It’s a personal point of joy for me to be posting this given that Guillermo Del Toro is officially one of my heroes. As a director, his sense of style, imagination, and heart coupled with brutal honesty has paved the way for films like Pan’s Labyrinth, The Shape of Water, The Devil’s Backbone, and countless others to become cinematic classics. But as a human being, there’s no celebrity out there with a bigger heart and a more magical soul. And this holiday season, he will be injecting both into one of the most timeless characters of all time: Pinocchio!
Today Netflix has released the first trailer and poster for the upcoming release, and they look terrific. Perfectly soulful, and imaginative. We’ve never seen a version of the story quite like this. And the only person who could ever reimagine the story this way would be Del Toro. Take a first look here:
The film stars Ewan McGregor, David Bradley, Gregory Mann, Tilda Swinton, Christoph Waltz, and Del Toro mainstays, Ron Perlman, Cate Blanchett. And it looks just incredible. From the gorgeous stop motion animation, to the heartbreaking narrative changes that give Geppetto a reason to carve the child, everything looks fresh and different.
Hilariously, Robert Zemeckis (the legendary director of Back to the Future and Forrest Gump) who took over Roald Dahl’s The Witches, which Del Toro was supposed to direct for Warner Bros. before he dropped out and the film was released on HBO Max, is releasing his own Pinocchio film this year too. That one will be a straight live-action remake of Disney’s interpretation, with Tom Hanks as Geppetto. We’ll see how it compares in the great Pinocchio duel of 2022.
That being said Del Toro’s looks like something completely… well… Del Toro! And that couldn’t have me any more excited to see it than I already am!
Guillermo Del Toro’s Pinocchio hits Netflix in December! Here’s a poster for the film as well.
