Yesterday I found myself at the Broadway, my favorite destination on a Sunday night, to see Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio. I was absolutely amazed by this dark interpretation of the classic tale about a puppet who comes to life. In Fascist Italy a woodcarver named Geppetto (David Bradley) is mourning the death of his beloved son Carlo, who was killed by a bomb during the Great War. He uses the wood from a pine tree near his son's grave to make a puppet to replace him. Seeing his despair, a Wood Sprite (Tilda Swinton) brings the puppet she names Pinocchio (Gregory Mann) to life and asks Sebastian J. Cricket (Ewan McGregor), who was living inside the tree used for the puppet, to help him be good. Pinocchio is exuberant and disobedient so Geppetto, wanting him to be like Carlo, tells him that he is a burden. This causes Pinocchio, upon learning that he is immortal after an encounter with Death (Tilda Swinton), to leave and have a fantastical adventure with the unscrupulous Count Volpe (Christoph Waltz), a puppet master who uses him in his traveling show, the Podesta (Ron Perlman), a fascist government official who forces him to become a soldier, and the Podesta's son Candlewick (Finn Wolfhard), who is trying to live up to his father's brutal expectations. After a change of heart Geppetto sets out to find Pinocchio and has an adventure of his own with a giant whale before learning to accept him for who he is. I loved so many things about this movie, including the beautiful stop-motion animation, the whimsical character design for Pinocchio (particularly when his nose grows), the powerful themes about the need for fathers and sons to love each other for who they are and that blind obedience is not always the answer, the emotional score and charming original songs by Alexandre Desplat (one of my favorite film composers), and the delightful performances (especially McGregor and Mann). This might be a bit too dark for younger children but I think it is enchanting and highly recommend it!
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