• Director: Guillermo del Toro & Mark Gustafson
• With: Ewan McGregor, David Bradley, Gregory Mann, Burn Gorman, Ron Perlman, John Turturro, Finn Wolfhard, Cate Blanchett, Tim Blake Nelson, Christophe Waltz, Tilda Swinton, Tom Kenny
• Music by: Alexandre Desplat
• Platform: Netflix
• Rating: 8/10

Synopsis:

In this dark reimagining of the classic tale, Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio brings the titular boy to life unlike any other film before. With the help of his conscience Sebastian J. Cricket, and his father Geppetto, Pinocchio will learn what it is to be human, and see the world’s many paradoxes of life; all against the backdrop of Mussolini’s fascist Italy.

Review:

With a wonderful cast, Guillermo del Toro helming the directorial duties and the stop motion animation this movie is a true lust for the eyes and ears! Ewan McGregor’s voice for the cricket is just perfect (I adore the man’s voice!)

We all know the story about the wooden boy that wants to become a true human boy, who’s nose grows if he lies and his adventures along his way to boyhood… a coming-of-age story written in the 1800’s… Gepetto, his ‘father’ (maker) who tries to teach Pinocchio to be a good boy… and the cricket that has to watch over Pinocchio…

All these elements are used in this adaptation but del Toro changed the setting to the fascist 1930’s when Mussolini was ruling Italy. And it works very good! The story changes are perfect for this setting and del Toro and Gustafson made a wonderful great movie! And to think he almost didn’t make it until Netflix asked him to make this movie.

As I said, this movie has a top cast! McGregor, Waltz, Turturro, Pearlman and Wolfhard to name a few… but the most unexpected name is Care Blanchett who ‘voices’ Spazzatura, the circus monkey who doesn’t actually say a lot. But as Blanchett said in an interview: for del Toro she would play a pencil! What a woman! 😊