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
- drewvogelaar - 9 January 2023
Blows Disney Live-Action Movie out of the Water.
This might have been one of the things I was most excited about being released this year. Guillermo Del Toro always has the highest quality in his production and typically makes some of my favorite releases. Usually, I wouldn't be this excited about something animated unless it was Disney/Pixar. So when the Tom Hanks live-action Pinocchio flopped, I was disappointed. Pinocchio has also been a favorite of mine since childhood. So I prayed that this beautiful-looking Del Toro adaption would live up to expectations. I'll say my expectations were met many times over.
This is Pinocchio like you've never seen him before. But that's a good thing. An adaptation or remake needs to be different from the original. That was the biggest reason Disney's 2022 adaptation flopped. It tried being too much like the original and changed many things that made the original so magical. This also isn't a remake of the classic 1940 Pinocchio. It is a different interpretation of the 1883 novel. I could go on praising so much of what this does perfectly. The fascist Italy setting during the second world war creates an interesting backdrop for why things happen to certain characters. Christoph Waltz should honestly stick with villain characters. Count Volpe is one of my favorite characters Waltz has ever played. This also is not a kid's movie. It could be watched by kids, but many of the themes are things that only adults would understand. Few could take a classic work for kids and turn it into something emotionally complex and beautiful. Del Toro is one of those few.
10/10. An imaginative ride from start to finish. Full of heartbreak and triumph, sure to entertain all. A real contender for best-animated film of the year.
