Directed by...yeah him and Mark Gustafson
Starring Gregory Mann, David Bradley, and Ewan McGregor
I'm still in disbelief that in the year of our lord 2022 we got THREE Pinocchio films. There was no doubt in mind that the Disney live-action remake, and that meme-fuel from Luminescence starring...Pauly Shore, would be terrible though. Conversely, I had no doubt that this would be the best Pinocchio film of the year by a long shot.
It's nice to say we've got another great film adaptation of Pinocchio after eighty-years, and my god is it beautiful.
Del Toro puts his own unique spin on the classic tale by Carlo Collodi. During the first World War, the son of woodcarver Gepetto (Bradley) is killed during an air strike on their small village in Italy. Twenty years later, in a drunken, emotional rage, Gepetto cuts down a pine tree in the hopes of "making" his son again. The magical Wood Sprite (Tilda Swinton) sees this and grants life to the wooden boy, named Pinocchio (Mann).
Naturally, and frankly more realistically, Gepetto is very hesitant to accept this sentient puppet as his new son...in fact he's kind of freaked out by him, as is most of their village. Nevertheless Pinocchio goes off on the usual adventures. He's tricked into skipping school and joining a carnival, is drafted into war, struggles with his own mortality-wait...
Again, Del Toro puts his own unique spin on Pinocchio, and it works so well. The idea of a grieving Gepetto creating Pinocchio in a drunken stupor like some kind of Italian Doctor Frankenstein is just so beautifully GDT. But there's so much depth here that we don't see in other adaptations of the Pinocchio story. The original story is dark and the film leans into that (The opening sequence is like Up turned up to eleven). This isn't an animated film manufactured to babysit children. It has lessons for them but for adults, too.
There's heavy themes about faith, war, morality, and loss. There is life after death. Death is what gives life meaning. It's hard to believe Pinocchio is teaching us about this. Brilliantly I might add. I'm a big cryer when it comes to films. This was the first time where the film ended, I sat with it, and after really digesting what the film was saying to me, that is when the tears began to flow.
The idea of telling the story of Pinocchio in stop-motion is genius, particularly because stop-motion is called animation, but it's photographed just like regular filmmaking. It's not drawn on paper or rendered in a computer. It's animation, but it's real, like Pinocchio himself. The animation is gorgeous. The characters have so much beautiful, intricate details. The depth of field in the shots are breathtaking. The sets and sweeping backgrounds of the Italian countryside look as real as can be. The lighting is amazing. Guillermo del Toro is a firm believer that animation is cinema. It is not a genre or just for children, it is a medium that deserves the industry's respect. He says it with his full heart and soul in this film.
The voice-acting is stellar. Young Gregory Mann is wonderful as Pinocchio. He's a brat but there's enough innocence and heart in the character that you still root for him. Which is nice because at his core, the character of Pinocchio is a little $h*t! Caretaker of Hogwarts Argus Filch, aka David Bradley, plays Gepetto with the perfect balance of gruff and empathy. At the expense of another Up parallel, it's like an Italian Carl Fredericksen. This story is just as much his as it is Pinocchio's, and Bradley sells it.
Ewan McGregor is charming as always as Sebastian Cricket. Christoph Waltz is wonderfully despicable as Count Volpe. Ron Perlman is his usual best self as the Podesta. Finally, Cate Blanchett gives the performance of her career as Spazzatura (In your face Lydia Tár!).
Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio just took home the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature, and it was more than well deserved. This film is a beautiful labor of love from a man who loves animation and filmmaking, with a wonderful story that can resonate with all ages. It may just be my favorite film of last year, and that's no lie.
...I still need to put my Top Films of 2022 in writing...as well as my Top Films of 2021. I can never get those rankings out on time...
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