FestivalsFilmReview

Guillermo Del Toro’s Pinocchio – BFI London Film Festival 2022

Reviewer: Maryam Philpott

Writer: Guillermo del Toro and Patrick McHale

Director: Guillermo del Toro and Mark Gustafson

Coming hot on the heels of Disney’s much-derided live action version of Pinocchio, this new animated version distinguishes itself by putting co-screenwriter and co-director Guillermo Del Toro’s more recognisable name in the title. One of the last Headline Galas of the BFI London Film Festival 2022 and a world premiere, Del Toro and co-write Patrick McHale relocate Carlo Collodi’s fable to the interwar years as the First World War gives birth to fascist Italy.

When his beloved 10-year-old son Carlo is killed, carpenter Geppetto is ravaged by grief and years later drunkenly makes a wooden marionette named Pinocchio to assuage his grief. When a wood spirit takes pity on the old man, bringing the child to life and so begins a riotous few weeks as the newly animated boy runs wild. As the townsfolk turn against him, Pinocchio is entranced by a passing circus and the chance to be famous.

Del Toro and McHale’s film has a lot of positives, charming stop-motion animation, great vocal performances from actors including David Bradley as Geppetto, Cate Blanchett and Christoph Waltz, and a smart relocation of the story to a new context that suits the darker tones in this version. The Italian rural location is beautifully rendered but from the first moments as aeroplanes intrude, a broader political and violent context starts to build, nicely reaching its culmination in the militaristic training camp that becomes a big Second World War set-piece in the middle of the film.

But the film struggles to create interest in Pinocchio himself, a character that remains largely undeveloped as the story unfolds. The growth of parental investment is convincing, but Pinocchio is pretty annoying, a lot to take across the film’s 1 hour and 50-minutes, the kind of character that children would love – if they are old enough to watch it given the moodier content – but adults will quickly find irritating and the film struggles as a result, making it difficult to believe in the redemptive journey of this wooden child.

Ewan McGregor also struggles to find distinction as Sebastian J. Cricket who is side-lined as Pinocchio’s conscience but also makes the vocal performance too big for the diminutive character and the more sombre tone of many of the scenes, particularly those with Bradley who is very affecting as the grieving carpenter.

There is unremarkable music as well, a number of forgettable songs composed by Alexandre Desplat which add little to the psychology or magic of the film, and many of them sung in the same flat, breathy choir boy style by Gregory Mann who voices Pinocchio. But the animation team led by Tim Allen have done an incredible job, capturing the physicality of the human body particularly in the arms and walk, while every scene is filled with rich detail from Geppetto’s workshop to the circus stage and the interior of the sea monster. Coming to Netflix later this year, Guillermo Del Toro’s Pinocchio certainly excels in setting and visual style.

Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio is screening at the BFI London Film Festival 2022.

The Reviews Hub Score:

Superb animation

Show More
Photo of The Reviews Hub - Film

The Reviews Hub - Film

The Reviews Hub Film Team is under the editorship of Maryam Philpott.

Related Articles

Back to top button
The Reviews Hub