Netflix releases teaser for Guillermo del Toro’s stop-motion musical ‘Pinocchio’
Netflix has unveiled the first teaser for Pinocchio, a stop-motion musical adaptation feature film from Guillermo del Toro, the Academy Award-winning director behind Pan’s Labyrinth and The Shape of Water.
The dark reimagining of the classic Italian tale by Carlo Collodi about a puppet who wants to be a real live boy is scheduled to hit the streamer on December 2022.
In the first teaser, viewers are introduced to Sebastian J. Cricket, voiced by Ewan McGregor, who says he “actually lived in the heart of the wooden boy.”
In addition to McGregor, Pinocchio’s voice cast features Game of Thrones’ David Bradley as Geppetto, and introduces Gregory Mann as Pinocchio.
Other cast members include Stranger Things’ Finn Wolfhard, Cate Blanchett, John Turturro, Ron Perlman, Tim Blake Nelson, Burn Gorman, Christoph Waltz, and Tilda Swinton.
Get a peek inside the workshop with GUILLERMO DEL TORO’S PINOCCHIO. This stop-motion musical reimagining of the classic tale comes to Netflix this December. #PinocchioNetflix pic.twitter.com/aNR13cXyuM
— NetflixFilm (@NetflixFilm) January 24, 2022
Similar to del Toro’s Pan’s Labyrinth, a dark fantasy fable set against the backdrop of Franco-fascist Spain, Pinocchio will take place in Benito Mussolini’s fascist Italy of the 1930s.
“No art form has influenced my life and my work more than animation and no single character in history has had as deep of a personal connection to me as Pinocchio,” del Toro said in a statement reported by Variety when the film was first greenlit back in 2018.
Del Toro's passion project was first announced in 2008 and was originally scheduled to be released in 2013 or 2014, but it got stuck in development hell before it was acquired by Netflix.
“In our story, Pinocchio is an innocent soul with an uncaring father who gets lost in a world he cannot comprehend. He embarks on an extraordinary journey that leaves him with a deep understanding of his father and the real world. I’ve wanted to make this movie for as long as I can remember.”
Pinocchio marks del Toro’s first feature film directorial effort for Netflix after producing the Emmy award-winning television series Trollhunters, the first installment of DreamWorks’ Tales of Arcadia trilogy.
Alexandre Desplat, who won an Oscar for scoring del Toro’s The Shape of Water, is handling the music for Pinocchio.
Check out the first teaser trailer below.
Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio is set to debut on Netflix on December 2022.