Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio review: a dazzling masterpiece on Netflix

This review was published in conjunction with the movie’s premiere at the 2022 BFI London Film Festival. Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio In December, it will be available on Netflix

In the first frames, Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio, you know this is a del Toro film — and not just because of the possessive title. He’s a filmmaker with a visual signature as strong as Tim Burton or Wes Anderson, albeit one that hasn’t hardened so formally, and still has the ability to adapt and to surprise. He is accompanied by PinocchioDel Toro, like both directors, switches to stop-motion animated. This allows him to keep the live action feel and control the appearance of each element within the frame.

But the film’s success is about more than looks. What’s surprising about PinocchioThis is because it’s how intimate to del Toro the film feels, despite Mark Gustafson sharing the director credit. Nightmare AlleyIt is despite being created by three continent-spanning teams of artisans. The animated Netflix film may be the best. The majority del Toro movie since Pan’s Labyrinth; it’s certainly one of the best since then, and as distinctive as any of his English-language work.

It is what it is isn’t is anything like the timeless 1940 Walt Disney film, or its recent, lifeless remake, or either of the two Roberto Benigni-starring, live-action Italian takes, or any of the dozens of other attempts to adapt Carlo Collodi’s 1883 book. This is the most unusual stop motion film, as it features Pinocchio (the wooden puppet boy that comes to life) being played by a puppet. In addition to this, del Toro wrote the script and the lyrics for several songs. He adds many key elements from his collection, including the horror fairy tales. The Devil’s Backbone Pan’s LabyrinthEurope Between The Wars: the specter Fascism haunts Europe, as does the terror of childhood. It is the land of the dead and the point where the monstrous and human meet the sublime.

Image courtesy of Netflix

Geppetto, a humble woodcarver, is told this story by David Bradley. Carlo is his beloved son who died in World War I bombings. Pinocchio (Gregory Mann) is created by Geppetto years later. He did not create it out of sheer whimsy but rather in an extremely wild, frightening, and disturbing bout of drunken grief that had more than a little bit of FrankensteinIt is. Pinocchio is made from a pine wood gathered from the cone Carlo had collected. It was also where Sebastian J. Cricket, an eccentric insect raconteur and pompous scout, had established his home. Tilda Swinton plays the Wood Sprite, who brings Pinocchio back to life. Cricket is there. But he still crawls back into his home in the wooden boy’s heart to live.

This Pinocchio is quizzical, rash, and impulsive — a far cry from the dutiful Carlo. Hours after coming to life, he is wheeling around Geppetto’s workshop in a crazed whirligig, his spindly limbs jerking and spinning, smashing everything he touches. It’s delightful and also slightly threatening. Pinocchio has rough and unfinished features, such as nails and twigs that still stick out, chaotic movements, and ungainly behavior. Del Toro isn’t interested in fixing these problems, as most other storytellers are.

Pinocchio challenges any situation or symbol del Toro gives him. “Why do people love him and not me?” he asks of a wooden Christ in the local church. Count Volpe (Christoph Waltz), an avaricious circus ringmaster, and the Podestà (Ron Perlman), a Fascist official, both try to trick the credulous puppet into serving their interests. The wooden boy is not the only one who goes. Anarchy can follow him into Mussolini’s presence or the belly of an enormous, monstrous dogfish. Or into a sepulchral afterlife, where exposed ribcages are used to play cards.

Image courtesy of Netflix

There’s a lot going on here. It’s a messy, episodic scheme for a film, and the filmmakers don’t hit every target they aim for. This is not a kids’ movie, although it sometimes has the mannerisms of one (and adventurous kids may get as much out of it as anyone else, if not more). In later scenes, elements from satire and parable mix with those of dark fairy tales, sweet sentimentality, and creature features. But many of its threads are pure pleasure, such as the rivalry between Pinocchio and Count Volpe’s monkey puppeteer Sprezzatura. There’s more to this cunning, grotesque animal than meets the eye (and that’s before you realize its wordless screeches and yelps were supplied by no less an actor than Cate Blanchett).

Pinocchio is also a feast for the senses, even by del Toro’s gluttonous standards. There’s a rich, melodic, romantic score by Alexandre Desplat (Water’s Shape). Bradley is a veteran who does exquisite vocal work. Game of ThronesHarry Potter actor), as Geppetto the irresponsible Geppetto. And from McGregor who delivers all of the best laugh lines, and whose voiceover helps to bind this movie together.

ShadowMachine also produced animations at its studios in Mexico, the U.K., and the U.S. This is an amazing spectacle that CG animation and hand-drawn animation can’t match. It is rich, tactile, intimate even at its most grand moments. As you would expect, the puppets are made by the artist. Pan’s Labyrinth’s Pale Man, are variously eerie, uncanny, grotesque, adorable, and sad creations, and always memorable. Amazing feats of animation and scale are performed by animators who flood the screen with color and light. But what stays with you are the gentlest gestures: the way Geppetto trails his long, careworn fingers across a blanket, or the way Pinocchio’s expression changes in the wood grain around his eyes.

There’s no doubt that this is, technically and artistically, one of the great works of stop motion, a rarefied and quixotic art form. It is a very ambitious project within its practical realm of rubber and clay and paper, paint and joints, wires and cables. Avatar. But del Toro’s greatest achievement is not to let all the artistry overwhelm the art. It’s an unruly, wild, and tender film that sometimes gets lost but, by the end, finds its way to a very moving state of grace.

Guillermo del Toro’s PinocchioThe film debuts on Netflix Dec. 9, as well as in cinemas in November.