Most filmmakers nowadays have not only fairly extensive resumes but varied ones as well. There are television shows, miniseries and otherwise, animated films, live action films, some even write plays or musicals. But the good ones don’t do that just to pad their filmographies, they do it because they love each medium they work in. Guillermo del Toro (“The Shape of Water,” “Pan’s Labyrinth) is clearly one of those people, and if that wasn’t already obvious, his new “Pinocchio” makes it so.
Directed by del Toro and Mark Gustafson (in his feature film directorial debut) and written by del Toro, Patrick McHale (“Over the Garden Wall,” “Adventure Time”), and Matthew Robbins (“The Sugarland Express,” “Crimson Peak”), the film follows Pinocchio, voiced by Gregory Mann (“Victoria”), a wooden puppet boy carved by Geppetto, voiced by David Bradley (“Game of Thrones,” “The Strain”), accompanied by Sebastian J Cricket, voiced by Ewan McGregor (“Moulin Rouge!,” “Christopher Robin”), both of whom try to help Pinocchio as he gets himself into various mischiefs, such as working with circus ringleader Count Volpe, voiced by Christoph Waltz (“Django Unchained,” “Spectre”) or joining the Italian army lead by the fascist Podestà, voiced by Ron Perlman (“Hellboy (2004),” “Sons of Anarchy”).
First and foremost, the animation is absolutely incredible. del Toro has always had a love of stop motion, but the atmosphere and world he and ShadowMachine (the studio behind works like Moral Orel, Hell and Back, and the early seasons of Robot Chicken) have managed to create is nothing short of breathtaking. It appropriately all feels hand crafted, but also wonderous in its detail. Each new scene and location feels painstakingly realized and brought to life by people who not only love this story, but this medium.
Mann is a delight, bringing a wonderful childish glee to Pinocchio without ever teetering too far into annoyance. His chemistry with Bradley and McGregor is a constant delight, and his songs are also positively wonderous. Bradley as well is great, delivering a painful and warm performance as the heartbroken wood carver. McGregor is easily at the top of his game, doing tons of fantastic work with his warm dulcet tones and sense of humor. He’s just a wonder. Waltz and Perlman are also great, delivering some fantastic villainous performances that never downplay their evil, often times playing their clichéd evilness up to the film’s benefit.
Musically, the film’s score is phenomenal. Composer Alexandre Desplat (“Fantastic Mr. Fox,” “Little Women (2019)”) creates a fairy tales sound scape that feels so natural to the events on screen that it practically feels as though its just the sounds of this world. Each piece of music is so wonderfully evocative of the fairy tale feelings that are on display, it’s a wonder there are any moments in the film without music. Likewise, the films handful of songs are also a sheer delight. When McGregor gets to sing his little cricket heart out with “Better Tomorrows”, it’s a moment of warmth and fun. When Bradley gets to croon with “My Son”, its pure heartbreaking music. And when Mann sings his tale of love with “Ciao Papa”, everything else just melts away.
But there’s one tiny little thing that holds it all back from true greatness. The film’s atmosphere is so perfected, its alterations to the tale so wonderous and genius, that the handful of moments where it delves into childish humor feel out of place. This isn’t an indictment of all uses of this humor in otherwise dramatic or serious films, but the moments when its used here just feel so random and immersion breaking. It shows just how good and well realized the rest of the film and its world is that these few moments are so distracting from an otherwise phenomenal project. The pacing can also be erratic at times; it’s not a short film, clocking in at around two hours, but it often feels like its speeding through material to cover everything in time.
Because as a work that’s been in development for so long, and for so many times and reasons almost didn’t happen, the correctly titled “Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio” is quite simply a phenomenal project. It’s gorgeous inside and out, in both its writing and animation. It would be a fantastic fairy tale any time of year, but to come out after the other “Pinocchio” film released this year, why it shows just how much artistry is on display here. 4.5/5
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