Netflix's 'Pinocchio' Is Being Called a 'Masterpiece'

By Michael Hein

Some critics have now seen Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio, and the reviews are outstanding. The movie is coming to Netflix next month, but first, it will get screenings in select theaters starting on Friday, Nov. 11. So far, it sounds like it will be worth the trip.

These days, most people know Pinocchio from the iconic 1940 Disney animated film, but the fairy tale goes back much further than that. Consequently, Disney does not hold any intellectual property rights over Pinocchio, which is how we are ending up with two live-action films in the same year. However, while Disney's new take on Pinocchio tries to appeal to children, the one del Toro has co-written and co-directed takes a much darker approach.

Del Toro co-wrote Pinocchio with Patrick McHale and Matthew Robins and co-directed the movie with Mark Gustafson. The movie was produced by Netflix Animation, The Jim Henson Company and Shadow Machine. It uses stop-motion and animation together rather than relying entirely on CGI, and is technically del Toro's first-ever animated feature film.

This version of Pinocchio stars Ewan McGregor, David Bradley, Gregory Mann, Finn Wolfhard, Cate Blanchett, John Turturro, Ron Perlman, Tim Blake Nelson, Burn Gorman, Christoph Waltz, and Tilda Swinton. It is already being described as a heartbreaking work. With 20 reviews accounted for so far on Rotten Tomatoes, the movie has a 100 percent score. Read on to see why.

Masterpiece

Variety's Jazz Tangcay was the one to describe del Toro's Pinocchio as a true "exquisite masterpiece."

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Award Buzz

Writer Perri Nemiroff got some award buzz started by predicting that this movie would be "VERY difficult to beat this season."

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Time

Critic Scott Menzel praised del Toro as a once-in-a-generation talent, and remarked on how much time had clearly been dedicated to this film.

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Faith in Remakes

Rosa Parra joked that this movie would restore the audience's belief in remakes. The critic felt that this movie was very distinctly "del Toroesque."

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Emotional

Erik Anderson – and many other critics – emphasized how strong their emotional response to this movie was, even knowing the source material as most people do these days.

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Mature

Maggie Ma described del Toro's Pinocchio as "mature," which is about as close as any critics came to comparing it directly with Disney's recent remake.

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Arts

Finally, CheatSheet's Jeff Nelson and Variety's Clayton Davis both pointed out the widespread artistry that all contributed to one vision here, including sculpture, animation, music and more.

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