This is not your Walt Disney’s Pinocchio: Academy Award-winning filmmaker Guillermo del Toro will put his own spin on the classic Italian novel with a new stop-motion adaptation set to premiere on Netflix later this year. In anticipation, the first teaser trailer has been released. Watch it below.
Set in 1930s Italy, amid the backdrop of Benito Mussolini’s rise to power, the “dark and twisted retelling” depicts Pinocchio as “an innocent soul with an uncaring father who gets lost in a world he cannot comprehend.”
“No art form has influenced my life and my work more than animation and no single character in history has had as deep of a personal connection to me as Pinocchio,” del Toro previously said in a statement. in a statement. “In our story, Pinocchio… embarks on an extraordinary journey that leaves him with a deep understanding of his father and the real world. I’ve wanted to make this movie for as long as I can remember.”
The all-star voice cast stars Ewan McGregor (Sebastian J. Cricket), David Bradley (Geppetto), Ron Perlman (Mangiafuoco), Tilda Swinton (Fairy with Turquoise Hair), Christoph Waltz (the Fox and the Cat), Cate Blanchett (Sprezzatura the Monkey), Tim Blake Nelson (the Coachman), Finn Wolfhard (Lampwick), and John Turturro (Master Cherry). Meanwhile, newcomer Gregory Mann voices Pinocchio.
Mark Gustafson (Fantastic Mr. Fox) co-directed the film’s stop-animation in collaboration with The Jim Henson Company. Patrick McHale (Adventure Time), Gris Grimly, and Matthew Robins all took a pass at the screenplay.
Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio will premiere exclusively on Netflix in December.
Disney+ is also developing its own live-action Pinocchio, directed by Robert Zemeckis and starring Tom Hanks, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Cynthia Erivo, Luke Evans, and Keenan-Michael Key. That film is also expected to debut sometime in 2022.
