ORn outstanding witness introduces us to the story of Pinocchio, the “boy with a wooden heart”.
We already have a first preview of what Sebastián J. Grillo (aka “Pepito Grillo”) will look like in the animated and musical adaptation of William of the Bull of the very popular story of the doll with the soul of a child. ‘Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio’ (which will finally obey this title, author included, and will soon join the rest of Guillermo del Toro’s films) today presented the first images of his little narrator, the cricket that lived “in the heart of the wooden boy”.
In the official teaser, Jiminy Cricket lights a candle, opens his personal diary (we see an elegantly drawn pineapple) and begins to write his version of the story: “It’s a story that maybe you think you already know, but you don’t. Not exactly”. It is a Cricket with such neat forms as he has been portrayed since the original Disney movie, but he is completely “naked” (he does not wear the vest, hat and umbrella that have always accompanied him). However, everything is for the forms, the insect leaves the feather, shakes a little leg and approaches the camera: “I, Sebastian J. Grillo, was there. In fact, I lived… I came to live in the heart of the wooden boy.”
When the camera zooms out, accompanied by the ominous laughter of the cricket, we discover a wintry forest and, by now, we will have realized that the character design is both dark and fantastic. Likewise, the set fits more with the chiaroscuros of a disturbing winter forest than with the homely warmth of the house fire. After verifying the care that Dan Laustsen put into the construction of the gothic atmosphere of ‘The Alley of Lost Souls’, there is a desire to discover the visual potential of Del Toro’s proposal and his director of photography, Frank Passingham. The thing promises: a lover of traditional animation, the filmmaker has taken advantage of the delights of animated films stop motion to work from the root a story of leftovers told.
“For me, ‘Pinocchio’ is very similar to ‘Frankenstein’, it is a blank canvas on which to learn the curve of what the world is and what it means to be human, it is a very attractive story to do. It attracts me a lot because, thematically, and I don’t want to advance anything about the film, it’s about something that is in all my films, and that’s the choice”, said Guillermo del Toro, co-director with Mark Gustafson, animator for hits like ‘Fantastic Mr. Fox’, winner of the Cannes Bronze Lion and multiple Emmy and Annie award winners. We know that the story will take place in Italy in the 1930s, with Mussolini in full swing. In the original voice cast of ‘Pinocchio’, there are Ewan McGregor (Don Jiminy Cricket himself), Cate Blanchett, tilda swinton, Ron Perlman Y Christopher Waltz. Nothing, four strangers.
Guillermo del Toro has presented a new trailer at the Annecy Animated Film Festival in which it has been possible to take a new look at what Pinocchio will look like. In the scene, Geppetto (voiced by David Bradley) wakes up in his woodcarving studio next to a bottle and a broken picture frame, when he hears a noise in his attic. “Who goes there?” he asks as he climbs the creaky stairs to the attic, revealing Pinocchio (Gregory Mann). “You asked me to live. I’m your son”replies the clumsy wooden boy. Geppetto can’t believe what he’s hearing, and Jiminy Cricket (Ewan McGregor) appears and tells him that Pinocchio is telling the truth.
Also, Vanity Fair has revealed a new batch of images of the film in which we can see in more detail the design of the characters:
‘Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio’ to be released in December joining Netflix movies and coinciding with awards season, while a live-action version of the Disney classic ‘Pinocchio’ will arrive on Disney+ in September from Robert Zemeckis and Tom Hanks.
Source: Fotogramas
Camila Luna is a writer at Gossipify, where she covers the latest movies and television series. With a passion for all things entertainment, Camila brings her unique perspective to her writing and offers readers an inside look at the industry. Camila is a graduate from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) with a degree in English and is also a avid movie watcher.
