In case you were wondering what was missing from an adaptation of Pinocchio: 1) more Fascist commentary (not to mention Tom Kenny voicing Mussollini); 2) Frankenstein allusions (or sorry did I say allusions I mean he's clearly so in love with ol' Frank that the imagery is just there in spades); 3) a showstopper Ewan McGregor musical number that hilariously keeps getting interrupted until the ending (you'll hear it at the Oscar's live I bet); 4) the word 'Burden' made existential and harrowing for a child of wood; and 5) and an even more gnarly designed sea beast. It also made me laugh and cry and lay back in awe in my theater - feel lucky if you get a chance to go see theatrical and don't pass it up if you can - at one of the great stop motion animations of my lifetime.
I'm sure there are little complaints or nitpicks I can have - ie as strong and believable and emotional an actor Gregory Mann is for the regular scenes, he's slightly one note as a singer for me. But they mostly pale in this giant work of a vision that is collaborative (Jim Henson productions Co produced and I'd love to know if any of this was puppeteers not just with the stop-motion 24fps), yet del Toro's voice and mind and vision is very potent and daring; that of creating a story of Disobedience in the face of the Big Paternal thing of a Fascistic leaders and so called fathers, and a fairy tale in an Iconoclastic approach (meaning as he said at a q&a it doesn't tell you to obey your parents so you'll be a good boy, it says you should be and think for yourself).
GDT's Pinocchio is a wonderful hot chocolate that deals with parental grief; why Gepetto creates Pinocchio is a prologue that makes this a film as much about him as the title character and what he has to learn. It's loaded with what we've come to love from Del Toro and his collaborators (Desplat especially), and I hope it reaches families all over the world. How young can you watch it? Uh... how young did you see the Disney one? Go a year younger!
I'm sure there are little complaints or nitpicks I can have - ie as strong and believable and emotional an actor Gregory Mann is for the regular scenes, he's slightly one note as a singer for me. But they mostly pale in this giant work of a vision that is collaborative (Jim Henson productions Co produced and I'd love to know if any of this was puppeteers not just with the stop-motion 24fps), yet del Toro's voice and mind and vision is very potent and daring; that of creating a story of Disobedience in the face of the Big Paternal thing of a Fascistic leaders and so called fathers, and a fairy tale in an Iconoclastic approach (meaning as he said at a q&a it doesn't tell you to obey your parents so you'll be a good boy, it says you should be and think for yourself).
GDT's Pinocchio is a wonderful hot chocolate that deals with parental grief; why Gepetto creates Pinocchio is a prologue that makes this a film as much about him as the title character and what he has to learn. It's loaded with what we've come to love from Del Toro and his collaborators (Desplat especially), and I hope it reaches families all over the world. How young can you watch it? Uh... how young did you see the Disney one? Go a year younger!