Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio (2022)

I

 always give my honest opinion when talking about movies, so I feel like it is only fair for me to be transparent here. This review might lean a little bit toward my personal bias, as I am a massive Guillermo Del Toro fan and more often than not, I really like his films. It also helps to point out that Disney released a terrible live-action remake of their 1940 Pinocchio film this same year. It’s easy to point out that after that train wreck, any adaptation of Carlo Collodi’s story would be welcomed. For me, a grim stop-motioned adaptation directed by one of my favorite directors was a godsend. 

     Guillermo Del Toro’s Pinocchio is a new and, arguably darker, adaption of the Italian novel The Adventures of Pinocchio by Carlo Collodi which is reimagined during the timeframe of 1930s Fascist Italy. The story opens with Geppetto living happily with his young son Carlo. We follow them on their day-to-day routine and experience their familial love for one another. However, Carlo is killed during an accidental bombing by Austrian forces during World War I. Twenty years later, Geppetto still mourns his son, and on a drunken binge chops down the tree serving as Sebastian J. Cricket’s home, and upon returning home, assembles the titular wooden boy. As he sleeps off the booze, Sebastian is visited by a blue wood Sprite who resembles a fairly biblically accurate Seraphim with that classic Del Toro touch. The Sprite offers to grant Sebastian a wish if he promises to serve as Pinocchio’s guide, which he accepts.

     The following day, Geppetto is scared silly as he is greeted by the living wooden boy, where we get our first musical number. Pinocchio is heart-breakingly innocent and we watch him struggle to understand the world with joyful ignorance. It’s around this time we have a good idea of our time period as fascist propaganda starts being passed up on building walls and we meet the neighborhood Nazi. This new world is a test on Geppetto as well as he tries to have the townsfolk understand that Pinocchio is not a demon or a threat, while simultaneously trying to rear the wooden boy to be more like his deceased son. From here, the story continues to hit all the beats of the tale we all know. Pinocchio joins the traveling circus, his trip to Pleasure Island/Land of the Toys, Inside Monstro the Whale, etc. 

     However, all these things have their dark twists to fit the setting. The showman Mangiafuoco in this is called Count Volpe played by Christoph Waltz and is a con artist, abuser, and Mussolini sympathizer. Pinocchio’s young friend Candlewick is the son of the local Nazi influencer. The wooden boy’s trip to Pleasure Island/Land of the Toys comes in the form of a fascist school for boys. His trip inside Monstro the whale is instead a giant mutant dogfish. One of my favorite aspects of the film is that Pinocchio dies…a lot. He learns from Death, a beautifully terrifying Sphinx, that since he is not a real boy, he can keep dying and returning to the world of the living. However, every time he dies, he will have to stay in the realm of the dead for longer each time as his loved ones continue to age and live out their lives on Earth.

     What can I say, I loved this movie! The voice acting is phenomenal, the animation is gorgeous, the story is both dark and heartwarming, and the songs are catchy and fun. While Pinocchio is the main focus of the story and undeniably its soul, Sebastian Cricket is its heart (it is no accident that his home is in Pinocchio’s chest). Not to mention, that ending! *Chef’s Kiss*. Despite the film’s dark tones, this is still a movie that could be watched with the whole family and thoroughly enjoyed by all, which seems to be a trait most family films lack nowadays. For anyone with a heart, this movie will make you laugh, awe, sing, and cry. Del Toro proves once again that he can tell an amazing story through his characters, setting, and dialogue. This movie ranks up there with some of his other great films like Shape of Water and Pan’s Labyrinth.