Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio is a new animated movie on Netflix that was released on December 9th, 2022 and tells the story of a father who is a carpenter. His son dies at the beginning of the movie and to cope, he makes a wooden puppet who he then wishes to come alive.  His wish was then granted by a fairy.

Throughout the whole movie Pinocchio gets in trouble a lot as he doesn’t know any better and the father often compares Pinocchio to his son, Carlo, who died. The two of them also struggle to be safe as they are in Italy in the 1930’s which is riddled with fascism.

On the day Pinocchio is supposed to go to school, he meets a circus ring master who gives the naive Pinocchio a deal. The deal is a trick to exploit him and use him to make money and would leave him with nothing.

Creator and director Guillermo del Toro is an amazing filmmaker and is known for creating other films, such as Pan’s Labrinth, the Hellboy franchise, The Shape of Water and many more. His unique and creative style of filmmaking is also what makes him stand out from other directors and filmmakers. His work has won many awards including Pinocchio, Trollhunters, Cronos and many others.

I think this movie was great. Del Toro did an amazing job of creating the characters. I love how goofy and playful the performance is at the beginning and how over time as the climax progresses it becomes more serious and dark.

Pinocchio is up for an Oscar this year for best animated film, and is predicted to win the category.  You can watch the movie on Netflix and the Oscars on Sunday, March 12th.