Pinocchio is a fairy tale told time and time again, and Del Toro manages to add his own unique, fresh take on the classic story.
Del Toro does an excellent job at intertwining both fantasy and realism within his narratives, touching on many mature real-world issues within his films whilst also giving them fantasy elements and Pinocchio is no exception. For a film aimed at family and children, I was pleasantly surprised by how thought provoking and deep this film was. It explores many darker themes on a level that studios like Disney are often too afraid to explore. Emotionally heavy themes such as death, grief, war and making the most of the time we have together are dealt with in a mature, thoughtful manner whilst still being light-hearted enough for a younger audience. Although I feel I have seen the story many times before, Del Toro managed to keep me hooked, as there were many unexpected changes and twists that helped to keep the plot fresh and interesting.
The cinematography, animation and visuals are highly appealing and full of Del Toro’s trademark fantasy charm, with aesthetic and stylistic choices that reminded me of his previous works, including “Pan’s Labyrinth” (2006) and “Shape of Water” (2017), which many fans of his will recognise. I feel that the choice to make this film stop motion worked exceptionally well, because it makes many scenes feel very artistic and eye-catching, showing the evident care and devotion that was put into designing the scenery, set pieces and characters. I enjoyed the unique, flawed and imperfect design of Pinocchio. This set him apart from the Disneyfied version we all imagine and gave this fantasy character a sense of realism and humanity, which emphasises one of Del Toro’s trademark storytelling techniques of combining fantasy with realistic thought-provoking narratives.
The voice acting overall was very good, with the major standout being Ewan McGregor’s role as Sebastian J Cricket (the name being one of the unique differences between previous iterations of the story). His voice feels very omniscient and powerful which works effectively due to him being the narrator for much of the film and the guiding conscience for Pinocchio.
This film continues Del Toro’s tracked record of success, as although it contains a small amount of unexplained plot conveniences, the overall story of this film is well told with many new ideas. It is yet another example of how fantastic the creative mind of Guillermo Del Toro really is.
Ewan Danyluk
BFI Film Academy
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