There are many Pinocchio movies. Like a plot.
Roberto Benigni starred in two completely different adaptations of the story, once as the main character and once as Geppetto. There are four various Pinocchio movies coming out this year alone. However, the anime adaptation by Mexican filmmaker Guillermo del Toro seems to be the best of them all.
The new trailer, which was released by Netflix on July 27, features a beautifully animated stop-motion story that reimagines “Pinocchio” as a story that, according to Ewan McGregor’s Jiminy Cricket, viewers only think they know.
The trailer doesn’t spill too many plot details, but del Toro has already begun to reveal what separates his take on the classic tale.
The story begins in 2008, when del Toro announced an animated version of “Pinocchio” that would come to life through stop-motion animation.
According artistic hivedel Toro once said, “No art form has influenced my life and work more than animation and no character in history has had such a deep personal connection to me as Pinocchio.”
The ‘Pan’s Labyrinth’ director claimed early on that his version of ‘Pinocchio’ would be much closer to its source material than Disney’s 1940 adaptation. necrophiliac certain aspects,” he said.
Additionally, del Toro revealed that unlike previous adaptations, the film would be set firmly in 1930s Italy and revolve around the fascist dictatorship of Benito Mussolini.
Unfortunately for him, the project went through several development cycles before entering what is known as “development hell” around 2014. Many, including del Toro, thought the project was dead, and the director l said in 2017, noting that no studio wanted to put the money in to fund a stop-motion animated film that wasn’t expressly made for kids.
Enter Netflix, which has become infamous for greenlighting just about anything it can get its hands on. In 2018, the project was back, with del Toro set to co-write and co-direct alongside Patrick McHale and Mark Gustafson, respectively. Four years later, the film is gearing up for a December 2022 release. Based on this latest trailer, it looks like this one was worth the wait.
“After years of pursuing this dream project, I found my perfect partner in Netflix,” del Toro said in 2020, according to The edge. “We’ve spent a lot of time putting together a stellar cast and crew and have been blessed with Netflix’s continued support to continue quietly and carefully, barely missing a beat. We all love and practice animation with great passion and believe it’s the perfect way to tell this classic story in a whole new way.
In an interview with vanity lounge, del Toro explained what initially attracted him to the character and why he felt compelled to create his own adaptation in an already crowded Pinocchios landscape. The director pointed out the parallels between Pinocchio and Frankenstein, and how both stories are ultimately about navigating a child’s life, finding your moral compass, and learning what it means to be human.
Against the backdrop of 1930s Italy, del Toro declared Pinocchio the most human of them all, a puppet who acts like a human at a time when so many humans acted like puppets. “Many times the fable struck me as favoring obedience and the domestication of the soul,” del Toro said.
He continues: “Blind obedience is not a virtue. Pinocchio’s virtue is to disobey. In a time when everyone acts like a puppet, that is not the case. Those are the interesting things, to me. I don’t want to tell the same story. I want to say it in my own way and in my way of understanding the world.
What other changes is del Toro making? A lot. Elsewhere in the Vanity Fair profile, del Toro explains how he plans to revitalize the story through his particular lens, including the more overtly political elements that make this adaptation unique. One of the most important plot points of the original, for example, will be completely dropped and replaced by the political machinations of the time.
Instead of sending Pinocchio to Pleasure Island, where he transforms into a donkey, del Toro envisions an even more tragic fate. “He is recruited from the military camp in the village, because the fascist town official thinks that if this puppet cannot die, he would make the perfect soldier,” he said.
“Hellboy” actor Ron Perlman stars as “the podesta, or town officer, who essentially controlled the town politically and socially at this time. He also has a history with his own son, Candlewick, who is traditionally the kind of bully that confuses Pinocchio.As for Candlewick himself, del Toro said, “Our character starts out as an antagonist and ends up being a very good and loyal friend to Pinocchio. Their story is very emotional for me.”
Of course, the heart of the story is the father-son relationship between Geppetto and Pinocchio, which will play a major role in del Toro’s adaptation. The director said: “At the beginning of the film, he tells a little story to his child, Carlo, in which he says that lies are as obvious as your nose, and the more you lie, the more he grows.” After losing that child and creating the wooden boy, “Pinocchio quotes this idea to him, and Geppetto says, ‘It’s true, how do you know?'”
What’s perhaps most interesting about the project is how it will stack up against the many ‘Pinocchio’ adaptations arriving in 2022. It started with ‘Pinocchio: A True Story’, which came out earlier this year and has already been put through some pretty tough tests. meme-ification. Then there’s Viktor Lakisov’s “Pinocchio,” which doesn’t yet have a release date but still looks pretty awful based on what little information is out there.
Del Toro’s toughest competition is undoubtedly the live update coming to Disney+ in September. Starring Tom Hanks, with ‘Forrest Gump’ director Robert Zemeckis behind the camera, the live-action film is a much more traditional take on the story, with Pinocchio himself looking identical to the 1940 iteration. .
This version of “Pinocchio” also went through several development cycles with everyone from Ben Stiller to Paul Thomas Anderson attached to direct, but it looks like Disney has moved forward with a much simpler adaptation of its own 1940 classic. Either way, del Toro’s version is the clear favorite for best “Pinocchio” of the year.
If his previous work is any indication, the possibilities are literally endless.
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