Review: Guillermo del Toro's 'Pinocchio' is a stop-motion marvel

The famously beloved tale of the wooden puppet named Pinocchio has been passed down from generation to generation since 1883, when Italian author Carlo Collodi published the iconic children's novel The Adventures of Pinocchio. Countless literary, film, television and stage adaptations have taken the story and transported it from decade to decade without losing the essence of the original work. 2022 has already provided Disney's live-action version, based on their own 1940 musical, but filmmakers Guillermo del Toro and Mark Gustafson are also ready to deliver their own animated, stop-motion-enhanced reimagining.

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Right now, very few people don't recognize Mexican director Guillermo del Toro as one of the most fascinating filmmakers working today, but Gustafson, a visionary stop-motion animation director, is the one that really caught my attention on this Pinocchio. As a relentless fan of this type of handcrafted animation, this simple fact added to del Toro's "promise" that the narrative would clash with most film adaptations produced before, generated some pretty high expectations for a classic story. which, personally, has never dazzled me. That said, Pinocchio by Guillermo del Toro is indeed one of the best animated films of the year.

Obviously, this film touches on many common plot points from the other versions and follows a similar structure, even taking into account some drastic changes in Italian history. One of the most positive alterations is the time allotted to Geppetto's life (voiced by David Bradley) before the creation of Pinocchio (voiced by Gregory Mann), which significantly alters the central theme of the story. Del Toro and co-writer Patrick McHale's screenplay focuses on sensitive and realistic subjects, such as the pain of bereavement and (paternal) love, surrounding the film with an incredibly human and emotionally complex environment.

Apart from setting the film at a specific time in history - in fascist 1930s Italy just before World War II - and even making the narrative much more political than usual, the magical elements retain an important presence in Pinocchio, but never distracting from the well-explored character arcs. The beginning and conclusion of the film follow different paths than most previous versions of this story, but these narrative risks inherent in any adaptation prove to be consistent with each other.

That is to say, the film isn't afraid to speak a hard truth or move forward with a bold decision. This dedication and commitment can be seen in the writing through rich conversations with memorable messages on deeply meaningful themes, while being the best version of ourselves, Pinocchio's greatest virtue in this adaptation being his true disobedience. This characteristic of the wooden puppet is portrayed as a negative trait in other stories, but del Toro and McHale defend it tooth and nail throughout the performance.

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Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio is badly affected by the Brewer's War; therefore, the rules and laws of the world are not exactly the most ethically and morally correct. Although Pinocchio's immaturity is quite irritating at times, making it difficult to form a stronger bond with him, the film carefully explores the imperfections that mark parents and children in this complicated world, focusing on the most important thing of all: the love they feel for each other. After all, we all say things we don't mean when we're under pressure, stressed or upset.

Such disobedience by Pinocchio allows the film to build an arc of self-discovery in which this young, wooden protagonist decides for himself what rules he considers acceptable and tolerable based on his own life experiences. The filmmakers also clarify that being human does not mean being made of flesh and blood, but rather feeling and behaving like one. I needed a film that was more realistic, passionate and thematically complex to realize, like the protagonist, that I also didn't accept some of the ideologies present in other Pinocchio films.< /p>

Technically, Pinocchio continues the trend of stop-motion animation...