🚨🚨Spoilers ahead for Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio.🚨🚨
Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio is a dark and poignant iteration of Carlo Collodi’s 19th-century tale of boyhood mischief and personal growth. Done in stop-motion animation style, the movie tells the story of an old man and his puppet son who comes alive while Italy is in the grip of fascism.
1.The film starts on a somber note where we see Geppetto tending his son’s grave and mourning him. A few minutes later, we find out how his content and cheerful life was robbed of its happiness.
2.Geppetto’s son Carlo dies in front of him when he goes back into a church that is bombed by fighter planes during World War I.
3.After Carlo’s death, Geppetto’s life loses its meaning, and he resorts to alcoholism to drown his grief. Watching a lonely old man grieving over his very young son was quite miserable.
4.In a drunken frenzy, Geppetto creates a puppet boy that is brought to life by a wood sprite.
5.Geppetto likes Pinocchio and cares for him but is still not ready to let Pinocchio fill the void formed in his life by Carlo’s death.
6.Pinocchio asks this question with profound implications not only to his “father” but also for the viewers. Both he and the Jesus idol are made of wood, and he is alive with emotions while the Jesus idol is an inanimate object. But surprisingly, people treat him with disgust and miserableness.
7.One of the most heartbreaking moments in the film that fills you with piteousness and empathy for both Geppetto and Pinocchio unfolds when Geppetto loudly expresses his dejection and frustration with Pinocchio after he sees the contract that Pinocchio had signed with Count Volpe.
8.Although made of wood, Pinocchio is fully capable of experiencing pain inflicted by words and introspection. He blames himself for how things have turned out.
9.The whole song “Ciao Papa,” although beautiful to listen to, evokes the anguish of separation and longing. Your eyes are likely to moisten while watching the song’s video.
10.Count Volpe shows his true diabolical and greedy self by clobbering his monkey and threatens Pinocchio’s life when the latter stands up for Spazzatura.
11.For the first time in his life, Candlewick stands up to his bullying father who acts more like a toxic drill instructor than the father of a boy. When his father forces him to shoot Pinocchio to prove his bravery, Candlewick refuses with brusque defiance.
12.After escaping a greedy employer, a fascist training camp, several raining bombs, and getting swallowed by a monstrous fish, Pinocchio is reunited with Geppetto and Cricket in the fish’s belly.
13.The reunion leads to a few minutes of happiness which soon gives way to an explosion that kills Pinocchio and knocks Geppetto out, and he starts drowning. In the afterlife, Pinocchio chooses to become mortal so that he can return quickly to rescue Geppetto.
14.One of the most touching and dolorous moments of the entire movie sees Geppetto fearfully grieving over Pinocchio’s lifeless wood-stick figure. This is the first time Geppetto addresses Pinocchio as his son and desperately begs him to come back to life.
15.In a moment of emotional relief, Cricket chooses to use his one single wish to bring Pinocchio back to life.
16.Not much longer after, Pinocchio loses Geppetto to old age, and thus, loses the only human who selflessly loved him.
17.The death of Cricket follows soon, and Pinocchio is left only with Spazzatura for company. He decides to keep Cricket inside a matchbox and entombs him within his “heart.”
18.After some time, it’s Spazzatura’s turn to take his place in the afterlife, and Pinocchio is left alone to mourn over Geppetto, Cricket, and Spazzatura.
19.Soon after, Pinocchio sets off into the world after the death of his family. For the very first time in his life, he is truly, absolutely alone. There’s no one to look out for him or smile at him or listen to him or even scold him. And he is still a child.
20.The very last two lines from Cricket condense the meaning of life. The conclusion imparts a satisfactory smile to the viewers, inducing them to muse over the transience and unpredictability of life.
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