique characters and character designs.

    Pacing is really well done, always keeps the story progressing and the viewer engaged. The highpoints of the film are definitely it's unique inclusion of World War II, which is actually used in the plot and not just shoved in to be "original", and the wonderful ending that brings a different change of pace to this story.

    The only real negative I can name are that it's rating being the only thing holding it back from its maximum potential. Children for sure will be engaged and entertained, and it's understandable that Del Toro stayed in the PG rating in order for it to reach that audience. But the dark themes and unique story leave some viewers wondering what more could have been provided in this wonderful story if only it had a rating of perhaps PG-13.
  • gallagherkellie - 1 January 2023
    Lovely and sad
    Wow, this was so well made. I read that it took 1,000 hours to film this! They did so well, it looks amazing. I also can't get over the fact that Cate Blanchett literally plays a monkey that doesn't talk and just makes monkey noises!

    The story was very different to what we know, and as expected it was darker with some war thrown in there. I still think it's totally fine for older kids from around 12 years old.

    I found it to be super cute, sometimes sad, sometimes smile inducing. There's a lovely message behind it, the voice acting was well done and I am a teary mess at the end!!

    I don't expect it to be the exact same as the original story, but I gave it a 8 as there were a few things that I feel were a bit too different.
  • thelandofoo - 30 December 2022
    Guillermo's First Animated Feature
    The newest rendition of the tale is brought to us by Guillermo del Toro and Mark Gustafson and is set against the backdrop of WW2 Era Italy under the Fascist control of dictator Mussolini. At first, I wasn't too sure about the decision of putting the story of Pinocchio in a real world historical context, but by the end, I believe I see what Guillermo and crew were trying to go for and see the relation between the title character and the setting. The animation, needless to say, is wonderful and is so fluid at points that you forget you are watching stop-motion animation. Guillermo also utilizes the best aspects of the character to tell a touching (and admittedly sometimes dark) story that both children and adults can appreciate. The plot could've used a little work as I questioned certain directions the story went, but I thoroughly enjoyed the end result. Whether it's as good or better than the classic Disney film is debatable, but I can safely say it is the best adaptation we've gotten since then. Final verdict: 8.5/10.
  • owenpont-70803 - 28 December 2022
    Beautiful Looking Film.........
    Guillermo del Toro is a fantastic director, anytime I see his name on a movie I instantly get excited and want to see that movie. So when I found out that he was making a Pinocchio movie for Netflix, I was stoked for the film. Now that I have watched this film, I think it is safe to say that this is a brilliant film. The animation first of all is amazingly well done, every scene is done with such perfection and it feels time consuming to put together. But for the film it works wonderfully, I thought the story was compelling and it had actual moments when I was worried for the main character which is rare for animated films. And it has some creepy characters that are really cool. Overall I highly enjoyed Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio, it could very well be my favorite Pinocchio movie.
  • sbweightman - 27 December 2022
    A delightfully inventive yet darker fantastical take on the story which isn't without its charm and humour.
    The characters are great - Pinocchio is heartwarming and full of energy, childhood curiosity and innocent mischief, which also makes him quite annoying at times, Geppetto shows real grief and patience only a parent can have for their children and Cricket is very effective as both the long suffering narrator and as comic relief. The stop motion animation is superb, the voice acting is good and the songs are entertaining, if a bit on the short side. The plot is two stories mixed together, which does drag a bit in the middle and the second story feels rushed and underdeveloped. The ending is a bit too silly but overall, I thoroughly enjoyed it.
  • ColinTheGorilla - 26 December 2022
    I'm not ashamed to have cried
    This movie is so amazing and I think I cried 5 times during this movie and at the end I was sobbing. I think this is easily one of the best films I've seen this year as it was truly incredible and amazing. Everyone needs to watch this movie immediately as this is a million times better than the awful Disney remake they put out this year. This is one of the saddest stories I've ever seen and it will easily make you cry at the end whenever you see what happens. Guillermo Del Toro you've done it again and made yet another amazing movie. People need to be watching this instead of the awful Disney remake.