Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio

Unlike other pointless remakes, Guillermo del Toro brings a fresh perspective, visionary flair, and surprising depth to this stop-motion animated reinterpretation of the classic fable.

Premise:  After losing his son Carlo during WWI, Geppetto (voiced by David Bradley) builds a wooden boy in a drunken grief-fuelled rage.  A Wood Sprite (voiced by Tilda Swinton) takes pity on him and brings the wooden boy to life, naming him Pinocchio and trusting an adventurous cricket (voiced by Ewan McGregor) to guide him to be good.  But the forces around them, including an official from the Italian fascist government (voiced by Ron Perlman) and an unscrupulous circus owner (voiced by Christoph Waltz), all have their own designs on the boy.

Review:

I generally haven’t been a fan of the Disney “live action remakes” of their classic animated files, because for the most part, they’ve been pointless reproductions of the original films, rather than a fresh reinterpretation of the source material.  That was certainly the case with this year’s Disney remake of Pinocchio, which garnered largely negative reviews.

However, this reinterpretation is completely unrelated to the Disney films, and returns to the original 1883 Italian novel for its inspiration.  Even then, co-director and co-writer Guillermo del Toro has brought his own perspectives and influences to this film, which has been a labour of love for him for many years, and which seems perfectly suited to his filmmaking style.

“…the stop-motion animation is beautifully realised…”

Visually, this stop-motion animation is beautifully realised, and the medium brings a wonderful tangibility to this dark fairy tale, that seems a million miles away from the bring technicolour of the original Disney animation.  That said, the film isn’t drab or glum by any stretch – some sequences are very visually inventive, and despite the sometimes dark and relatively mature themes, the filmmakers brings a light and humorous touch to some scenes.  This is also, technically, a musical, although I do have to admit that the original songs, while decent enough, are arguably the film’s weakest element.

Thematically, this is even more clearly a Guillermo del Toro, with it’s exploration of grief, fascism, free will, individuality and parental love, all told through the eyes of a curious child.  These themes mean that this film is unlikely to be suitable for younger children (despite being rated PG), and parents of older (but not yet pre-teen) children may want to check out the film first before screening it for their children.

“…a great dark fairy tale…”

Guillermo del Toro has assembled an amazing voice cast for this film – David Bradley brings his gruff warmth to Geppetto, while Ewan McGregor brings lightness to the film in his spirited performance as Sebastian J. Cricket, who is also the narrator of the movie. Tilda Swinton plays dual roles as the Wood Sprite who brings Pinocchio to life, and her sister, Death (who has a surprising amount of screen time for a “kids movie”).  Guillermo del Toro’s regular collaborator  Ron Perlman plays a local fascist official, while Christoph Waltz gets to chew the scenery as the exploitative ring-master.  Most weirdly, Oscar-winning actress Cate Blanchett “voices” a monkey in the circus, who doesn’t even speak!

This is a very idiosyncratic movie, and it absolutely won’t be for everyone.  Some adults may dismiss it sight-unseen as being a “kids’ movie”, while at the same time, it’s likely to be too dark and mature for younger children.  But if you approach it with an open mind, it’s a great dark fairy tale that brings to mind the classic Hans Christian Andersen stories which were scary, but which also addressed real life dangers and issues in an accessible way.