Set against the rise of Mussolini, this adaptation of the Collodi story draws parallels with the adventures of the eponymous puppet and the fascist's coming to power in Italy. The stop-motion animation is vibrant and simply gorgeous as the old carpenter "Geppetto" lives happily with his young son "Carlo" until the war intervenes and he is robbed of his very essence. It is whilst in the depths of his despair that he decides to carve a puppet, and imbued with life by a forest sprite - "Pinocchio" is born. Curious, mischievous, rebellious - you just know that the youngster is going to be an handfu... read the rest.

FULL SPOILER-FREE REVIEW @ https://www.msbreviews.com/movie-reviews/guillermo-del-toro-pinocchio-spoiler-free-review

"Pinocchio retells the famous tale of the wooden puppet through visually lovely stop-motion animation, featuring several bold narrative changes that make this remake more human, emotional, and thematically profound than so many other adaptations.

Unforgettable dialogues about loss, love, and being the best version of ourselves elevate an adventure of self-discovery. The voice cast couldn't have been better, while the (new) music manages to be both playful and lyrically rich... read the rest.

Guillermo del Toro has crafted a darker yet equally emotional version of Pinocchio. It is exquisitely and intricately animated with rich textures, gorgeous lighting, and mostly welcome character reinventions. The transition to Fascist Italy fits del Toro’s vision well, but the changes remove and alter enjoyable story elements that are surely missed. Pinocchio is absolutely a contender for this year’s best-animated film, but it is a film that I hoped to adore and yet only deeply appreciate.

Full review: https://boundingintocomics.com/2022/12/12/guillermo-del-toros-pinocchio-review-fam... read the rest.

I didn’t even know that Guillermo del Toro had made an adaptation of Pinocchio until my daughter and oldest son told me they wanted to watch it during our traditional movie evening yesterday. Wow, that was a different take on Pinocchio indeed.

Pinocchio, the original, is not surprisingly, one of the movies I watched as a kid and which is quite dear to me. A movie from the time when the name Disney actually meant something and when they made actual family movies instead of woke crud for the small but loud-mouthed and fanatical minority. Needless to say I have not even contemplated to watch Di... read the rest.

It's good, even if I wouldn't say it's anything better or worse than its Disney animated counterpart - at least it is a marked improvement on that aforementioned company's remake, mind.

The big win of 'Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio' is the stop-motion animation, which is extremely nice indeed. As for everything else? Nothing leaps out of my mind if I'm honest, even within 30mins of watching it. I personally found the design of the titular character to be 'just' OK, same goes for Sebastian J. Cricket & Co.

I did like the casting of Ewan McGregor and David Bradley, particularly th... read the rest.

I'm not sure why everyone compares this to Disney's version. They both stole the main characters from Carlo Collodi's 19th century book. My father used to read it to me. Sure, Guillermo took a much bigger artistic license than Disney. So what? What modern director even attempted to be completely faithful to a book except Peter Jackson?

That said, there quite a few logic holes in Guillermo del Toro's version that took me right out of suspended disbelief. Takes it out of Oscar territory for me, but I don't vote LOL. Aside from that, the artistic effort was superb.

More true to the original vibe of the story than the Disney version but the parallels of the Italian fascists could have had more of an impact. The family tragedy did have an impact though which was very moving. The idea of 'Love will give you life' is great but as we all know, isn't true which hindered any inspiration. It would be great if there were good and (fairly) evil spirits (and if there were I'd like mine played by Tilda Swinton please) but there aren't - that shouldn't take away from the story but it doesn't work as a life lesson. The darkness was great but needed more fascism (not a... read the rest.