Guillermo Del Toro Considers PINOCCHIO the Third Film in a Trilogy with DEVIL'S BACKBONE and PAN'S LABYRINTH

Guillermo del Toro’s upcoming stop-motion animated Pinocchio film just got a little more interesting. The filmmaker has been working on this movie for years, it’s his Frankenstein movie, and now Del Toro is saying that it is the third film in a trilogy that goes along with Devil’s Backbone and Pan’s Labyrinth.

During a recent press conference for Pinocchio, the director explained: "For me, this movie is a companion piece, it is the third movie in a trilogy with Devil's Backbone and Pan's Labyrinth. That's to me where the movie belongs. And those are the three movies about childhood and war. You know, and I think the whole movie is in that sense of a piece with those."

The musical adventure follows the extraordinary journey of a wooden boy magically brought to life by a father’s wish. Set in the 1930s during the rise of Fascism in Mussolini’s Italy, del Toro’s Pinocchio is a story of love and disobedience as Pinocchio struggles to live up to his father’s expectations.

The director previously shared that this version of Pinocchio is not a family-friendly version of the story. The filmmaker also discussed his Pinocchio film, compared it to Frankenstein, and described it as a “brutalist fable.”

“To me, Pinocchio, very much like Frankenstein, is a blank canvas in which learning the curve of what the world is and what being human is are very attractive to do as a story. I’m very attracted to it because, thematically — and I don’t want to spoil what the movie’s about — it’s about something that is in all of my movies, which is choice. That’s a theme that is very dear to my heart. I think [earlier versions of] the story, and Collodi’s in particular, are very repressive. It’s essentially a very brutalist fable about what a sin disobedience is. And I think disobedience is the beginning of the will, and the beginning of choice. … I think there’s something that’s very attractive about seeing disobedience as a virtue, or as the beginning of a virtue.”

He also described the character of Pinocchio, saying, “He’s a creature that is created through unnatural means from a father that he then distances [himself] from, and has to learn about failure and pain and loneliness.”

When previously talking about the film, Perlman said, “The conceit of the film is that Pinocchio is the perfect soldier because he’s not human. So he doesn’t ever question orders. He doesn’t have fears. He’s invulnerable.”

Del Toro teamed up with Jim Henson Company and ShadowMachine to bring this film to life, which is based on Carlo Collodi's novel. In addition to McGregor as Cricket, the voice cast also includes Ewan McGregor as Sebastian J. Cricket, Gregory Mann as Pinocchio, David Bradley (Harry Potter, Game of Thrones) as Geppetto, Tilda Swinton (Doctor Strange), Christoph Waltz (Alita: Battle Angel), Finn Wolfhard (Stranger Things), Cate Blanchett (Thor: Raganrok), John Turturro (The Batman), Ron Perlman (Hellboy), Tim Blake Nelson (Watchmen), and Burn Gorman (Enola Holmes).

Del Toro directed the film alongside Mark Gustafson (Fantastic Mr. Fox) and co-wrote it with Patrick McHale. The song lyrics come from del Toro and Katz, with music by Alexandre Desplat who will also write the score. Artist Gris Grimly created the original design for the Pinocchio character in the film and the puppets are being built by Mackinnon and Saunders (Corpse Bride).

Pinocchio will be released on Netflix on December 9, 2022.