But Geppetto and Pinocchio cannot live in peace together. Pinocchio's immature need for adventure predictably gets him into trouble, more so than Geppetto and the cricket can handle. There are three villains: Count Volpe (cv Christoph Waltz), an evil circus promoter who sees Pinocchio as his star attraction; Podesta (vb Ron Perlman), a fascist supporter who wants to turn Pinocchio into an immortal soldier; and a giant whale who eats everything it sees.
How others will see it. Sometimes it seems that del Toro can do no wrong, and here we have additional proof. The recently released feature has already won a slew of awards, with more undoubtedly to come.
At imdb.com, the movie has amassed 40K user votes, a figure likely to grow exponentially over the years. The user rating is 7.8 out of 10, a lofty figure with minimal demographic variance. Most everyone agrees that it blows away the Disney live-action movie, which, coincidentally or not, was also released in 2022 and thus obliges direct comparison. But, for me, this is not yet possible, as I have not seen the new Disney version.
How I felt about it. There actually are some things about this movie that I don't like. First of all, the cricket keeps getting squished, and the director intends this as humorous. I don't agree.
Also, the cricket's personality changes. He begins the film as a vainglorious autobiographer, but soon becomes Pinocchio's indefatigable counselor without a hint of egotism for the remainder of the film. He even gives up his coveted wish, which to attain subjected him to endless squishings, to reanimate Pinocchio yet again.
Spazzutura the monkey cannot speak, yet his puppets speak plainly. How is this possible? I also missed what happened to Candlewick. Did he die, too? Death is always looming in this movie, which no one should mistake as suitable for children to watch.
That's about it for the criticism of this magnificent film. Forget Wallace and Gromit, this is the best stop-motion animation you will find. The visuals alone are worth the watch. The voices, characters, and story only make matters even better. I am most impressed with Gregory Mann's singing voice. Also, the sphinx in the death sandlot is a real charmer. And I laughed when the poop puppet descended to dance with Pinocchio.
Sure, it's a lot like the 1940 Disney version, except for that scary island where bad boys turn into donkeys. It could have been here as well, since it was in the 1883 morality tale. We even find Geppetto fishing inside of Jonah's whale, as he did in 1940. But I imagine del Toro hired a team of lawyers to make sure that he is untouchable from Disney lawsuits, with everything either original or from the public domain 1883 Carlo Collodi novel.