Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio

 1/4

Starring (voices): Gregory Mann, David Bradley, Ewan McGregor, Christoph Waltz, Ron Perlman, Finn Wolfhard, Tilda Swinton, Cate Blanchett, Jon Turturro, Tim Blake Nelson

Rated PG for Dark Thematic Material, Violence, Peril, Some Rude Humor and Brief Smoking

I was astonished to find that "Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio" didn't work for me.  del Toro is no hack director, having been behind some of the most daring and brilliant films of the past thirty years.  "The Devil's Backbone" and "Pan's Labyrinth" are excellent examples of his creative talents.  But he isn't immune to duds ("Pacific Rim," anyone?).  Still, the reviews were excellent, and this darker version of the classic story seemed to be right up his alley.  So what happened?

The story isn't the problem.  Like all the best revisions of classic stories, del Toro keeps the essence of the story and ditches the rest.  Aside from a few details, del Toro's vision of the story bears little resemblance to the Disney classic (which was also remade this year in a film version starring Tom Hanks).  In this case,  Gepetto (Bradley) builds the wooden puppet as a way to deal with his grief.  Years ago, his beloved son Carlo (Mann) was killed in a war, and he hasn't gotten over it.  The Wood Sprite (Swinton), sensing his grief, brings the doll to life for him.  But Pinocchio (Mann) is naive to the ways of the world, and is easily manipulated.  His lack of guile leads him into the clutches of a vicious circus leader named Count Volpe (Waltz) and the frontlines of the Young Fascists led by Pedestal (Perlman).

Perhaps the title character is a good place to start.  Pinocchio is irritating, not childlike.  Questionable scripting choices are partly to blame, but the main culprit is Gregory Mann.  I feel guilty for picking on child actors, but his lack of range makes it impossible to identify with Pinocchio, and that's essential for this film to work.  David Bradley does what he can, but he has his flat moments.  Ewan McGregor gives the best performance as the cricket (who is unnamed in this iteration), but the problem is that he is wasted.  Aside from the running gag where he gets flattened, the Cricket is entirely superfluous.  Christoph Waltz is suitably vicious and Tilda Swinton can do mysterious as well as anyone, but their screen time is limited.

Catholicism and Spanish history are near and dear to del Toro's heart.  They were hugely important to his one-two punch of "The Devil's Backbone" and its sister film, "Pan's Labyrinth."  That's true here as well.  The connection between the Wood Sprite and the Virgin Mary isn't particularly subtle, and fascism serves as one of the villains of the story.  The problems is that he doesn't know what to do with them.  The religious and political undertones that were so essential in his other films don't serve a purpose, narratively or otherwise.  I'm not condemning his choices in how he presents them, but other than the obvious, there doesn't seem to be a reason for him include them.

One thing that does work is the stop-motion animation.  It's excellent, and perfectly suited for the story being told.  It bears similarity to the work of Henry Selick, which actually enhances the film's effect, even though Selick had nothing to do with this film.  It conjures up memories of the past, and also the macabre. Well, it would be if the story was worth being told, but it just doesn't work.

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