Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio

***Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio*** (or simply ***Pinocchio***) is a 2022 stop-motion animated musical dark fantasy film directed by Guillermo del Toro and Mark Gustafson, with a screenplay by del Toro and Patrick McHale from a story by del Toro and Matthew Robbins. Loosely based on the 1883 Italian novel *The Adventures of Pinocchio* by Carlo Collodi, and strongly influenced by Gris Grimly's illustrations for a 2002 edition of the book, it reimagines the story of Pinocchio, a wooden puppet who comes to life as the son of his carver Geppetto. It is "a story of love and disobedience as Pinocchio struggles to live up to his father's expectations, learning the true meaning of life", set in Fascist Italy during the interwar period and World War II. The film stars the voices of Gregory Mann and David Bradley as the title character and Geppetto respectively, alongside Ewan McGregor, Burn Gorman, Ron Perlman, John Turturro, Finn Wolfhard, Cate Blanchett, Tim Blake Nelson, Christoph Waltz, and Tilda Swinton.

A longtime passion project for del Toro, who considers that no other character ever "had as deep of a personal connection to [him]" as Pinocchio, the film was originally announced in 2008 aiming for a 2013 or 2014 release. However, it went into development hell. In January 2017, McHale, creator of *Over the Garden Wall*, was announced to co-write the screenplay, but production was suspended in November 2017 as no studios were willing to provide financing. It was revived the following year after being acquired by Netflix. The film is dedicated to the memories of del Toro's parents.

*Pinocchio* premiered at the BFI London Film Festival on October 15, 2022. It was released in select theaters on November 9, 2022, and began streaming on Netflix on December 9. The film received critical acclaim for its animation, visuals, music, story, emotional weight and voice acting. It received many accolades, including winning the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature and three nominations at the 80th Golden Globe Awards, winning Best Animated Feature Film. del Toro is the first Latino to win the Golden Globe category, and *Pinocchio* is the first film for a streaming service to win at both ceremonies, as well as the second stop motion animated film after *Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit*.

## Plot

Resin sculpture of Pinocchio, along with a tiny sculpture of Sebastian J. Cricket on his right hand, used in Guillermo del Toro's film. Images from the exhibition of Guillermo del Toro's *Pinocchio*. Esplanade of the Cineteca Nacional de México, Mexico City, Mexico

In Italy during World War II, in a fit of drunken rage twenty years after losing his son Carlo to an aerial bombardment, the carpenter Geppetto cuts down a pine tree and uses it to create a wooden boy. The Wood Sprite brings the puppet to life, christening him Pinocchio, and assigns Sebastian J. Cricket to guide him as his conscience, promising Sebastian a wish in exchange.

Geppetto wakes up to a living Pinocchio, but becomes terrified and fed up with his antics, resulting in the village Podestà ordering Geppetto to send Pinocchio to school. On his way, Pinocchio is intercepted by showman Count Volpe and his monkey Spazzatura, who bring Pinocchio to their circus. Geppetto arrives to take Pinocchio back, resulting in a confrontation between him and Volpe that ends with Pinocchio being fatally hit by the Podestà's truck. In the afterlife, he meets the Wood Sprite's sister Death who explains to Pinocchio he is immortal and revives him when an hourglass empties. Death cautions that the more he dies, the more time he will spend in the afterlife.

After returning to the mortal realm, Pinocchio decides to earn money for Geppetto by performing in the circus as well as to avoid being conscripted into the army by the Podestà. In an attempt to reinstate himself as the circus star, a jealous Spazzatura reveals to Pinocchio that Volpe is conning him out of the money he falsely promised to send to his father. Hearing this, Volpe viciously beats Spazzatura, upsetting Pinocchio. In order to sabotage Volpe, Pinocchio performs a song ridiculing Benito Mussolini while he is in attendance. Mussolini has Pinocchio executed and the circus burned. Once revived, Pinocchio finds himself being taken by the Podestà to a boot camp, where other boys are trained to fight in the war.

Pinocchio befriends the Podestà's son, Candlewick, who is afraid of disappointing his father. After a training game between two teams led by Pinocchio and Candlewick ends in a tie, the Podestà orders Candlewick to shoot Pinocchio. Candlewick refuses and stands up to his father. The training camp is then bombed by Allied aircraft, killing the Podestà, while Candlewick and the other boys flee. Pinocchio is captured by Volpe, who tries to burn him to death as revenge for ruining his career. Spazzatura saves Pinocchio, resulting in Volpe falling off a seaside cliff to his death alongside Pinocchio and Spazzatura during a struggle with the monkey.

Lost at sea, Pinocchio and Spazzatura are swallowed by a giant dogfish. Inside the monster's belly, Pinocchio and Spazzatura find Geppetto and Sebastian, who were also swallowed during their search for Pinocchio. Thanks to an idea by Sebastian, Pinocchio lies to make his nose grow into a large branch, thus forming a bridge leading out of the monster's blowhole. Making their escape as the monster attempts to eat them again, Pinocchio sacrifices himself by detonating a naval mine inside the monster, killing them both. Upon meeting Death again, Pinocchio demands to be sent back early to save Geppetto from drowning. Death warns him that doing so will make him mortal, but Pinocchio breaks the hourglass to return and ends up drowning while saving his father. The Wood Sprite reappears to a mourning Geppetto and Sebastian uses his wish to make her revive Pinocchio.

Pinocchio returns home with his father, Sebastian and Spazzatura to live together as a family. Outliving all of his loved ones, Pinocchio decides to travel the world.

## **Why It Rocks**

1. The animation is very well done, since it's stop-motion.
2. The sculptures for the characters also look great.
3. It's the darkest version of Pinocchio, and it's very well executed.
4. The voice acting is also one of the best things. As Gregory Mann is the perfect role for Pinocchio.
5. The film in is a love letter to the medium of animation. And how it can break boundaries more than live action can.
6. It's the best adaptation of Pinocchio since the original Disney classic.
7. It is in a way the first work of the Mexican studio “El Taller del Chucho”, as he helped in the afterlife scenes and therefore deserves mention.