Guillermo Del Toro's Pinocchio Trailer: Love Will Give You Life
In an interesting turn of events, 2022 happens to be the year of "Pinocchio" remakes. Earlier this year, the classic Carlo Collodi story about the little wooden boy was retold by Walt Disney Pictures and Robert Zemeckis, but it didn't capture the hearts of fans or critics like the studio's ground-breaking animated version did back in 1940. Next month, it's Netflix and Guillermo del Toro's turn to tackle the tale of the adventurous puppet with the help of stop-motion animation pioneer Mark Gustafson, whose work includes "The California Raisins Show," "The PJs," and "Fantastic Mr. Fox."
After catching the movie at this year's London Film Festival, /Film's Hannah Shaw-Williams shared in her review that "Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio" is fantastic and has a lot of grotesque and empathetic touches that fans of the filmmaker can look forward to. But ahead of its upcoming holiday season release on the popular streaming platform, we have a small taste of what's to come thanks to the new full-length trailer for the highly anticipated adaptation, which features an all-star cast that includes Gregory Mann, Ewan McGregor, David Bradley, Tilda Swinton, Christoph Waltz, Finn Wolfhard, Cate Blanchett, John Turturro, Ron Perlman, and Tim Blake Nelson.
The wooden boy with the borrowed soul
Just as we heard in the first teaser from this past summer, McGregor's Sebastian J. Cricket tells us that this is a story that you may think you know, but you don't. Unlike the aforementioned House of Mouse iterations, this "Pinocchio" from the award-winning filmmaker behind "Pan's Labyrinth" and "The Shape of Water" with co-writer Patrick McHale is a bit darker and unafraid to tackle some heavier topics (just as GDT has been known to do throughout his career). Or, to put it another way, the streamer's latest take on this legendary fable that seems reminiscent of Mary Shelley's "Frankenstein" by way of "Silent Hill" doesn't sand out any of the rough wooden edges that could give you splinters.
For example, in the trailer, David Bradley's Geppetto is grieving a terrible loss when Pinocchio comes into his life. Then, we see the woodcarver at the grave of a young boy as he brushes snow off the headstone. The haunting images depicted by this striking animation style and the signature storytelling of del Toro will surely leave the audience in tears when the credits roll on this story about finding where you belong. I mean, it'll probably be a good idea to have some tissues ready when Tilda Swinton's Wood Sprite (who steps in for the Blue Fairy in this reimagining) delivers the line, "You never know how long you have with someone until they're gone." Whether you're ready or not, del Toro is ready to hit you right in the feels with a whimsical adventure about the life-giving power of love, which is probably the exact thing you want around the holidays.
"Pinnochio" is currently playing in select theaters and will debut on Netflix on December 9, 2022.