By Steve Dinneen
Oscar winning Mexican filmmaker finally gets to offer his vision of the story of Pinocchio, a film with no connection to the Disney cartoon or the live action remake that came out this year.
There have been countless adaptations over the years, but any time the Shape of Water filmmaker brings his unique eye to something, it’s worth paying attention.
Set in fascist Italy during the Second World War, this stop motion take on The Boy Who Wished To Live is a lot darker. Gepetto (voiced by David Bradley) is grieving his son who has died as a result of the war, and drunkenly crafted a puppet one night that is brought to life by a wood sprite.
What follows is far from the 1940 Disney film, which itself has its dark moments. Pinocchio confronts death, quite literally, and the horrors of war as he is conscripted into Mussolini's youth army. The themes are as spiky as the character design, with the crude and twisted wood of the lead working well with the jerky animation.
Many talented actors are enlisted for the voice cast. Bradley is far darker as Gepetto than Tom Hanks’; pizza box stereotype, while the recognisable tones of Tilda Swinton (playing Death as well as the wood sprite) and Ewan McGregor’s Sebastian The Cricket match the depth of what unfolds visually.
Guillermo Del Toro had fought since the early 2010s to get Pinocchio off the ground, and the end result is a rousing vindication. Haunting, and not for very young kids, the film dares to be different.
It’s been a long time since animated movies had the nerve to go to very dark places, and the celebrated master of macabre shows just what can be done with the medium.
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