While many of us grew up with Disney's version of Pinocchio, Guillermo del Toro is offering his unique vision of the classic tale. Following the very brief teaser from earlier this year, which introduced Ewan McGregor as the voice of Cricket, we now have the first official trailer for Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio.
McGregor's Cricket is back once again and serving as narrator for the trailer. "I had so much to say about imperfect fathers and imperfect sons," McGregor says. "And about loss and loss."
The Cricket, of course, is talking about Geppetto who seems to be trying to fill a void left by his (maybe estranged?) son and his deceased wife. So he carves a puppet which is magically brought to life in order to help mend the heart of the grieving woodcarver. As the tale goes, Pinocchio will embark on a mischievous and disobedient adventure as he attempts to find his place in the world.
Academy Award®-winning filmmaker Guillermo del Toro reinvents the classic tale of the wooden marionette who is magically brought to life in order to mend the heart of a grieving woodcarver named Geppetto. This whimsical, stop-motion film directed by Guillermo del Toro and Mark Gustafson follows the mischievous and disobedient adventures of Pinocchio in his pursuit of a place in the world.
Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio is due to hit Netflix this December. The stop-motion film stars Ewan McGregor as Cricket, David Bradley as Geppetto, and Gregory Mann as Pinocchio. Del Toro, who is best known for films like The Shape of Water and Pan's Labyrinth, is co-directed alongside Mark Gustafson.
“After years of pursuing this dream project, I found my perfect partner in Netflix,” del Toro said back in 2020. “We have spent a long time curating a remarkable cast and crew and have been blessed by continuous support from Netflix to quietly and carefully soldier on, barely missing a beat. We all love and practice animation with great passion and believe it to be the ideal medium to retell this classic story in a completely new way.”
Guillermo del Toro's version is one of two different Pinocchio movies set to arrive this year. In September, Disney will release its own live-action take on the tale which is much more familiar to the animated film that many of us know and love. But although del Toro's version is quite different, it's no less beautiful. The trailer is brimming with gorgeous attention to detail and will bring the tale to life in a dark and beautiful way.