Pinocchio (2022)

Directed by Guillermo del Toro

Gepetto, a woodcarver, (David Bradley) is grief stricken after losing his son Carlo (Gregory Mann) in an air raid on their village. After years of debilitating grief and a bout of alcoholism, Gepetto still wants his son back and decides to take matters into his own hands and make a new Carlo out of the pine that has grown on his grave. To his astonishment, the puppet he has barely finished comes to life and wreaks havoc on his life and heart.

The story of Pinocchio is well-known and doesn’t really need reiterating. However, del Toro and Patrick McHale updated the well-worn morality tale to great effect. By setting their version of the story in 1930-ies fascist Italy, they very astutely point out that it is not revelries, alcohol or fun that corrupt young minds, as in the original, but far more sinister forces that are mostly out of their control. There is a far greater focus on how parents try and fail to protect their children and how a child’s love is pure and powerful and can be used and abused by the adults around them. The movie also tackles themes of loss, love and what it means to be alive. 

The stop-motion animation is marvelous and the rich textured environments as well as the peculiar character models add to a whimsical dark atmosphere reminiscent of such greats as Coraline or Nightmare Before Christmas. The music by Alexandre Desplat makes everything even more magical, but I wasn’t a fan of the original songs and don’t understand why the movie had to be a musical. The voice cast gives a great performance, as they bring the whimsical characters to life.

This adaptation of Pinocchio sheds the puritanical message of the original, for a much broader liberal one and vastly improves a tired story in the process.