Josh Reviews Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio

This new version of Pinocchio was directed by Guillermo del Toro and Mark Gustafson, and written by Mr. del Toro and Patrick McHale.  The story has been brought to life through beautiful stop-motion animation.

I am a huge fan of Guillermo del Toro.  Pan’s Labyrinth, The Devil’s Backbone, and The Shape of Water are true masterpieces.  Mr. del Toro has a special affinity for the weird and the monstrous, and many of his films seem like dark fairy tales brought to life.  So he seemed like a natural fit for Pinocchio (which is, in its original non-Disney form, quite a horror-filled tale).  This project has apparently been something of a long-term labor of love for Mr. del Toro.  (He’s been talking about making this movie since the aughts.)

I really enjoyed this new version.  It’s not quite a masterpiece, and there are some pieces that didn’t altogether work for me.  But nevertheless I was captivated by this strange, melancholy new version of Pinocchio.

The stop-motion animation is spectacular.  It is a joy to watch a fantasy story brought to life via this old-style animation.  But the film feels anything but old-style.  The complexity of the animation is dazzling.  Again and again, I found myself wondering, how on Earth did they do that??  How did they accomplish that shot or that action??  Even if you’re not a huge animation fan like I am, I think you’ll be sucked into the lush, strange and beautiful world of this story.  Major credit here must go to co-director Mark Gustafson and his team of animators.  Let’s not make the mistake that so many critics made when Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas was released, in which everyone ignores the experienced animation director — in that case, Henry Selick — who was critical to bringing the film to life.  (It’s interesting to mention The Nightmare Before Christmas, as that’s a similar film to Pinocchio in many ways.  Both are stop-motion animated films, both are dark fairy tales, and both were overseen by visionary live-action directors.  The style of the two films is very different, but they share some common DNA.)

As is always the case in Mr. del Toro’s films, the design of the characters and creatures is superlative.  Each and every character has been beautifully designed, creating unique and very memorable new versions of these characters.  I love the look of this Pinocchio, completely wooden (unlike the more boyish Disney version).  I love the look of his wooden hair, and how we get the sense that Geppetto didn’t quite finish carving his face.  Geppetto himself looks wonderful, with an intricate white beard and wonderfully expressive bushy eyebrows.  I particularly loved the bizarre look of the evil circus ringmaster Count Volpe, whose angular upswept orange hair is like an upside-down version of his mustache and muttonchops.  The look of the whale that eventually swallows Geppetto and Pinocchio is terrific; it looks ancient and scary and weird.  And then, of course, we come to the supernatural creatures in the film: the Wood Sprite that gives life to Pinocchio, and the spirit of Death.  Both are spectacularly original and memorable creatures, wonderful additions to Mr. del Toro’s pantheon of strange creations.  I loved how unique they both looked; how ethereal and beautiful and also otherworldly and scary.

The voice cast is wonderful, bringing life to all of these beautifully designed and animated characters.  Gregory Mann is terrific as Pinocchio, giving him the boyish enthusiasm and innocence that the character needs.  Equally terrific is David Bradley (Walder Frey from Game of Thrones) as Geppetto.  I love this very human version of Geppetto; the film (and Mr. Bradley’s strong performance) explores his love and gentleness and also his bitterness and heartbreak following the death of his son Carlo.  Christoph Waltz (Inglourious Basterds, Django Unchained, Spectre) is wonderful as Count Volpe, perfectly depicting his oily sleaziness.  Speaking of perfection, Tilda Swinton (Doctor Strange, The French Dispatch, Three Thousand Years of Longing) is incredible as the voices of both the Wood Sprite and Death; she’s strange and unearthly, kind and gentle but also mysterious and dangerous.  Ewan McGregor (Obi-Wan Kenobi, Doctor Sleep) is great as the film’s narrator, Sebastian J. Cricket, the worldly writer who takes up residence in Pinocchio’s wooden body on the night when he’s brought to life by the Wood Sprite, and who accompanies Pinocchio and Geppetto on their subsequent adventures.  Mr. McGreggor’s upbeat charm and good humor are an enjoyable presence in the film.  Mr. del Toro’s regular collaborator Ron Perlman (Cronos, Hellboy, Pacific Rim) is great as the war-loving, fascist Podestà in Geppetto’s village, and Burn Gorman (Pacific Rim, Crimson Peak) is suitably strange as the village’s priest.  John Turturro (Cradle Will Rock, Severance, The Batman) is great in his small role as the village’s doctor, as is Tim Blake Nelson (The Ballad of Buster Scruggs, Watchmen) as the voice of all the skeletal rabbits who work for Death.  Finn Wolfhard (Stranger Things, It, Ghostbusters: Afterlife) does good work as the Podestà’s son, Candlewick.  And none other than Cate Blanchett (who was in Mr. del Toro’s most recent live-action movie, Nightmare Alley) voices the monkey Spazzatura (who doesn’t actually speak in the film; Spazzatura just utters animal noises).

Mr. del Toro has long been interested in the rise of fascism during WWII, and he’s incorporated that setting into many of his films (most notably Pan’s Labyrinth).  It’s interesting to see that he has set this retelling of the story of Pinocchio in that time-period as well.  It’s an interesting choice, and it centers this fantasy story (and its supernatural scares) amidst real-world horrors.  (Geppetto’s son Carlo is killed by an errant bomb.)  This gives the film an unexpected resonance.  On the other hand, I was expecting the film to build to more of a confrontation with the fascistic Podestà in the climax.  But he’s dealt with in one of the film’s anecdotal adventures that doesn’t feel much more significant than any of Pinocchio’s other adventures.  I was surprised that the film actually included Il Duce (Mussolini) himself!  But the same goes for him; he’s also quickly dealt with in one of Pinocchio’s adventures that, again, doesn’t feel like it has any greater importance than any of the other adventures.  So these fascistic villains feel less significant to me than the evil circus-owner Count Volpe, which was a surprise and a bit of a disappointment.

I was also surprised to discover that this dark fairy tale included songs.  Each time the film stopped for a song, it felt tonally jarring for me.  And I didn’t find any of the songs particularly interesting or memorable.  So this feels like a mis-step to me.  (There’s a mildly amusing running joke in that Sebastian J. Cricket continually starts a song but then gets interrupted, but it felt like a half-hearted gag to me.  The film didn’t lean into that enough to get the comedic mileage that I suspect was intended.)

But any minor quibbles I had with the film faded away in the final 5-10 minutes, in which the film reached a wonderfully heartbreaking emotional climax.  I was deeply moved.  I hadn’t expected to have such an emotional response watching a new version of Pinocchio!  But Mr. del Toro’s skill as a storyteller, combined with the spectacular animation, was able to bring true life to this tale.

I’m glad this exists, and I’m glad to have seen it!

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