Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio Review: a tragic children’s Animation or a political creation?

Guillermmo del toro Pinnochio

The three times Academy Award Winner, Guillermo del Toro’s Oscar-nominated movie Pinocchio is no ordinary adaptation of Carlo Collodi’s 1881 Novel. There have been a copious amount of remakes from the original story, having over 60 film and TV adaptations, including Disney’s 1940 animated version. Unlike the other adaptations, Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio does not follow the popular plot created over the years but treads closely with Collodi’s narrative from the book.

geppeto and pinocchio
Geppeto and Pinocchio walk down the woods. (Image via Netflix)

This Pinocchio is not just simply another kid’s movie with a fairy-tale ending but makes the viewers contemplate the questions about life, death, and everything in between. Death and fascism may not seem like the ideal subjects for a fantasy animation for children of all ages. Yet, del Toro merges his astounding cinematic skills with Collodi’s timeless fable, making it a classic gem underlined with an allegory of fascism during the Mussolini era.

Pinocchio: A Children’s Movie?

The Oscar Winner of stop-motion animation, Pinocchio is not just a children’s movie. The filmmakers in an interview admitted that they did not want the movie to just end with its ending. They wanted the viewers to have a conversation about it, even after it ended.
The movie indeed makes one question mortality and everything that comes with it.

It is steeped in sorrow and darkness but it is also equally imaginative. Del Toro’s Pinocchio does not try to trivialize the anti-fascist morality of a drama that is aimed at a broader audience.

Pinocchio in Guillermo del Toro's movie
Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio is more than a children’s fiction; tension always persists throughout the entire movie (Image via Netflix)

But the most magical or even fairy-tale (ish) characteristic about Pinocchio is that, in spite of having such heavy and somber themes with the crudeness of reality, it manages to encapsulate the heartwarming core of a storybook in the movie.

Every time that Pinocchio seems to settle down to a sense of self-seriousness and the movie becomes tense while addressing the fascist Mussolini regime, it falls back into one of the lighthearted songs; the most pivotal element of musicals.

Fairy-tale Fascism in del Toro’s Pinocchio

pinocchio and geppeto
Pinocchio in this modern adaptation is more than this happy and merry storyline of children’s fiction (Image via Netflix)

The Adventures of Pinocchio by Carlo Collodi was turned into a children’s book two years after its publication. The story is set sometime between the two World Wars. Pinocchio represents the grief a father goes through after losing a child in a war and the thousands of casualties that were a direct result of Italy’s descent into fascism under Prime Minister Benito Mussolini’s regime.

Geppeto, a mourning father carves Pinocchio out of a pine tree that grows over his son’s grave, who magically comes to life. As the story progresses, Pinocchio experiences many near-death experiences but comes back gleefully each time. The little wooden boy is pure innocence and a nuisance to the old father. But his being bereft of death and returning to life clashes with the fascist death cult. He joyously takes advantage of his return to disregard Mussolini’s rules of fascism.

How is Pinocchio similar to Frankenstein?

Geppeto and Pinocchio
Pinocchio and his father Geppeto. (Image via Netflix)

In an interview, the filmmakers draw several connections between the characters of Pinocchio and Frankenstein. Both Pinocchio and Frankenstein are a result of their fathers trying to get over their grief of losing a child. But both of them are innocents who are rushed out to a world that is unfamiliar to them and vice versa. Del Toro is also very much fascinated by Mary Shelley’s novel, in which monsters are not what they are portrayed as.

Del Toro embraces the darker connotations of the film by grappling with the ethical quandary given in Pinocchio and delving into the psychology of a child whose existence feels cursed. Both Pinocchio and Frankenstein’s monster are victims who will never be acknowledged as “human”. The only difference is that Frankenstein’s monster was produced as a result of Victor’s arrogance, whereas Pinocchio was created by Geppeto out of his grief and love.

Conclusion

Del Toro’s “Pinocchio” is closer to Collodi’s original story than Disney’s and the various other adaptations with its foreboding tone, deadly close calls, and several fatalities. But, at the same time, it does not fail to live up to the heartwarming story like earlier films, it tends to push the viewers to explore their empathetic side, particularly in its portrayal of Geppetto.

More than simply inviting viewers to contemplate the nature of their own mortality, it also makes us question everything even after it’s ended.


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