Discover the enchanting world of Guillermo del Toro’s “Pinocchio” through the eyes of guest writer Mehrva Arvin. In her insightful review, Mehrva delves into the magical narrative spun by del Toro on the grand stage of the 66th London Film Festival. Immerse yourself in Mehrva’s perspective as she uncovers the nuances, brilliance, and cinematic artistry that bring this timeless tale to life. a
One of the best stop motion animations in recent years with a great emphasis on what is happening in our times, bringing it to our view in a visually stunning way is Pinocchio. The film is about fatherhood, war fascism, and love and all the things we need to attend to as people. Del Toro also stands true to the darker elements of the story.a
In one of the talks around the film the question was raised about the project how long it took for this project to come together and how it all started, Del Toro mentioned that formally this version of the film started 14-15 years ago so almost it took half of his career to get this project going! He added that It started with a drawing of Pinocchio by Gris Grimly, when he saw it he understood they could do it because the point of inflection was our Pinocchio. What does it look like, something that has not been done and with the stop motion medium which allows Pinocchio to exist at the same level field as the rest of the characters? He is not an anomaly, like the question of what is that character doing there.a
He continued with the fact that every studio when they announced they were making it said they should not do it. He said he heard a lot of no no no and then what he has learned in his 30 years of career is that it only takes one yes. This happened very very late, they were having coffee but nobody wanted to do it. He said, they brought the models, the storyboard, and designs but what he wanted to make sure of was that the animation company give them a guarantee that none of the animators could mess with it and that they would get no previews and no one would dare to tell them what they could not do and that took a long time.a
Another point that was brought up was the tone of the movie, it is as much a film about parents as it is for children.a
He mentioned that he always combines things that should not go together, he continued by saying” I remember in Shape of Water, I was saying I wanted to do a Douglas Sirk version of creature movie with musical numbers so it was not an easy pitch.a
As for the timeline, it took about 1,000 days to shoot the film. It was a vigorous experience but the beauty was that this was the project of a lifetime and the possibility to bring the dream team of stop motion. When you know you are shooting for 1000 days you want people who you are really comfortable with and we had the best team of artists.a
The storytelling and craftsmanship of this film and its relevancy to the world we are living in, are the winning points of this film.a
