Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio

[Barry]

Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio began this week on Netflix. First, I have two thoughts I’d like to share.  I fear that we will lose movie theatres and then movies because movies like this belong in a theatre this time of year.  Moderate priced movies will be streamed and older viewers especially will wait for it to come to their TVs and not go to the movies. This may also mean that we will lose “mid-priced” movies too as the streamers now look to save money.

Second, Pinocchio, inspired by the novel, connects to me another movie that I never connected it to before: Frankenstein. Both have creators looking to create life in their own image and control it.

Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio is a remarkable and beautiful feat of stop motion animation.  The movie is worth seeing just for that. The details of almost every scene impressed me.

This is NOT Disney’s Pinocchio. I am not saying that is better than the original, but it is very different. It has some familiar but very different characters . Thee movie presents some of the same values as the Disney one. It is, however, far superior to the live action Pinocchio released earlier this year.

This movie takes place during the 1930s  This movie, however, is not for the youngest of children.  For example, instead of visiting Pleasure Island, Pinocchio, disobeying his father’s instructions, winds up in Mussolini’s Fascist Italy just prior to WW2. This would have to be explained to a young child and makes the movie more appropriate for older kids.

A couple of things slow down the movie. They introduce a few non-memorable songs that would have been better left out. But I give the movie a “very good” rating. It means well, develops the characters and sets a good “moral” tone for behavior.  And the animation is fantastic. I really can't judge the sound well when streaming, it's Atmos not not very spacious.

Also, watch the documentary of it's making, it's very interesting .

[SRW1000]

I was hoping you'd review this one, Barry, as I was looking to see how it compared to the Disney version, and del Toro's work is almost always worth viewing, at least once.

It sounds like it really has something new to offer on the story, although I'm wondering if replacing Pleasure Island misses an opportunity to explore a condition that is so prevalent today.

Scott

[tripplej]

Thanks for the review. I will check it out.

[bmoney]

Interesting. Look forward to watching