Warning: Spoilers For Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio AheadThe villain for Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio was changed halfway through production. Based on the novel by Carlo Collodi, the film sports a talented ensemble featuring Ewan McGregor, David Bradley, Gregory Mann, Burn Gorman, Ron Perlman, Finn Wolfhard, Cate Blanchett, Tim Blake Nelson, Christoph Waltz, and Tilda Swinton. Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio is out on Netflix and is Certified Fresh on Rotten Tomatoes with a 98 percent rating from critics.
In the Netflix documentary Handcarved Cinema (via Slash Film), it’s revealed that del Toro changed the main villain of Pinocchio halfway through production. He found that the character from the book was a cliché and changed it for his adaptation. Specifically, del Toro stated, “I think our main villain is crap, and I want to change it.” Instead, del Toro put his own spin on the original Pinocchio story’s villains.
How Guillermo del Toro’s Changes To The Villain Helped Pinocchio
Named Mangiafuoco in the book, the main villain of Pinocchio was originally a wicked theater director and puppet master. In the 1940 Disney animated film, Mangiafuoco is reimagined as Stromboli. Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio also puts a new spin on that character – there is no character named Mangiafuoco in the film – and partially molds him into Waltz’s Count Volpe, who convinces Pinocchio to join his circus act as the puppet of all puppets and has big, nefarious plans for the wooden boy; eventually, the showman plans a performance for Benito Mussolini. Count Volpe, while insidious, is a wildly entertaining villain to watch onscreen, alongside his baboon sidekick Spazzatura (voiced by Blanchett).
In Pinocchio, del Toro takes Mangiafuoco and delegates the villainous roles of the film to three characters: Count Volpe, Perlman’s fascist leader Podesta, and a comical caricature of Mussolini. It’s these latter two characters who add depth to the story that’s before unseen, as Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio ends up becoming a powerful and timely anti-war statement. Aside from the heartbreaking death of Carlo in the first act, the end of the second act puts Pinocchio in a military youth camp seemingly led by Podesta, who installed his own son in the program, rather than a metaphor for human trafficking (the 1940 Pinocchio‘s Pleasure Island).
Can Guillermo Del Toro’s Pinocchio Get An Oscar Nomination
These changes could make Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio a strong Oscar contender. The film already stands apart from this year’s other Pinocchio with its stunning stop-motion animation. Del Toro’s version of Pinocchio has heavy and unfortunately relatable themes of war mixed with fatherhood and what it means to be human. There’s also rich, dark world-building in the animated feature, a del Toro attribute that has fortunately transferred well from live-action film to animation, and it’s a trait that may go widely noticed when it’s time for Oscar nominations. The same goes for the voice acting, as the talent at hand, especially Bradley’s Geppetto, are used to their full effect. It takes a strong storyteller like del Toro to make such drastic changes to a project successfully. His Pinocchio remains a poignant picture with dark themes that are well enforced by his film’s villains, yet it is well-balanced with heartwarming resolve. Because of this and its artisan style of animation, Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio has a high chance of being nominated for at least Best Animated Feature.
Source: Netflix (via Slash Film)