Pinocchio will not start on Netflix until December 2022. But the streaming service has already published the first teaser as an appetizer. The title character itself does not get to be seen by fans in the short clip, but they do get to know another important character.
The cricket, a faithful companion and conscience of Pinocchio, leads through the teaser. Unlike in the Disney film adaptation of 1940, however, she does not call herself Jiminy, but Sebastian J. Grille. “I want to tell you a story,” explains the cricket, who voices Ewan McGregor (50) in the original. “Perhaps you think you know her, but you don’t know her. Not exactly, anyway.”
“Guillermo del Toros Pinocchio” promises to tell the story of the classic children’s book character by Carlo Collodi (1826-1890) in a completely new way.
Pinocchio as Frankenstein in Fascism
The name Guillermo del Toro (57, “The Shape of Water”, “Pan’s Labyrinth”) promises a somewhat dark entry into the story of the wooden figure who wants to become a real boy. His adaptation, shot in stop-motion, is set in Italy during the rise of fascism.
The Mexican director, whose current film “Nightmare Alley” has just opened in German cinemas, compares Pinocchio with Frankenstein’s monster. “There are some elements that are straight out of the books and others that were never in the book or in the story. But I think it’s essential for Pinocchio, like Frankenstein, to understand what the world is about,” the Oscar winner told etonline. “It’s a very, very personal film. It’s a reflection on what it means to be human.”