Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio (2022) on Netflix

PG-1320221h 54mAnimation Drama Family

In Fascist Italy, grieving woodcarver Geppetto carves a puppet from the pine over his son's grave. A Wood Sprite brings it to life as Pinocchio, who must go to school.

Netflix4.3/5
IMDb7.6/10167,104 votes
Rotten Tomatoes96%

Trailer

Plot summary

In Italy during the First World War, an aerial bombardment kills Carlo, the young son of the woodcarver Geppetto. Two decades on, the grieving Geppetto carves a puppet out of the pine tree that grew on the boy's grave. In the night a Wood Sprite appears and gives the puppet life, naming him Pinocchio and appointing Sebastian J. Cricket, who had lived inside that wood, as his moral guide, with a wish promised in return. Geppetto wakes to find his home wrecked by the newborn's exploring. The village insists the boy be sent to school to learn discipline, so Geppetto gives him a schoolbook once owned by Carlo. On the road, the showman Count Volpe and his monkey Spazzatura carry Pinocchio off to their circus.

Cast

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Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio (2022)

Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.

Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio was the first animated film from a streaming service to win the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature, after Netflix Animation had competed with three previous nominations in the same category.
Mangiafuoco was meant to appear as an antagonist in the film, but was removed halfway through production because del Toro found him a cliché; rather than waste the finished character model, it was reused as a background strongman in Count Volpe's circus.
Del Toro first approached John Hurt, whom he had worked with on both Hellboy films, to voice Geppetto, but Hurt died in 2017, long before any recordings for the film could begin.
Cate Blanchett asked Guillermo del Toro for a role while they were working together on Nightmare Alley; told that only Spazzatura the Monkey was still uncast, she accepted gladly, as long as she could work with him again.
Most of the film's key characters have mechanical heads to create facial expressions, but Pinocchio, a metal 3-D printed puppet, required 3000 replacement faces.
The shelves of hourglasses seen in the background when Pinocchio meets Death were meant to be physical acrylic models, but a shortage of acrylic materials during COVID meant they had to be made digitally instead.
Mexico's Cinemex chain, one of the largest exhibitors, suspended its scheduled screenings of the film, prompting protests from del Toro, who then called on Twitter for independent theaters to show it.
Nick Cave was attached to compose the film's score in 2012, but eight years later he was replaced by Alexandre Desplat.