Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio

 

So I recently watched Guillermo del Toro's adaptation of Pinocchio to see what all the hype was about (that and I was bored and needed something to watch). So did it live up to the hype?

Of course, this is about a man who makes a puppet to be his son and some random fairy (Wood Sprite in this case) brought the kid to life and now he has to learn how to be a real boy. But there's a little bite of a twist in this one. This particular vision is set in Italy during both the World Wars and the reason Geppetto built Pinocchio in the first place was because he lost his real son in a bombing. So......Yeah. Another disturbing twist with this version is that Pinocchio is immortal. Pinocchio died like a million times throughout the movie, and every time he died, he would spend a few minutes in the afterlife with each time he goes back being longer than the last. That's creepy as HELL, but also well done.

The setting of the movie as well as the reason for Pinocchio's existence is 2 twist of many twists that I was surprisingly impressed by in the movie. Others being a war camp being in the place of Treasure Island, and Pinocchio's immortality learning that you never know how long you have until you die. 

The character development through out the film (especially Pinocchio and Geppetto's) is fantastic. What I like about Geppetto's is that he didn't instantly care for Pinocchio at first because he wanted him to be another version of his deceased son Carlo. But the thing is Carlo was his own person and so is Pinocchio. Unfortunately, it took Pinocchio running away for Geppetto to realize that, but when they're together again, he embraces him with open arms. With Pinocchio, he's a little creepy and kind of annoying at first like every little kid. But it's takes time for him to get used to the world he lives in. For example, the carnival. Originally, he ditched school to join Volpe's show. But after Pinocchio's first death, Geppetto tried to take Pinocchio away. So Volpe want's Geppetto to pay him a buttload of money that he does not have as Pinocchio is bound by contract. Either that, or Pinocchio goes to war under the orders of the Podesta. That basically gave Pinocchio a good dose of reality to the world he lives in. He realized the trouble that he got himself and Geppetto in do to the choices he made. So he decides to travel with Volpe to payoff his debts and avoid going to war. In other words: He's taking responsibility for his actions. This is probably the most mature version of Pinocchio I've ever seen, and I'm not saying that the Disney version wasn't. But because there was a different type of depth added to Geppetto, the same went for Pinocchio. And I think a lot of people have felt like Pinocchio before (I have). No kid likes to see their parents go through a difficult time, and is gonna want to help in some type of way. This version of Pinocchio is incredibly well developed. 

The animation is gorgeous. del Toro himself expressed that this was a project that he had wanted for a very long time. And you can tell that every bit of this movie including the animation was handled with care. I also surprisingly enjoyed the music of the movie as well with "Ciao Papa" being one of my favorites.

So did this live up to the hype? I think it did. And I wish it best in the award season. Thanks for reading.