Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio

More true to the original vibe of the story than the Disney version but the parallels of the Italian fascists could have had more of an impact. The family tragedy did have an impact though which was very moving. The idea of 'Love will give you life' is great but as we all know, isn't true which hindered any inspiration. It would be great if there were good and (fairly) evil spirits (and if there were I'd like mine played by Tilda Swinton please) but there aren't - that shouldn't take away from the story but it doesn't work as a life lesson. The darkness was great but needed more fascism (not a phrase I use that often!) I liked the film but it seemed to evade all age groups; too scary for under 12s, too slow for 12 - 15, not gripping enough for 15-18 and not enough parallelling with the rise of fascism or Tilda Swinton for over 40s. Lovely score, lovely stop motion which we don't see enough of nowadays. Lots of potential not quite reached in terms of Ewan McGregor and plot. Cutting room floor: inside the whale and (unless you're going to do it as a main theme), the fascist element. Lovely score, lovely animation.

I'm not sure why everyone compares this to Disney's version. They both stole the main characters from Carlo Collodi's 19th century book. My father used to read it to me. Sure, Guillermo took a much bigger artistic license than Disney. So what? What modern director even attempted to be completely faithful to a book except Peter Jackson? That said, there quite a few logic holes in Guillermo del Toro's version that took me right out of suspended disbelief. Takes it out of Oscar territory for me, but I don't vote LOL. Aside from that, the artistic effort was superb.

It's good, even if I wouldn't say it's anything better or worse than its Disney animated counterpart - at least it is a marked improvement on that aforementioned company's remake, mind. The big win of 'Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio' is the stop-motion animation, which is extremely nice indeed. As for everything else? Nothing leaps out of my mind if I'm honest, even within 30mins of watching it. I personally found the design of the titular character to be 'just' OK, same goes for Sebastian J. Cricket & Co. I did like the casting of Ewan McGregor and David Bradley, particularly the latter. Christoph Waltz, meanwhile, is alright in his role. The more serious vibe of the film is a positive, though I don't think it comes across as deep as it intended (e.g. that last line from Cricket isn't, in my opinion, as effective as the film seems to think it is). As for the music: fine but forgettable, for me. Again, it's passable. I just unfortunately didn't overly care as much as I wanted to for this story and its characters. The 1940 film did it slightly better, fwiw.