Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio

I didn’t even know that Guillermo del Toro had made an adaptation of Pinocchio until my daughter and oldest son told me they wanted to watch it during our traditional movie evening yesterday. Wow, that was a different take on Pinocchio indeed. Pinocchio, the original, is not surprisingly, one of the movies I watched as a kid and which is quite dear to me. A movie from the time when the name Disney actually meant something and when they made actual family movies instead of woke crud for the small but loud-mouthed and fanatical minority. Needless to say I have not even contemplated to watch Disney’s latest remake of the original. But then, Guillermo del Toro movies I often like and, well, the kids (who are also very anti-woke) wanted to watch it so I did not have much choice but to watch it. I do indeed have some reservations about the theme used in the movie but overall it was a good movie. The movie is more geared towards adults or at least young adults than Disney’s original. It is much more dark and less humorous. But then, with Guillermo del Toro at the helm that is not really a surprise is it? Since I did not know anything about this movie until I started to watch it I sat through the entire movie wondering if it was done with stop-motion figures or CGI made to look like stop-motion. It turnes out that it is indeed stop-motion and damned impressive stop-motion at that. Really well done. The story, which has little to do with the original Disney one to be honest, is not bad but here we come to my main gripe with the movie. I did not really like the setting in fascist Italy with a lot of the movie preaching about fascism. It is really beating a dead horse and it made the movie darker than it had to be. I know Pinocchio is an Italian story so they could not really have set it in communist Russia, even though that would have been much more relevant if they really wanted to have some background bad guys. Still, I just wished they would have found some other theme. The ending is also nothing like the original Disney movie. It is not entirely a tragic ending but it is certainly not an overly happy one either. It is a good ending but, again, more an adult ending than a children’s story ending. Overall though, I liked the movie. It was a good movie and an intelligent and technically very well done adaptation of the Pinocchio story.

Set against the rise of Mussolini, this adaptation of the Collodi story draws parallels with the adventures of the eponymous puppet and the fascist's coming to power in Italy. The stop-motion animation is vibrant and simply gorgeous as the old carpenter "Geppetto" lives happily with his young son "Carlo" until the war intervenes and he is robbed of his very essence. It is whilst in the depths of his despair that he decides to carve a puppet, and imbued with life by a forest sprite - "Pinocchio" is born. Curious, mischievous, rebellious - you just know that the youngster is going to be an handful for his father and his friend the cricket. His skills at dancing draw the attention of circus master "Volpe" and soon the lad is caught in an intricate trap that causes him and his "papa" no end of trauma. This iteration blends the magical and mystical with the political and brutal in a cleverly constructed fashion. The original story of humanity is front and centre, but the failings of, and challenges to, that humanity are also presented to us as we see the best and worst of human nature displayed. It's a love story, and one of the best, and in the hands of a man who knows how to mix the dark and the light - contextually and visually - so well, we are offered an engaging and thought-provoking version of this far darker and interesting fairy tale. A big screen must, if you can - the artistry is intricate and the Desplat score compliments that well, too.

More true to the original vibe of the story than the Disney version but the parallels of the Italian fascists could have had more of an impact. The family tragedy did have an impact though which was very moving. The idea of 'Love will give you life' is great but as we all know, isn't true which hindered any inspiration. It would be great if there were good and (fairly) evil spirits (and if there were I'd like mine played by Tilda Swinton please) but there aren't - that shouldn't take away from the story but it doesn't work as a life lesson. The darkness was great but needed more fascism (not a phrase I use that often!) I liked the film but it seemed to evade all age groups; too scary for under 12s, too slow for 12 - 15, not gripping enough for 15-18 and not enough parallelling with the rise of fascism or Tilda Swinton for over 40s. Lovely score, lovely stop motion which we don't see enough of nowadays. Lots of potential not quite reached in terms of Ewan McGregor and plot. Cutting room floor: inside the whale and (unless you're going to do it as a main theme), the fascist element. Lovely score, lovely animation.