Frank Passingham

''Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio'' (or simply ''Pinocchio'') is a 2022 stop-motion animated musical fantasy film directed by Guillermo del Toro and Mark Gustafson (in his feature directorial debut) with a screenplay by del Toro and Patrick McHale from a story by del Toro and Matthew Robbins. Based on the 1883 Italian novel '' The Adventures of Pinocchio'' by Carlo Collodi, and strongly influenced by Gris Grimly's illustrations for a 2002 edition of the book, it reimagines the story of Pinocchio, a wooden puppet who comes to life as the son of his carver Geppetto, as "a story of love and disobedience as Pinocchio struggles to live up to his father's expectations, learning the true meaning of life" set in Fascist Italy during the interwar period and World War II. It stars the voices of Gregory Mann and David Bradley as the title character and Geppetto respectively, alongside Ewan McGregor, Burn Gorman, Ron Perlman, John Turturro, Finn Wolfhard, Cate Blanchett, Tim Blake Nelson, Christoph Waltz and Tilda Swinton.

A long-time passion project for del Toro, who considers that no other character ever "had as deep of a personal connection to im than Pinocchio, it was originally announced in 2008 aiming for a 2013 or 2014 release. However, the project went into development hell; in January 2017, McHale, creator of ''Over the Garden Wall'', was announced to co-write the script, but production was suspended in November 2017 as no studios were willing to provide financing. It was revived the following year after being acquired by Netflix.

''Pinocchio'' premiered at the BFI London Film Festival on October 15, 2022. It was released in select cinemas on November 9, 2022 and began streaming on Netflix on December 9. The film received critical acclaim, garnering praise for its animation, visuals, music, story, and voice performances. It received numerous accolades, including three nominations at the 80th Golden Globe Awards, among them Best Animated Feature Film.

Plot

In Italy during World War I, the carpenter Geppetto loses his son, Carlo, inadvertently during an aerial bombardment by Austro-Hungarian forces. Geppetto honours his memory by planting a pine cone near his grave and spends the next twenty years mourning his loss.

An anthropomorphic cricket named Sebastian J. Cricket takes up residence in the resulting pine tree. Geppetto subsequently cuts the tree down in a fit of drunken rage in order to make a new son out of its wood. He passes out drunk, leaving the puppet unfinished, and a blue Wood Sprite brings it to life, christening him Pinocchio. The Sprite meets Sebastian and promises to grant him a wish, which he intends to use to become famous, in exchange for acting as Pinocchio's guide.

Geppetto later discovers that Pinocchio is alive and is not willing to have him as a son. Geppetto then locks him in a closet while he goes to church, but Pinocchio follows him, frightening the villagers. The next day, Geppetto sends Pinocchio to school, but the puppet is intercepted by a man and his performing monkey, aristocrat-turned- showman Count Volpe and Spazzatura, respectively.

Count Volpe convinces Pinocchio to join his circus and gets him to sign a contract. After Geppetto arrives to take him home, he and Volpe have a tug-of-war that results in Pinocchio being thrown to the road, where he is hit by a car. Due to this, Pinocchio is sent to the afterlife where he meets the Black Rabbits. He is then sent through the doors to meet Death, the sister of the Wood Sprite. She explains to Pinocchio that he is immortal, and that he will return to the mortal realm once an hourglass has emptied, cautioning that the time he spends in the afterlife will increase each time he returns.

Returning to the mortal realm, Pinocchio decides to join Volpe's circus, both to earn money for Geppetto and to avoid being conscripted into the ''Regio Esercito'' (Italian Royal Army) during the Second World War by the strict village ''Podestà''. However, Volpe secretly keeps the money to himself, which Spazzatura secretly tells to Pinocchio through his puppets. When Volpe discovers it, he tries to beat up Spazzatura until Pinocchio attempts to defend him.

When Sebastian and Geppetto search for Pinocchio at sea, they are swallowed by a giant sea monster. During one of his performances, Pinocchio sings a disparaging parody of a patriotic song to Benito Mussolini as revenge for Volpe's abuse and is summarily executed.

Once revived, Pinocchio finds himself taken by the ''Podestà'' to a training camp where other small boys are trained to fight in the war. Pinocchio befriends the ''Podestàs son, Candlewick, who is scared of disappointing his father and being seen as weak. Per Pinocchio's advice, Candlewick stands up to his father, but the training camp gets bombed by enemy aircraft, killing the ''Podestà''. The blast of the bomb causes Pinocchio to be thrown into the air.

Pinocchio manages to escape and is captured by Volpe, who tries to burn him in revenge, but is stopped by a reformed Spazzatura. They are sent over a cliff and Volpe falls to his death, while Pinocchio rescues Spazzatura. Soon after, they are swallowed by the sea monster and reunite with Geppetto and Sebastian in its stomach. Pinocchio lies to make his nose grow, thus forming a bridge leading out of the monster's blowhole. Just as they escape, the monster attempts to eat them again, causing Pinocchio to sacrifice himself by detonating a naval mine that the monster is in the process of swallowing. Upon meeting Death again, Pinocchio demands to be sent back early so that he can save Geppetto from drowning, despite the fact that this will make him mortal. After rescuing Geppetto, Pinocchio dies, prompting Sebastian to use his wish to bring Pinocchio back to life, which the Wood Sprite grants.

Pinocchio and the others return home to live as a family. However, Pinocchio outlives all of his loved ones. Ultimately alone, Pinocchio decides to travel to parts unknown for new adventures.

During the credits, Sebastian sings his song for the Black Rabbits in the afterlife.

Voice cast

* Ewan McGregor as Sebastian J. Cricket, a traveling cricket and the narrator of the story, who lives inside Pinocchio as his guide and conscience.
* David Bradley as Master Geppetto, Pinocchio's father, a heartbroken Italian woodcarver grieving his deceased son Carlo.
* Gregory Mann as:
** Pinocchio, an exuberant and rowdy living wooden puppet.
** Carlo, Geppetto's deceased son who was killed in a bombing raid. He is named after Carlo Collodi, author of the original book.
*Burn Gorman as the Priest, a Catholic priest and Geppetto's former client.
*Ron Perlman as the ''Podestà'', Candlewick's father and a fascist government official who turns Pinocchio into a soldier. He is the film’s counterpart of the Coachman from the original story.
* John Turturro as the Dottore, a doctor at Geppetto's village.
* Finn Wolfhard as Candlewick, the ''Podestàs son, who bullies Pinocchio before befriending him.
* Cate Blanchett as Spazzatura, Count Volpe's mistreated monkey assistant. His name means "trash" or "garbage" in Italian and he is the film's counterpart of the Cat from the original Pinocchio story. Spazzatura can only speak through the puppets he operates.
* Tim Blake Nelson as the Black Rabbits, a flock of black rabbits with skeletal bodies who work for Death. They are based on the Undertaker Rabbits from the original story.
* Christoph Waltz as Count Volpe, the film's main antagonist, an ambitious former aristocrat-turned- puppet master and ringmaster living in destitution. His name means "fox" in Italian and he is a combination of the Fox, Mangiafuoco, and the Ringmaster from the original Pinocchio story.
* Tilda Swinton as:
** The Wood Sprite, a wise magical fairy who gives Pinocchio life. Her appearance is a humanoid with eight wings that have eyes on them and a snake-like tail.
** Death, the Wood Sprite's sister who oversees the afterlife. Her appearance is a Chimera with the face of a human, the horns of a cape buffalo, the lower horns of a Jacob sheep, the body of a lion, the wings of a bird with eyes on them, and a snake-headed tail.
* Tom Kenny as:
** Benito Mussolini, the dictator of Fascist Italy.
** Benito Mussolini's right-hand man
** A sea captain with a hook for a hand and a peg leg who tells Geppetto about the Dogfish.

Production

Development

In 2008, Guillermo del Toro announced that his next project, a darker adaptation of the Italian novel '' The Adventures of Pinocchio'', was in development. He has called ''Pinocchio'' his "passion project", stating: "No art form has influenced my life and my work more than animation, and no single character in history has had as deep of a personal connection to me as Pinocchio", and "I've wanted to make this movie for as long as I can remember". When he was a child, del Toro saw and liked Walt Disney's 1940 animated film adaptation in Guadalajara, Mexico, partially because he felt it like a " horror movie" in its own way due to a few intense moments it included. Since his teen years, he had longed to make his own version of the story. In 2003, del Toro discovered Gris Grimly's illustrations for the 2002 edition of Collodi's book, portraying Pinocchio as a puppet with a long, pointed nose and spindly limbs, with gestures that del Toro felt captured the energy of an unruly but otherwise goodhearted puppet. He concluded that Grimly's illustrations reflected the setting he had in mind for his own, more somber version of Carlo Collodi's tale.

On February 17, 2011, it was announced that Grimly and Mark Gustafson would co-direct a stop-motion animated ''Pinocchio'' film written by del Toro and his long-time collaborator Matthew Robbins, and that it would be visually based by Grimly's designs. Del Toro would produce the film along with The Jim Henson Company and Pathé. Grimly devised Pinocchio's look for the film, depicting him as unfinished wood. Though Grimly was initially set to direct the film and del Toro was set to produce it, on May 17, 2012, del Toro took over as director. He then teamed up with Gustafson, a stop-motion veteran who had experience in similar stop-motion features like '' Fantastic Mr. Fox'' (2009), to assist him in achieving his ambitious vision for the project. In February 2012, del Toro released some concept art of Pinocchio, Geppetto, the Talking Cricket, Mangiafuoco, the Fox and the Cat. On July 30, 2012, it was announced that the film would be produced and animated by ShadowMachine. It was originally scheduled to be released in 2013 or 2014, but went into development hell, with no further information forthcoming about it for years.

On January 23, 2017, ''Over the Garden Wall'' (2014) creator Patrick McHale was announced to co-write the script with del Toro. On August 31, 2017, del Toro told IndieWire and at the 74th Venice International Film Festival that the film would need a budget increase of $35 million or it would be cancelled. On November 8, 2017, he reported that the project was not happening because no studios were willing to finance it. At one point, Matthew Robbins considered making a 2D-animated version of the film with French artist Joann Sfar to bring the costs down, but del Toro decided that it had to be stop-motion, even if the higher budget made it harder to get it greenlit. On October 22, 2018, it was announced that the film had been revived, with Netflix acquiring it, and Pathé no longer involved.

Almost all the years of development were spent by del Toro and Gustafson defining the designs for the principal characters, basing them on either Grimsly's designs or letting del Toro's frequent collaborator Guy Davis, who joined the project as co-production designer with '' The Boxtrolls'' (2014) and ''Isle of Dogs'' (2018) art director Curt Enderle, to design them. They then turned the animation models to England's Mackinnon & Saunders stop-motion puppet firm, which are considered by del Toro as the "best in the world", and they fabricated the designs of Pinocchio, Gepetto, Sebastian J. Cricket, Count Volpe and Spazzatura the Monkey. The antagonist Count Volpe is a combination of Mangiafuoco and the Fox from the original story. Mangiafuoco was originally supposed to appear in the movie as an antagonist, but he was removed halfway through production as del Toro disliked the character and thought he was a cliché; as a character model had already been made for Mangiafuoco, to not waste the model, Mangiafuoco's original design was used as a background character for Volpe's circus.''Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio: Handcarved Cinema'' (2022) The Cat, who was shown in a concept art, was replaced by Spazzatura, while the Land of Toys was replaced with an Italian kids training camp.

Writing

Guillermo del Toro was intrigued by similarities between Carlo Collodi's ''The Adventures of Pinocchio'' and Mary Shelley's ''Frankenstein''. Both tell of a childlike figure, brought to life and thrown into the world by a father figure who expects him to discover, on his own, the qualities that make us human, such as love and the capacity to distinguish between right and wrong. These themes reminded del Toro of his childhood. ''Frankenstein'' partly inspired del Toro to give his ''Pinocchio'' a gothic direction, but the film was still crafted to be family friendly. He sought to make connections across generations, and convey compassion, a value del Toro feels is essential for children faced with the tremendous complexity of today’s world.

In del Toro's ''Pinocchio'', the wood used to construct the puppet is carved from a tree that grows over the grave of Carlo, Gepetto's son. Pinocchio’s arrival provides his grief-blinded father another opportunity for fatherhood. However, Pinocchio is rowdy, exuberant, and wild, in contrast to the well-behaved and docile Carlo. The characterization of Sebastian J. Cricket, the talking cricket, is also changed. Sebastian somewhat ponderously takes on the role of Pinocchio’s conscience. His self-importance annoys Pinocchio, causing him to escape Sebastian’s supervision. The cricket comes to see that Pinocchio must discover certain things for himself, such as love, humility, and how to behave. As in the original book, Sebastian is “killed” a number of times over the duration of the film, but always comes back in order to fulfill his character arc. Del Toro did not wish to overly rely upon magical creatures in the film. Desiring more realism, he eliminated the Fox, the Cat, and the Land of Toys. Also, del Toro created Count Volpe, as an homage to, and an amalgation of, the Fox, the Cat and Mangiafuoco. In the donkey subplot, the Coachman is replaced by the ''Podestà'', a fascist official who, realizing that Pinocchio cannot be killed, strives to recruit him into Italy's military. Candlewick is changed into a bully who eventually redeems himself.

Most versions of the story take place in a fairy tale environment. Del Toro’s film resituates the story in Fascist Italy between World War I and World War II, during the rise of Benito Mussolini. Pinocchio thus awakens in a society of people who behave like obedient puppets. By contrast, Pinocchio is independent and irrepressible. He cannot bring himself to abide by the rules or submit to authority figures, even when he encounters Mussolini himself, and then the spirit of Death, in limbo. Gustafson was drawn to this characterization of Pinocchio, newly born, arriving in the world fresh and unaware of consequences. Over the course of the narrative, Pinocchio awakens to his latent humanity, and in the end chooses to become mortal in order to save the life of Gepetto. Del Toro chose to move away the original book's apparent agenda, which seemed to seek to repress the spirits of children. It seemed to encourage blind obedience, to parents and other authority figures. He saw the development of Pinocchio’s autonomy as a virtue. Del Toro’s film is oriented around self discovery and moral agency. Del Toro's sought to explore aspects of father-son relationships, such as Gepetto’s initial inability to accept Pinocchio as his own being, more than just Carlo's replacement. Gepetto struggles with guilt about the disruptiveness of the "freakish monster" that the town rejects initially. Some themes of this work may seen in previous works such as ''The Devil's Backbone'' (2001), ''Pan's Labyrinth'' (2006), and ''The Shape of Water'' (2017). These three films also explore the humanity of those, like Pinocchio, who are perceived as different.

Most previous renditions of this story feature the necessity of physical transmutation from wooden puppet to flesh and blood. Del Toro explicitly rejects this conceit, that Pinocchio must physically change in order to be loved by his father and find happinness. The film asserts that the essence of humanity lies in the feelings of interiority and the expressions of exteriority, especially as behavior. Pinocchio is therefore unconcerned with whether or not he turns into a ‘’real boy’’. The basis of the transformation is instead Geppetto's journey to accepting and loving Pinocchio for who he is. In the end he loves him as fiercely as he did Carlo. This reminded del Toro of his relationship with his father Federico.

Casting

In assembling the film's cast, del Toro and Gustafson chose multiple Oscar winners and gifted performers with past creative ties with the former. On January 31, 2020, it was announced Ron Perlman, Tilda Swinton, Ewan McGregor, Christoph Waltz and David Bradley had joined the cast of the film. Daniel Radcliffe, Tom Waits and Christopher Walken were previously considered. Waits was reportedly considered to voice Geppetto and del Toro was reported by /Film to be floating up casting Walken as the Fox, though he was also considering Donald Sutherland for that part. Radcliffe would later instead remain as executive producer of the movie. Early on during the film's development, del Toro first approached John Hurt, with whom he had worked in ''Hellboy'' (2004) and '' Hellboy II: The Golden Army'' (2008), to voice Gepetto, but Hurt passed away long before recordings could begin. Hurt's ''Harry Potter'' co-star Bradley was chiefly chosen instead due to his past collaborations with del Toro in ''The Strain'' and in Netflix's '' Trollhunters: Tales of Arcadia''. He felt his role as Geppetto was a "real emotion rollercoaster" of a part, feeling it to resemble more ''King Lear'' than the ''Pinocchio'' story he had heard as a kid. Perlman was originally cast to voice Mangiafuoco, but once del Toro decided to remove the character in favor of Count Volpe, Perlman was recast as the ''Podestà'' while Waltz was cast to voice Volpe, whom del Toro regards as the film's closest character to the Devil, a more over-the-top character than the Fox and the Cat and a comically evil man who seems like taken out from the cartoonish and fantastical tone of the original book.

On August 19, 2020, Gregory Mann, Cate Blanchett, Tim Blake Nelson, Finn Wolfhard, John Turturro and Burn Gorman joined the cast of the film. For Pinocchio, del Toro sought a child actor who sounded like a normal kid instead of a cute one, which led him to cast Mann due to his phenomenal vocal range that made him sound like a natural kid, yet one absolutely emotional. Mann's vocal performance as the title character gave him a "silly and sunny" personality who longs to learn about the world and meet everyone, but given how he was created with the wood of the tree next to Carlo's grave, his roots are somewhat sad. Wolfhard doesn't particularly enjoy voice acting due to feeling himself not as talented as professional voice actors, but felt relaxed enough due to being able to record some of his lines as Candlewick together with Mann, as he feels that he works better with people around instead of alone in a recording booth, thanking del Toro and Gustafson for allowing him that. Blanchett approached del Toro about joining his ''Pinocchio'' film as they filmed '' Nightmare Alley'' (2021), who told her that all roles had already been cast minus that of Spazzatura the Monkey, which Blanchett glady accepted as long she could work with del Toro. She further suggested that the monkey is her spirit animal as del Toro prepared to commence production of ''Pinocchio'' to ensure her casting. For the role, Blanchett performed the voice-over shot-by-shot instead of making different emotion sounds to be edited later on like it's usually done in other productions.

Filming

Filming commenced at the Portland, Oregon offices of ShadowMachine by January 31, 2020. Production continued through early Summer 2022, with some select sequences being handled by del Toro's own Centro Internacional de Animación (CIA) local studio, settled on Guadalajara, Mexico since 2019 to foster local talent from Mexico. All sets, props and character costumes were crafted to the same historial and realistic standards del Toro's live-action work has often contained, hence the production's decision to not overly stylize buildings through methods like stylizing them in a curvy, stretched and leaning way, leading to a mix of stop-motion and live-action styles that support the film's themes. Animators were also encouraged to achieve naturalistic performances from the puppets by making them "commit mistakes" like itching, sneezing or looking away if embarassed or scared in order to shoot the characters thinking and listening, traits not usually shot in animation. For Count Volpe's carnival, Davis and Enderle drew from the reference material library collected for del Toro's previous film ''Nightmare Alley'', which prominently starred a 1930s carnival and in which Davis had previously worked as a concept artist, even though that film's carnival was one settled in the American Midwest rather than in Europe, so despite the great overlap between American and European carnivals, the filmmakers developed looks for both carnivals that were similarly downtrodden and threadbare. Some ''Nightmare Alley'' early shots featuring Bradley Cooper's Stanton Carlisle arriving at the carnival inspired the sequence that establishes Volpe's carnival. The afterlife sequences and the end credits scene were animated by studio El Taller de Chucho in Guadalajara, Mexico.

Visual effects

The film's production quality was formed through the ornate detail of the sets and characters with their own textures in order to reinterpret Collodi's work in a way that differed from the Disney animated version. Del Toro told '' Vanity Fair'': "I have been very vocal about my admiration and my great, great love for Disney all my life, but that is an impulse that actually makes me move away from that version. I think it is a pinnacle of Disney animation. It’s done in the most beautiful, hand-drawn 2D animation". He saw as "beautiful" the idea of using puppets to create a movie about a puppet, while pushing the boundaries of stop-motion as much as possible to create a "heartfelt" movie any audience could watch. Moving Picture Company worked on the visual effects, with Bot VFX and Mist VFX.

Music

On January 8, 2020, Alexandre Desplat started composing the film's score and original songs. It is Desplat's and del Toro's second collaboration, after ''The Shape of Water''. Roeban Katz was the lyricist. On August 23, 2012, Nick Cave was attached to compose the score, but he was replaced by Desplat eight years later.

Release

In November 2018, Netflix set the film's release date for 2021. In January 2021, Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos revealed that the release could be moved to 2022 or later, with Netflix's notion of releasing six animated films a year. In December 2021, del Toro stated it will be released in the last quarter of 2022. In January and July 2022, with the release of the film's first teaser, it was announced for a December release.

''Pinocchio'' premiered at the BFI London Film Festival on October 15, 2022. It debuted in the United States at the 2022 AFI Fest on November 5, 2022. It was released in select cinemas on November 9, 2022, and began streaming on Netflix on December 9, 2022. One of the theatres scheduled to show the film on November 11, 2022 was the TIFF Bell Lightbox in Toronto, Ontario.

In the case of Mexico, the director's country, Cinemex movie theater chain —one of the largest exhibitors suspended the screenings that were scheduled, causing protests by Del Toro, who wants most of the people in his country to see the film. In response, on November 25, the filmmaker made a call on his Twitter account to show the film in independent theaters throughout the country, and some thirty independent theaters and clubs joined the call to show the film, including the country's Cineteca Nacional, where an exhibition of the figures used in the film was also set up in its central courtyard. On December 18 it was announced that on December 30 a massive screening will be held in Mexico City's main square, the Zócalo.

Reception

Critical response

Accolades

References

External links

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Official screenplay

{{Netflix original animated series and films

2022 films
2020s American animated films
2020s musical films
2020s stop-motion animated films
2022 animated films
2022 fantasy films
American comedy films
American fantasy films
American musical films
American musical comedy films
Mexican animated films
Mexican children's films
Mexican comedy films
English-language Mexican films
English-language Netflix original films
Animated films set in Italy
Animated musical films
Dark fantasy films
Films about Fascist Italy
Films about fascists
Films directed by Guillermo del Toro
Films scored by Alexandre Desplat
Films set in 1916
Films set in the 1930s
Films shot in Mexico
Films shot in France
Films shot in Portland, Oregon
Films with screenplays by Guillermo del Toro
The Jim Henson Company films
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Netflix Animation films
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