Geppetto, animated by the voice of David Bradley, carries on his back the most painful and deepest sorrow. So much so that the first minutes Pinocchio Guillermo del Toronow available on Netflix, is an extensive tour of suffering.
The carpenter, who has lost his son and is now trying to find redemption, is surrounded by darkness. So there’s something lyrical about Mark Gustafson’s animation aesthetic in all its slightly sinister beauty. Also very different from what Disney+ offered us just a few months ago with their version. live action from pinocchio and that, generally speaking, it was exactly the same as the original 1940 film.
But it is precisely this space between light and shadow that makes this film adaptation of Carlo Collodi’s story a small work of art about suffering. Also an elegant journey through emotion, magic and mystery.
Once upon a time there was a disgusting wooden boy
Guillermo del Toro, who became famous for humanizing monsters, this time builds a fable about languor, which becomes a touching form of fleeting consolation. But this does not detract from his sophisticated vision of the sinister, singular and, especially, intangible. good part Pinocchio Guillermo del Toro it is based on the inexplicable nature of miracles as a supernatural event with no connection to the divine.
Strange as it may seem, the caveat applies to production with folk horror. Pinocchio, who in the fairy tale and in the most famous Disney versions is the result of a spiritual desire for deep nobility, this time it’s the result of suffering. Also looking for an explanation for the unknown.
“Is death the last thing that awaits us, or is there something else?” the carpenter laments. Soon after, he will find a tiny tree next to his son’s grave that will allow him to console himself. There is no transition between the question, more grim than emotional, and the small – sinister-looking – miracle of the birth of his unnatural son.
Pinocchio Guillermo del Toro This is a story about magic with dark undertones.
Of course, for del Toro, Pinocchio was a challenge to language and concept. The story, which received another adaptation by Robert Zemeckis this year, is a metaphor for suffering. So many different ways and points of view have been said that it is almost impossible to add a new element. But the Mexican director does it. It not only includes a state of fear, time and sadness as part of a supernatural event, naive but with dark overtones.
It also mixes the naivety of Pinocchio – a creature who does not fully understand his origin – with the perception of existence itself. “How am I alive?asks the newly carved doll in Pinocchio Guillermo del Toro. Geppetto is silent, and the brief space, the little shades of color surrounding him, diminishes until they become shadows. The same is true when the Forest Fairy (Tilda Swinton) hears the Lone Carpenter’s plea.
This is not a “heart’s desire” vision that would equate the script with the Disney versions. The heartbroken father’s desire is supported by the idea of the impossible, of the abyss of suffering. But, especially, a sophisticated search for some disturbing and harmonious element at the dangerous limit of dark desires.
But also an ode to beauty
Despite its charm, sophistication and, of course, touching, Pinocchio Guillermo del Toro he moves as far as possible from the innocence of his film versions. Which brings it much closer to the literary original, from which it inherits a curious density as well as a powerful exploration of suffering.
“What is human pain but broken memories?” says the Forest Fairy in an almost intimidating whisper. For a force of nature that embodies, sustains, builds and metaphors, the voice in the dark is a mysterious presence. One who understands the pain of the father, as well as the importance of the creature that he breathes life into.
From Geppetto’s desperate desire to get his son back, to the magic that keeps the wooden creature impersonating him alive. Slowly, Pinocchio Guillermo del Toro He advances into completely unknown areas of the original narrative and is supported by an impeccable perception of the mysterious.
Del Toro doesn’t create one of his endearing and often unsettling monsters through Pinocchio, but he imbues it with the same quality of the impossible and astounding. “What is it like to be a real baby?” she asks, dazed and bewildered, innocence has become a form of existence. “I don’t, then?”
The pain of violence is like a stage Pinocchio Guillermo del Toro
Sebastian J. Cricket (Ewan McGregor) is, of course, the narrator. But instead of Jiminy Cricket turning into a clumsy conscience, this time privileged witness to an intense journey through life experience. Pinocchio, born of a morbid desire, must learn the meaning of what the world is waiting for. Which also includes a new scenario for the entire story. Contextualized in Mussolini’s Italy, the political background is about how the wooden boy discovers the meaning of morality and freedom.
Perhaps in one of the most unusual places Pinocchio Guillermo del ToroDel Toro manages to turn this kind fable into a meditation on the pain of violence. And it does so without compromising the integrity of the story, not to mention its status as a children’s story. The plot, based on the script of the Mexican director himself and Patrick McHale, analyzes the world that saves Pinocchio from danger.
So, this boy, who dreams of pleasing his father and becoming real, also has to cope with the deep suffering of the country. Both together transfer beauty to another layer, to the substratum of the sensual and, in the end, to mourning for the lost. “You can’t imagine how beautiful this country was,” Geppetto laments at one of the most difficult moments in history. Pinocchio Guillermo del Toro.
After all, Pinocchio is an atypical, subtle work designed to surprise, move, and elevate reflections on the search for happiness to a new level. A talented achievement that ties the story to its extraordinary visual section, creating perhaps one of the best animations of the year.
