Vanity Fair just debuted some first look images from Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio, an upcoming reimagining of the classic tale. The film takes place “in Italy between World War I and World War II, during the rise of fascism and authoritarian rule in the country.” Del Toro adds that the wooden boy happens to come to life “in an environment in which citizens behave with obedient, almost puppet-like faithfulness.”
The images introduce three of the film’s main characters: Geppetto (David Bradley), Sebastian J. Cricket (Ewan McGregor), and Pinocchio (Gregory Mann). In del Toro’s retelling, Pinocchio is “carved from a tree that grew over the grave of Geppetto’s son, Carlo, whose life was cut agonizingly short years before.”
Del Toro has compared his upcoming Pinocchio adaptation to Frankenstein. He explains:
“I’ve always been very intrigued by the links between Pinocchio and Frankenstein. They are both about a child that is thrown into the world. They are both created by a father who then expects them to figure out what’s good, what’s bad, the ethics, the morals, love, life, and essentials, on their own. I think that was, for me, childhood. You had to figure it out with your very limited experience.”
The rest of the voice cast for Pinocchio includes Finn Wolfhard, Cate Blanchett, John Turturro, Ron Perlman, Tim Blake Nelson, Burn Gorman, Christoph Waltz, and Tilda Swinton. Del Toro co-directed Pinocchio with Mark Gustafson, who was previously the animation director for Wes Anderson’s Fantastic Mr. Fox.
Pinocchio begins streaming on Netflix in December 2022.
What do you think of the first look images? Will you be watching del Toro’s Pinocchio?
