Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio (2022)

Directed by

Mark Gustafson, Guillermo del Toro

Genre

fantasy film, musical film, cinematic fairy tale

Country

France, Mexico, United States

Runtime

1h 54m

Rated

PG

Rating

8.0 of 10 from 3,378 voters

Elsewhere

IMDb

How it feels

In fascist-era Italy, a lonely woodcarver named Geppetto creates a wooden puppet that magically comes to life. The puppet, Pinocchio, embarks on a strange adventure to understand the world and become a real boy.

darkfantasticalmelancholicpoignantwhimsicalmusicalemotionalhistorical

What happens

Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio (or simply Pinocchio) is a 2022 animated musical dark fantasy film directed by Guillermo del Toro and Mark Gustafson, from a screenplay by del Toro and Patrick McHale, and a story by del Toro and Matthew Robbins. It is loosely based on Carlo Collodi's 1883 Italian novel The Adventures of Pinocchio, with the title character's design strongly influenced by illustrator Gris Grimly's work. Set in Fascist Italy during the interwar period, the story follows Pinocchio, a wooden puppet who comes to life as the son of his carver, Geppetto. The film stars the voice of Gregory Mann as Pinocchio and David Bradley as Geppetto, alongside Ewan McGregor, Burn Gorman, Ron Perlman, John Turturro, Finn Wolfhard, Cate Blanchett, Tim Blake Nelson, Christoph Waltz, and Tilda Swinton. Pinocchio was the final film credited to Gustafson before his death in 2024. A longtime passion project for del Toro, who considers that no other character ever "had as deep of a personal connection to [him]" as Pinocchio, the film is dedicated to the memories of his parents. It was originally announced in 2008 with a release in 2013 or 2014. However, it went into development hell. In January 2017, McHale was announced to co-write the screenplay, but production was suspended in November 2017 as no studios were willing to provide financing. It was revived the following year after being acquired by Netflix. Pinocchio premiered at the 66th BFI London Film Festival on October 15, 2022. It was released in select theaters on November 9, and began streaming on Netflix on December 9. The film received widespread critical acclaim for its direction, writing, voice performances, animation, production design, musical numbers, and faithfulness in retaining the darkness of the source material. Among its numerous accolades, Pinocchio won Best Animated Feature category at the Academy Awards, BAFTA Awards, Golden Globe Awards, Critic's Choice Awards and PGA Awards. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

Trailer

More like this

• The Adventures of Pinocchio (1975)
• Geppetto (2000)
• Pinocchio (1940)
• Pinocchio (1976)
• Pinocchio (1972)
• The Adventures of Pinocchio (1972)
• The New Adventures of Pinocchio (1999)
• Pinocchio (2019)