Pinocchio (2022)

Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio (2022)

 

7/10

Starring the voices

Ewan McGregor

David Bradley

Gregory Mann

Burn Gorman

Ron Perlman

 

Directed by Guillermo del Toro and Mark Gustafson

 

There are some stories that are hard to retell, and I’m starting to think that when Disney nailed the Pinocchio story in 1940, they left everyone else scrambling to remake it. This version, however, is wonderful and delivers the kind of fun you’d expect from Guillermo del Toro taking charge of anything.

Even Disney couldn’t recapture the magic they released in the ’40s. Their own live-action version, also released this year, was just bad. But this movie? It’s just as good as the 1940 Pinocchio.

I’m not entirely sure what Del Toro was trying to achieve with his take on the story, but I’ll give him this: it plays closer to some form of reality. While Disney’s versions acted like magic was an everyday occurrence—like, who’s all calm and collected when a wooden puppet comes to life?—this film does the opposite. In this amazing animation, people’s reactions to the unbelievable sight of a living puppet feel far more realistic. Even Geppetto initially distancing himself from Pinocchio made it seem more grounded.

Pinocchio’s careless behavior is also explored more deeply in this movie than in any of Disney’s versions.

The first 40 minutes of the animation are similar to Disney’s 1940 version, though with plenty of changes. After that, the movie takes a different path—closer to the book that all Pinocchio stories are based on.

After a falling out with Geppetto, Pinocchio runs away to join the carnival. This happens because Pinocchio doesn’t go to school as he’s supposed to, instead getting into trouble by joining a puppet show.

There’s a heated argument between Geppetto and the carnival owner, which leaves Geppetto in debt. In anger, he calls Pinocchio a burden. Hurt and no longer wanting to be a burden, Pinocchio decides to join the carnival. He also comes to terms with the fact that Geppetto will never see him the same way he saw Carlo, his late son.

At the start of the animation, we learn that Geppetto’s son, Carlo, died, and it’s this loss that drives Geppetto into deep depression. Out of grief, he carves a wooden puppet in his son’s likeness—a puppet that is brought to life by a spirit.

From there, the adventure begins, with Geppetto setting off to find the carnival and save his son.

Del Toro has been determined to make this movie for over a decade, and he’s finally achieved his dream. It’s better than Disney’s live-action version by a long shot. If you’re curious about how Del Toro reimagined Carlo Collodi’s 1883 book The Adventures of Pinocchio, you can catch it on Netflix.