Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio Puts A Dark Twist On The Classic Disney Tale

More than 80 years ago, Disney’s animated feature Pinocchio won an Oscar for Best Animated Feature. Now it looks like the story of a puppet who wants nothing more than to be a real, human boy is getting a second chance at winning an Academy Award, but with a bit of a twist this time around. Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio is almost nothing like the Disney movie we all remember, and you’re going to want to watch it to see exactly how different. Here’s everything you need to know

Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio puts a dark twist on an old tale.

The Adventures of Pinocchio was a book written by Carlo Lorenzini under the pen name Carlo Collodi in 1881 in serial form before being turned into a children’s book. There have been several versions of the story of a puppetmaker named Geppetto who creates a puppet named Pinocchio in the hopes of turning that puppet into his son, including a live-action version from Disney featuring Tom Hanks as Geppetto in 2022. No other versions can really compare to Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio, however.

The stop-motion movie from 2022 is darker, seeing Geppetto (David Bradley) and puppet/boy Pinocchio (Gregory Mann) struggling to find their place in fascist Italy, even coming up against Mussolini (Tom Kenney) and even Count Vulpe (Christoph Waltz) as they try to find their place in the world. This version does have a cricket (Ewan McGregor) narrating the story, as well as other big names lending their voices to the tale like Tilda Swinton, Cate Blanchett, and Finn Wolfhard.

Where can you watch Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio?

If you want to see Geppetto and Pinocchio finding their way through fascist Italy in Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio, you can stream it on Netflix.

Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio is not meant for kids.

Guillermo del Toro did not create this darker version of Pinocchio, where fans are introduced to Geppetto’s doomed real son Carlo before he dies, to be consumed by children. “We made it about many things, like failed paternity, imperfect fathers, imperfect sons, and, like I said, no need for change, and disobedience in a fascist environment, which makes totalitarianism pose a real risk for Pinocchio,” del Toro told Fatherly. “It is deeper about what it is to be human and what it is to be alive. If you're alive in a real boy, then you will die. It examines the boundaries of life and death, things that have not been examined in any of the iterations that I know.”

What is Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio rated?

This movie is rated PG, and much like other movies from the award-winning director, is absolutely worth a watch.