Gina McIntyre - Guillermo del Toros Pinocchio: A Timeless Tale Told Anew

The Geppetto and Pinocchio puppets, created by famed puppet company Mackinnon & Saunders.

It is hard to explain how personal the story of Pinocchio is to me. My life has been supported by two essential myths: Frankenstein and Pinocchio.

Both are father-son stories.

Both are about oddities learning to navigate the ways of the world in search of their own humanity.

That, in a nutshell (or a pine cone), is my entire life.

At age fifty-seven, I believe, more than ever, that we exist only to make the most minute, incremental changes for those who will come after us. To clean this mess just a little. And because our lives are brief, they are precious and importantnot in a grand way, but in a cosmically rippling way.

That is the essence of the story I wanted to tellthe story of a wooden boy who refuses to betray himself, despite all the things the adults and those that know better keep telling him. And in not changing, he changes everyone around him.

That is our relation to the world and ourselves, and that is the essence of our being: Disobedience breeds thought, imperfection is a virtue, and the most terrible lie is to lie about ourselves.

These things and other thematic touches make our movie antithetical to the versions of Pinocchio that have come before us. And that made it worth making. To tell the world that we make and mold our children in the marred image of ourselves, instead of allowing their shape to reveal to us who they are.

Thus, I knew I didnt want Pinocchio to transform into a flesh-and-blood boyI just wanted him to teach the world to see him as one.

For me, it all started with Gris Grimlys exquisite design for the character of Pinocchio. When I saw it, I knew a retelling of the tale was possible.

As chronicled in the volume you now hold, we tried to get this movie madetwice!

We failed on the first incarnation, in which Gris was to make his debut as director. Matthew Robbins and I were cowriting the story, and I was coproducing with The Jim Henson Company. That went kaput!

And then we almost failed again with me at the reins, restarting the screenplay with Patrick McHale, whom I admired to no end for his brilliant series Over the Garden Wall.

And in both incarnations, at different points, we were supported by the fabulous Mark Gustafsonhe of mythical fame in the world of animation. Mark directed this film alongside me.

I made it a point to tell him that I didnt want him to just direct the animation with me, I wanted him to be a full creative partner and get credited appropriately. And, within a few years, our instincts fused 98 percent of the way, and that 2 percent of divergence wasin my booka harmonious and rich collaboration.

My version of the story had been met with the same ratio of rejection as Griss version before it, even though we had overhauled all the characters, the entire concept design, and color palette, and the story now was embedded in my Catholic bones and pagan heart. It was a no from the studios.

So how did the film get made? Well

Netflix came along when we were at the end of our rope. They were our last and only hope. Our years-long (about eight) collaboration in creating the Tales of Arcadia universewhich included Trollhunters, 3Below, Wizards, and Rise of the Titanshad been perfect. So, I went to Ted Sarandos and pitched this film to him, in person, in the room.

Guillermo del Toro looks through the window of the Geppettos workshop set, where a Pinocchio puppet rests on the carvers workbench.

Concept art of the Italian village where the films story is set. (Artist: Jordy Farrell)

And he said yes.

The team we assembled, thanks to our third Wizards partner, Alex Bulkley, and his Oregon-based animation studio, ShadowMachine, was exceptional. Every one of the people who joined the project was remarkable. And we were able to also help create and support a brand-new stop-motion studio in my hometown of Guadalajara, Mexico: El Taller del Chucho (The Mutts Workshop), in which we gathered the best stop-motion animators to bring their craft and wisdom to an important section of the film.

We empowered all animators (in Portland or Mexico) as actors. We refused to be slick but strived for virtuosity. We refuted pantomime and looked for micro-gesturesfailed acts and the messy moments of life. We wanted to infuse these puppets with a soulanima. We wanted to animate these characters and make them real, living human beings.

Just like Pinocchio.

So, here we present you with a small sampling of our efforts, and we strive to enshrine everyones contribution to this film. We went to extraordinary lengths to create beauty and emotion. We worked tirelessly for more than fifteen yearsincluding three in productionto tell you a story you may think you know.

But you dont.

Guillermo del Toro Normandy, July 2022

The village church, damaged by an air raid that changes Geppettos life forever. (Artist: Rustam Hasanov)

INTRODUCTION

W hen Academy Awardwinning filmmaker Guillermo del Toro first encountered the story of Pinocchio, he was a child in Guadalajara. Like many people of his generation, he was introduced to the character through Disneys 1940 animated feature, which placed the little wooden hero in terrible peril. Del Toro was utterly captivated: I was very much in love the first time I saw Pinocchio, partially because I thought it was a horror movie, in a wayit had such intense moments, he says.

Ever since then, the visionary writer-director-producer has longed to bring his own version of nineteenth-century Italian author Carlo Collodis original fairy tale to the screen. For his twelfth feature film, del Toro has finally realized that ambition, directing a stop-motion incarnation of Collodis story alongside animation veteran Mark Gustafson (2009s