Guillermo del Toro is one of our times most exciting directors. I say this mainly because of his work with Pan’s Labyrinth, which is one of my favourite films. Pinocchio is less original than I anticipated. Perhaps I was expecting a reinvention. While it isn’t quite that, there are some aspects to it that circumvented my doubts and gave me some glimmers of joy and artistic appreciation.
Story
This Pinocchio is one we can recognize from the early Disney days. The changes are less in the story told and more in how that story is being told. However, keep in mind there are something like thirty to forty Pinocchio films, based on the early folktale. Since the only one I know is the 1940s Disney film, that is the one I will be comparing to.
In this version we have all of our main characters: Geppetto, Pinocchio, Jiminy Cricket (now known as Sebastian). We have our blue fairy, our villains (the whale, now no longer a whale but a strange beast of a fish that goes unnamed), and Volpe, the circus owner, whose face resembles that of a fox. The backdrop is based on fascist Italy, which I think was a great idea, because it gives the time-frame some context. There are also some new characters added into this version, a soldier who is Pinocchio’s bully, and a general in the fascist army.
Artstyle
I truly love stop motion animation. I think it is, along with Jim Henson-style puppetry, some of the best types of movies that came out of the 20th century. Stop motion animation reminds me of my childhood, but it also allows me to consider the dedication to art, style and what a particular art form can do for a story.
In Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio, I can say it isn’t that the style of stop motion is beautiful and dynamic, but rather that it’s being used at all, that makes it lovely. That said, I do love the character design of Pinocchio. It’s simple, expressive, created out of a painful desperation and hunger for companionship. His limbs jut out. His nose is awkward and angled. He moves like a newborn deer.
The Blue Fairy and her sister are unconventional yet elegant designs. In the Disney version, Blue Fairy is a woman. In this version, they are creatures like sphinxes and forest fairies. They shine blue and their voices echo like the sphinxes from The Neverending Story.
A.I.
Okay, this is probably because I was in my 20s in the 2000s and it came out around then, but I really love the Spielberg/Kubrick baby made in 2001 called A.I. (for Artificial Intelligence). The movie takes this similar trope of a wooden/artificial child who wants to be loved and seen in Pinocchio, and hugely draws from it, referencing the Blue Fairy and whether he’s a real boy or not, over and over. It uses the immortality and turns it into something strange, experimental and aesthetically awe-inspiring. Personally, I feel like this turned into a little back and forth, that while Kubrick & Spielberg implemented the Pinocchio story to tell the A.I one, del Toro used A.I.’s concept of what an immortal Pinocchio could live through and asked the question of: Would this be worthwhile?
Did I Like it?
Though I normally love to take a look at new and upcoming animations, especially ones targeted at older audiences with a splash of nostalgia thrown in, I’m slightly above lukewarm on this adaptation. I do like the changes, the backdrop and the art. I enjoy how Geppetto is hesitant, angry and reluctant to accept Pinocchio, considering his loss still affects him deeply and that Pinocchio’s personality stands out. He’s energetic, full of possibility and optimism, curiosity. You can even spot the way that things affect him, in the sense that doubt is new and certain words pop up again and again with more heavy implications each time. I also love the idea of him being immortal, it adds a strange and somewhat dark twist to his story. Overall, I do think it’s good, but I just wish it was better.
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