This review includes mild spoilers for “Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio.”
“Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio” stands out among the slew of adaptations of the story and marks the second project this year in director del Toro’s multi-year collaboration with Netflix.
With everything from the awkwardly voice-acted “Pinocchio: A True Story” to Disney’s lackluster remake to even the upcoming video game “Lies of P,” it seems that there is no shortage of this wooden boy to go around. Del Toro decided to take a stab at the folktale and has been developing the project as early as 2008, and he delivers a visionary tale that is familiar yet completely unique.
Animated in gorgeous stop-motion, the film once again recounts the story of Pinocchio, voiced by Gregory Mann, and his adventures with his usual cast of characters: David Bradley’s Geppetto and Ewan McGregor’s Sebastian J. Cricket. This time around, the story is unexpectedly set to the backdrop of a fascist Italy.
This new setting is a driving element in the story, as it is even the reason for Pinocchio’s creation in the first place. Geppetto’s grief after losing his son during a World War I bombing drives him into a drunken frenzy, leading to the creation of the iconic character. The story follows the usual tropes: Pinocchio sets off on his own and begins working at a carnival while Geppetto is swallowed by a gargantuan sea creature when searching for Pinocchio. While the skeleton of the film remains quite traditional, it is the revisions to the source material that set it apart.
Del Toro uses the unique time period as a vehicle to make a bold anti-war statement through the beloved children’s tale. From the very start, Geppetto attempts to express to Pinocchio why war is not a good thing. War took his son away; war forces young children to experience violence at an early age; war brings death and carnage except to the boy with a borrowed soul.
Pinocchio is even made to be a tool for propaganda. When working under the puppet master Count Volpe, voiced by Christoph Waltz, Pinocchio dances to the tune of nationalist anthems, praising the fascist fatherland in their fight for Italy, all as small children clap and cheer, innocent to the militaristic reality.
Most shockingly, Pinocchio is even drafted into the Royal Italian Army, under the idea of training him to become the “perfect soldier” after he insults Benito Mussolini (yes, that one) to his face. This leads into another crucial addition del Toro made to the story: the question of Pinocchio’s mortality.
Del Toro crafted a unique idea that serves the original folktale and the new adaptation immeasurably. One of the slight changes del Toro made here was having the traditional “blue fairy” appear as a Wood Sprite, voiced by Tilda Swinton, and portrayed in gorgeous color and character design, reminiscent of “Pan’s Labyrinth” with a hint of Biblically accurate angels.
In this version, the Sprite has a sister: Death (also voiced by Swinton), who first greets Pinocchio when he is run over by a car. As it is revealed, Pinocchio is immortal, and simply must sit with Death in a waiting room until an hourglass runs out to be sent back to Earth, with each successive death having a longer wait than the last.
The story of Pinocchio’s immortality is somber but surprisingly uplifting. A central part of many Pinocchio stories is his desire to become a “real boy,” a driving motivation that is not terribly present here. In its place, Pinocchio wishes only for Geppetto to be happy, and thus, a critical sequence from the film sees Pinocchio becoming a “real boy,” or mortal, to save his father.
While a puppet is often viewed to be commanded by strings, del Toro’s Pinocchio seems to be freer than even the humans in this world. His mere existence threatens the social fabric, creating an anomaly that sticks out among a crowd of yes-men burdened by the weight of dictatorship. Even with his ties to immortality, the boy is willing to cut those threads for the sake of those he loves.
Even the film itself can be viewed as this expression of freedom. With more than enough adaptations on hand, del Toro chose to not be bound by the scripts of precedent. Instead, he used the versatility of animation to express mature themes in a tale that is meant for anyone and everyone fortunate to come across it.
“Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio” is now available in select theaters and is streaming on Netflix.