ANI-MOVIES, *Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio

As one of three movies being released 2022 based on the beloved but often confusing fairy tale, Guillermo del Toro's was the exception as a stop-motion animated production. This was created through Robot Chicken's Shadowmachine and the legendary Jim Henson Company which was a concept that del Toro had haunting around development limbo for over a decade. Netflix Animation swooped in to help finally get this dream on the screen as a streaming exclusive. The film strays quite a bit from author Carlo Collodi's original text, but sticks the core concept in a dieselpunk fantasy which won the Oscar for Best Animated Feature .

Taking place during WWII, Geppetto is a lonely carpenter whose son Carlo was accidently killed in WWI. In a drunken rage, he cuts down the tree next to his son's grave and carves it into a boy-sized puppet. A wood sprite appears and brings the puppet to life, along with appointing an attending cricket named Sebastian to act as the boy's moral wisdom as the wood golem is christened Pinocchio. Geppetto is shocked to find his hangover has resulted in a living wooden creation, and the local townsfolk don't take kindly to a walking log entering their church during the middle of a service. Pinocchio is sent to school but gets flimflammed by the egotistical travelling puppeteer Count Volpe along with his gremlin-like monkey sidekick Spazzatura into signing a contract to join his act. This scuffle leads to Pinocchio "dying" after being run over by a cart, and the wooden boy goes to the afterlife where he talks with the sphynx-life spirit of Death who is the wood sprite's sister. Pinocchio is told by Death that he can die several times but will never be permanently dead or ever age and that each time he is killed he will only appear in Death's realm for a few minutes, which for some reason is run by skeleton bunnies. Pinocchio comes back to life but decides to go with Volpe to help pay for his father's debts as Geppetto referred to him as a burden. Geppetto and Sebastian set out to find the Count's touring act which is shut down by Mussolini when Pinocchio compares the dictator to a steaming pile of poop. This gets our puppet hero killed again and returns to find himself drafted into the Italian army where he befriends the young Candlewick who is eager to live up to his officer father's inhuman expectations. Volpe arrives to try and get his revenge for Pinocchio's shenanigans, although he is rescued by Spazzatura who was fed up with Volpe's constant abuse. The Count is finally done away with which unfortunately leads to the puppet and monkey getting swallowed up by a sea monster where they find Geppetto and Sebastian inside. Pinocchio uses his strange power of having his nose grow when lying to help the castaways make it out of the giant's blowhole. The monster gives chase to his undigested meal but accidently eats a live mine, causing Pinocchio to die again. While in the afterlife, Pinocchio finds out he can go back early to try and save his father at the sacrifice of his own talent for resurrection. He comes back just in time to rescue Geppetto, and the survivors all live together in peace. Despite Pinocchio outliving everyone else by never aging, we learn that the entire story has been told by Sebastian's ghost in the afterlife playing cards with Death's bunnies.

Guillermo del Toro's darker take on Pinocchio places a larger emphasis on how sacred life should be, even to immortals. The stop-motion animation is commendable, although you can see more fluid animation in productions by Laika or Tim Burton. The plot forges its own path while still holding the idea of the source material. Characters' motivations are in constant flux not being able to stick to a set pattern throughout the movie. This is a deeply memorable addition to the fairy tale mythos still keeping it in a gothic backdrop.