“Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio” movie review: Dark Wood

Beautiful Pinocchio.

animated movie

Pinocchio by Guillermo del Toro

USA/France/Mexico. 9 years. Directed by: Guillermo del Toro and Mark Gustafson

Voices: Gregory Mann, Ewan McGregor, David Bradley, Cate Blanchett, Tilda Swinton, Ron Perlman, John Turturro, Christoph Waltz

The title is not “Pinocchio” no, but “Guillermo del Toro Pinocchio.” This makes sense for at least three reasons:

1. There has been a lot of “Pinocchio” activity lately. one came Excellent “Live Action” remake by Matteo Garrone in 2020, and a new, reportedly flopped American film starring Tom Hanks as Geppetto, signed by the once talented Robert Zemeckis, to Disney+ earlier this year. to name two.

2. Most of the space people set aside in their consciousness for Pinocchio is still occupied by the 1940 Disney cartoon.

3. “Pinocchio del Toro” is very Guillermo del Toro. steeped in the Mexican filmmaker’s very well-known fantasy/horror aesthetic, as we know him from it all”Pan’s Labyrinth“(2006) to last year is not one hundred percent successful.”Nightmare Alley».

Most people know the story. There’s no point in going into it, except to point out that del Toro places too much emphasis on the tragedy that drives it all: artisan Geppetto loses his physical son, rages with grief and decides to install a “replacement” in the pines. . Pinocchio is more or less a Frankenstein, or proto-type AI, created in utter desperation.

A “boy” has many of the characteristics we associate with other young boys, as well as some additional features. He is cheerful and outgoing, and has an appetite for life that sometimes gets him into trouble, which in turn has consequences for others. He also has a nose that grows when he lies, and a sad dream of becoming one TRUE. honest. core Boy – as real as the son who died. Pinocchio del Toro, like many of the director’s characters, a intruder.

The perspective means that “Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio” has a different focus than the Disney cartoon. Old Walt’s edition of Carlo Collodi’s Adventure from 1883 emphasized good manners, good values, obedience, and discipline. Del Toro cares more about the value of difference.

To underscore the point, he sets the story in Italy between the two world wars, and gives Benito Mussolini guest appearance. The dictator here does the same job he did in the beautiful Norwegian animated film “Titina” earlier this fall: to remind us that it’s not healthy to always keep up.

One “Pinocchio by Guillermo del Toro”. Stop motion— an animated, old-school frame-by-frame puppet movie (we, thanks Ivo Caprino, not uncommon with the expression in Norway). And if you can say a lot about del Toro — including that he’s better with pictures than words in manuscript — well, the man’s ability to the design The movie is still captivating.

This Pinocchio looks like nearly 350 million dollars it cost to make: crammed to the brim with quirky details and furniture, dark nooks and crannies, and comic and fairy-tale characters. Del Toro cultivates a kind of naturalistic mysticism. His imagination is always in touch with Earth and biology.

So it remains an open question whether Pinocchio, with its tragedies and melancholy, its certainty that everything is impermanent and its warning finger of inclusivity, will succeed in what Netflix hopes it will succeed. That is, for a new “alternative” to become a seasonal tradition à la Tim Burton and Henry Silex.The nightmare before Christmas(1993) has become too much.

Del Toro’s attempt to incorporate musical elements is half-hearted and well-done, adding nothing to the film. And I think his Pinocchio is too long and sad and dark for the very young, and too childish for the old to need to see him more than once.

But there are luxury issues. If I had to keep pressing a button, I’d keep my button on Garrone’s 2020 movie. But del Toro is, in any case, a tenacious and visually stunning retelling, a dark treat for a dark season.

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