Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio
classified PGPlease note: This was screened in Dec 2022
Guillermo del Toro breathes spectacular life into Carlo Collodi's much-adapted dark tale about the fabled wooden boy in this life-affirming piece of stop-motion musical magic.
Set during Mussolini's wartime Italy, we follow the titular wooden puppet who miraculously comes to life and dreams of becoming a real boy. Despite his many flaws and imperfections, he is loved unconditionally by his creator and surrogate father (who grieves for his lost son). But even with the sage advice of Sebastien K Cricket, the mischevious Pinocchio can't resist going down the path of disobedience...
A decades-long passion project for del Toro (who co-directs with stop motion specialist Mark Gustafson, the animation director on The Fantastic Mr Fox), this gorgeous tearjerker has been hailed as a soulful (and sometimes sinister - Disney this ain't) masterpiece. See it on the big screen if you can - and fall in love.