Released: 9th December 2022 (Netflix)
Length: 117 Minutes
Certificate: PG
Director Guillermo Del Toro
Starring: David Bradley, Ewan McGregor, Gregory Mann, Burn Gorman, Ron Perlman, John Turturro, Finn Wolfhard, Cate Blanchett, Tilda Swinton and Christoph Waltz
Since his creation in the late 1800s, the wooden figurine who dreams of being a real boy has starred in many highly recognisable stories. Many adaptations, especially the Disney version from 1940, set the blueprint for how the tale played out. In 2022, a modern version of Pinocchio accomplishes what many of its contemporaries missed; imbuing every component with a great sense of pathos.
Pinocchio adapts the original Carlo Collodi story, but places it against the backdrop of fascist Italy in World War Two. Master Geppetto (David Bradley) is a well respected woodworker who loses his son when the local church he works for is bombed. Overwhelmed with grief, the old Italian builds a wooden figure (Gregory Mann) in his son’s image, who is soon brought to life by a fairy. An unlikely father-son bond starts to develop with Pinocchio facing many challenges from a town who shuns him to a greedy circus owner (Christoph Waltz) looking to exploit him. Some plot elements will be familiar, but this modern take offers one thing in spades; heart. Whether Pinocchio is conversing with spirits or being forced into a fascist youth camp, the sense of innocence and connection in the darkest of times is a constant presence. The story of Del Toro’s Pinocchio is an honest and sincere fairy-tale; it doesn’t shy away from more difficult subjects like death and indoctrination while maintaining its delightful charm.
An excellent cast brings the characters of Pinocchio to life and not one of them falters in their performance. The common thread running through the production is that of self-interest and this makes everyone feel more realistic and grounded. Geppetto builds Pinocchio out of alcohol-fuelled bitterness, Sebastian Cricket (Ewan McGregor), who also serves as the narrator, only agrees to be Pinocchio’s conscience at first because he wants a new tree home in return and the wooden boy goes through what you’d expect; the journey of morals and self-discovery; he makes mistakes, gets tricked into unethical activities, but deep down he is still able to find the difference between right and wrong. As the film goes on, the three protagonists all confront their individual problems and grow as people, making the narrative resonate so much more. Their bonds start off as weak and uncaring and slowly transform into something poignant; you feel this growth at every turn. The villains look and act deceitful with the biggest highlight being Christoph Waltz as Count Volpe; his devious voice and nasty, manipulative behaviour make him thoroughly unlikeable whenever he shows up on screen. The voice acting is distinctive, memorable and fully in tune with each set of characteristics. Even the smaller roles from Burn Gorman, Cate Blanchett and Tilda Swinton are engaging enough to pull you in.
Stop-motion animation is certainly a meticulous art form and the work that went into Pinocchio from multiple teams is more than a brilliant showcase of talent; it forms an active backbone to the story and characters. Every model and set has been designed with individual personas in mind and the expressions on every face are impeccable. The attention to detail is so exquisite that you can spot the individual markings on Pinocchio’s wooden body alongside the little touches added to the set backgrounds; in the case of the latter, there are many sights that resemble beautiful paintings across the runtime. This is only the starting point for the brilliant animation; the film is incredibly ambitious with the camera movements, panning across the screen with the characters and delivering a great sense of energy. It’s the kind of painstaking craft that takes hours to fully perfect. Splendid lighting draws out the boundaries between the human and spirit worlds and in keeping with its whimsical storybook tone, the soundtrack has been composed entirely from wooden instruments; it does a fantastic job conveying the emotions from the cast. On occasion, characters will break out into song and while Pinocchio isn’t a musical, the compositions are well produced and a great fit for the themes on display.
Guillermo Del Toro’s Pinocchio is simply sublime; the amount of detail, poignancy and creative passion dwarves just about every other film released this year. It makes perfect use of stop-motion animation to tell its story, one that isn’t afraid to portray realistic characters and issues that tie in closely with its setting. In short, it’s a fantastic film that shouldn’t be missed.
Rating: 5/5 Stars (Exceptional)
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