Back in April, Disney announced that they would be filming a live action remake of the classic story, Pinocchio. Then half a year later, Guillermo Del Toro (Pan’s Labyrinth) announced that he would be directing a stop motion animation picture about the same character. The Playlist discussed the “Twin Film” problem where two studios that release two films with similar characters or story in similar time periods. Most of the time the first is most likely to be remembered over the second; similar to that of The Jungle Book and Mowgli. But The Playlist just revealed a statement made by Del Toro that reveals just how different the two Pinocchio movies are going to be.
The Playlist revealed that Del Toro stated “It’s not a ‘Pinocchio’ for all the family” and when The Playlist asked if the film was political Del Toro responded “Of course. ‘Pinocchio’ during the rise of Mussolini, do the math. A puppet during the rise of fascism, yes, it is.” Del Toro’s statement is interesting to say the least as his version of the story is looking to be a completely fresh take from the other family interpretations by Disney.
Del Toro also made a very interesting and quite amusing insight on the story of Pinocchio, drawing parallels to the monster of Frankenstein. The director stated “[Pinocchio’s] a creature that is created through unnatural means from a father that he then distances [himself] from, and has to learn about failure and pain and loneliness” which is an extremely entertaining point of view that really puts the story of the famous puppet into an entirely different perspective.
Although Del Toro’s film is looking to be even more interesting, it will not have a traditional wide release despite The Playlist stating the director’s love of the theater experience. When The Playlist asked why he paired with Netflix, Del Toro said “I went to every studio in Hollywood and they all said no, so whoever says yes, I will make it with that person” with the eventual answer being Netflix. Although somewhat disappointing, the film will not see a wide release in the traditional sense, it will hopefully become more accessible to those who do not usually go to the movies allowing for a much wider audience.
Details are very scarce and no release date is in sight but in the hands of Del Toro, Pinocchio might be the magical, beautiful and thought provoking spin on the character we never thought we would see.
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