REVIEW: Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio [2022]

Rating: PG | Runtime: 117 minutes
Release Date: November 11th, 2022 (USA)
Studio: Netflix Animation / Netflix
Director(s): Guillermo del Toro & Mark Gustafson
Writer(s): Guillermo del Toro & Patrick McHale / Guillermo del Toro and Matthew Robbins (screen story) / Carlo Collodi (novel Pinocchio)

What happens, happens, and then we are gone.

“Terrible, terrible joy.” That’s what Geppetto (David Bradley) laments when asked what he felt during the time he had with young Pinocchio (Gregory Mann). Joy because it reminded him what it was like to live again after years spent drunk and alone after the tragic death of his son Carlo. Terrible because it couldn’t last. That’s the thing about love and life. We love with all our hearts because we know life isn’t forever. So, we must live as if there’s no tomorrow. And love with everything we have even though the resulting pain will prove just as strong.

It’s almost unfair that Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio came out the same year as Disney’s live-action retelling of their own famed adaptation of Carlo Collodi’s book since the latter never stood a chance. While co-written with Patrick McHale, co-conceived story-wise with Matthew Robbins, and co-directed by Mark Gustafson, you can forgive the Mexican filmmaker for having his name in the title since he wore so many hats in its creation. Lending his trademarked heart amidst darkly nightmarish visuals and unsentimental lessons, del Toro allows the themes of mortality and identity to shine through this fairy tale set against the backdrop of Italian fascism. And the animation is unrivaled. I assumed it would be on par with Laika, but the fluidity of motion and cinematography might even be better.

Fathers, the “Fatherland”, and totalitarian masters each seek to control and mold their “sons” only to witness them rebel. Will they fall prey to their pride? Or will they open their eyes to the reality that they have no ownership over their wards’ desire for independence? We know the answer for the likes of Podesta (Ron Perlman) and his glee at discovering how a wooden puppet who cannot die can become the perfect soldier. We know it for Count Volpe (Christoph Waltz) too once he seeks to exploit the boy for financial gains as his parlor trick devoid of strings. The question is therefore poised to Geppetto. Can he accept Pinocchio as he is? Or will he strive to turn him into Carlo?

It’s an adventure through Italy on land and sea with as much death as comedy (How great is the hook-handed captain Geppetto hires to take him across a mine-strewn sea guarded by a monstrous beast?), narrated by the eloquent Sebastian J. Cricket (Ewan McGregor). He takes us through the underworld to meet Death (Tilda Swinton) and her rabbits, to the circus with the conflicted monkey Spazzatura (Cate Blanchett), and to the battlefield beside child soldiers like Podesta’s own son Candlewick (Finn Wolfhard), each vignette a new lesson about humanity told with a severity that will make some parents shield their kids from watching. And that’s exactly why they must.

The best children stories are those that refuse to talk down to their audience. They let a character like Pinocchio die with the flair of immortality so that he can begin to see the finality of the sort of death he’s escaping. That’s the cost of forever. We see it with Peter Pan too. Life is nothing without loss and sacrifice. To risk everything for those you love is to know they will do the same for you. To survive is therefore the burden, but one you must shoulder with strength to honor those who’ve been lost. If that’s not a worthwhile lesson (along with a rudimentary education on fascism at a moment in time where we mustn’t forget), I don’t know what is.