A great movie that reduces the Zemeckis version to a minor footnote. Setting it in fascist Italy adds a whole new layer of depth to this story, but I also noticed Del Toro’s pulling some ideas from his own work here, _The Devil’s Backbone_ in particular. Voice acting’s great, I love that he cast the greatest working actress as a non-speaking monkey. Visually it’s perfect, that’s almost to be expected from this director. However, this film in particular has a stop motion animation style I’ve never seen on film before, the textures are unique and beautiful. My only real complaint comes with the songs, not only because they’re generally poorly written and performed (I’m very clearly hearing the pitch correction, which isn’t intentional), but they also felt more sentimental and Disney-ish than what the rest of the film seemed to be going for. Thankfully, most of them were quite short.

8/10

Like a national forest: I saw a lot of wood but I didn't get any.

Incredible animation does little to save the director from shooting the film in the wooden foot. The liberties taken with the original story (the omission of Toyland / Pleasure Island, the addition of Mussolini) do great disservice to a tale that has no need of tinkering.

If you're looking for a Pinocchio reimagining, maybe try the dark, naturalistic 2019 version?

What a great idea to conciliate the story of Pinocchio with the period of fascist Italy. In my opinion, this movie is not better than the classic, but it gives another layer to the story, in addition to a beautiful style of animation stop motion and an emotive and great ending.

A darker take on the classic children's tale! Guillermo del Toro nails this adaptation and the animation is gorgeous. If you appreciate animation, you owe it to yourself to watch this, it is "free" on Netflix after all.

Rating: 4/5 - 8.5/10 - Would Recommend

Just wonderful. Hit me in the feels out of nowhere. Brilliant voice acting and wonderful animation that'll take you through a whole gamut of emotions. A brilliant reimagining of the original Pinocchio story with a lot of heart injected in. Some beautiful moments, some dark ones. A film older children and adults can share. Some big emotions for really young ones though.

I'm so glad that films like this are still being made. The collaboration between the Jim Henson company and Guillermo del toro had me glued to the screen from the first moments. It felt like some of the brilliant movies made for children and young adults in the 80s and 90s.

Songs aren't that memorable but for me this isn't a big deal. I thought they mostly added and never felt they should have been left out. Bearing in mind the target audience here, the songs and humour were well enjoyed in our family.

A film about imperfection, naivety, the darkness of the world, love, and friendship.

I was surprised by the emotional charge of this film. It takes the themes and heart of the original story and transforms them into something completely new. both in plot and tone. While Disney's live-action reboot literally tells the exact same story, with a dramatic drop in the adult themes and heavy themes, the film takes a darker, more adult path. In his story, DEL toro explores themes of war, death, and the nature of evil. and the fragility of life. In doing so, it effectively adds something serious to the overall narrative while respecting the source material. Also, the movie itself is absolutely gorgeous in its visual presentation. Every image and moment is filled with amazing detail that only someone like Del Toro can achieve. I ended up liking this movie. I think it's a great adaptation of a story that manages to honor all the meanings while still having its own identity.

Was not expecting so many dark elements in this film. Definitely not a Disney PG+ film. Fair warning, there's a number of characters being deleted throughout the film all of scene but one on-scene. No implications, just very clear sound effects based ones too. Overall 8/10, wonderful sound design, unique character design, phenomenonal voice acting and animation of each stop-motion capture. Cloth and water are notoriously difficult to work with. Truly a marvel how this was achieved.

A film full of small details and winks. Spectacular art and original story. Thoroughly enjoyable, with deep messages and a different take on the character's story.

a masterful work of stop motion animation, i can only imagine all the hours & hard work that went into this movie

One of the best versions of Pinocchio I've seen, lots of animation details and a well-constructed and coherent story... it should win an award.

With wonderful animaton and an interesting take on the classic story, this is something of a delight. Probably not one for very young viewers, however, due to a few dark and tragic moments.

Del Toro's real boy is one of mortality and identity; of peacefulness, anti-authoritarianism, anti-fascism, accepting death, losing; intervener of fate, a confronter of riddles and breaker of glass; witness to sands and eyes and consciousness, retaining compassion.
Del Toro's fake boy is inconsiderate, solipsistic, selfish, incapable of saying no to evil, a follower, a façade of a leader; wrathful, a monster.

Borgesian Frankenstein; a warm, loving golem.

[Netflix] There are some design decisions that don't work well, especially among the secondary characters like Cricket, more justified in the spirits because they are supernatural entities. But the main stop-motion work on Gepetto and Pinocchio is truly fascinating, as effective as one could hope for. This personal vision of Guillermo del Toro forms a trilogy with his other explorations of fascism in "The devil's backbone" (2001) and "Pan's Labyrinth" (2006). And it makes sense given that Fascist Italy used Carlo Collodi's tale as a patriotic symbol, as in "Avventure e spedizioni punitive di Pinocchio Fascista" (Giuseppe Petrai, 1923), in which Pinocchio faced off against a communist puppet. But it seems that it doesn't delve into this aspect for fear of losing part of the children's audience, which ends up being frustrating.

What a beautiful re imagining of the classic story
The atmosphere , the spot on animation made it like we're living in this era of Italy
The songs , production design , visual effects are top notch and the movie was very touching and emotional , one the best in recent memory
Highly recommended

Vintage del Toro, which is to say heartwarmingly sentimental, earnestly heartwrenching, and lavishly made. Del Toro is a sentimental man, but he always balances and in fact enriches those sentiments with his unflinching approach to the dark as well. This film engages kids at their level with simple gags like replacing the words in a song with 'poop' but also by knowing they're smarter than people think. And the animation is just gorgeous, the wood carving look being not just thematically appropriate but so warm and lush. I haven't seen the other Pinocchio film released this year, but I have a hard time seeing it match this.