Weekend Watch - Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio

                Welcome back to the Weekend Watch where each week we take a look at a new piece of film or television media and give it a rating, review, and recommendation. This week’s topic, as voted by the blog’s Instagram followers is Netflix Animation’s new Best Animated Feature frontrunner, Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio. The film is a reimagining of the classic tale, set in fascist Italy, done with stop-motion animation, and featuring the voice talents of Ewan McGregor, David Bradley, Gregory Mann, Ron Perlman, Finn Wolfhard, Christoph Waltz, Tilda Swinton, and a few others. The animated musical is now streaming on Netflix; let’s get into it.

Letter Grade: A-; the many reimagined elements of the story keep it fresh, and it has enough emotional weight to engage both children and adults.

Should you Watch This Film? I think so. The animation, del Toro’s direction, and the story itself make it a quality film, worth watching for most audiences (note: there are a few scenes that take on a bit of del Toro’s horror proclivities, so think of this more like Alice in Wonderland than Zootopia in terms of its kid-friendliness).

Why?

                Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio has been easily one of the most anticipated films of the year, particularly for fans of “real cinema” (awards bait films), and it lives up to that hype for the most part. It’s not going to win Best Picture or anything, but the argument against this winning Best Animated Feature is going to be very hard to get across (apparently the Puss in Boots sequel bangs though, so I might have to eat my words in a couple of weeks). The film’s animation style, its reimagined story elements, and the story as a whole go a long way in making the film one of the best of 2022.

                Mark Gustafson’s animation direction is gorgeous to look at, bringing del Toro’s vision to life with rich textures, expressive characters, and scenes chock full of minute details to hold the audience’s attention. His most famous other work is Fantastic Mr. Fox, Wes Anderson’s first stop-motion film, which is also phenomenal and animated with similar excellence. In Pinocchio, Gustafson has created for del Toro a world that is equally fantastic and realistic, reminiscent of the production design of two of the prolific director’s greatest films – The Shape of Water and Pan’s Labyrinth. It feels grounded enough to give the story a sense of realism but also fantastical enough to take the audience into another world just adjacent to ours.

                Gustafson’s animation allows del Toro’s reimagining of the classic tale to really work well. The film contains most of the story beats of the classic book and Disney’s animated adaptation but with a totally different brand of execution. Geppetto makes a boy out of wood who is then brought to life by a fantastical blue creature. The boy then gets involved with a circus, Count Volpe, and a boy named Candlestick before being swallowed by a large sea creature along with his father and then escaping out of its blowhole. Those surface-level similarities are where the parallels end. Del Toro has chosen to set his Pinocchio in fascist Italy, a choice that allows him to craft yet another beautiful, anti-fascist story of dark childlike wonderment. The characters and backstory are a bit more fleshed out than in the Disney version, and the moral of the story is not the basic (and a bit overdone) “Children, obey your parents.” Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio engages with a far deeper theme – what it means to be a “real boy” and how society treats its children. It is a film that is made not just for the children who will watch it and enjoy the whimsical animation and the funny songs and Ewan McGregor’s lighthearted narration but also for the parents who will watch it with their children and be drawn into a story about parenting and the treatment of children and the ills of fascism and the importance of childlike wonderment – I should point out here, that the film is trying to do a lot, and only the most important themes of the film really get fleshed out while the others feel a bit more like hints of spice to keep the audience guessing.

                One of the only other major drawbacks of this new take on the story is that, with its extra story beats, it has extended its runtime to nearly two hours, making it one that might be more difficult to watch with smaller children. I do think that the animation, the songs, and the characters should be enough to keep them engrossed for most of it though. I also think that even people (like myself) without children will be able to find plenty to enjoy here. Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio is an excellent animated feature for anyone who takes the time to watch it, presenting the classic story in a new way that presents an entirely new and arguably more important message for a new generation of movie watchers, though perhaps in an overlong format.

Weekend Watch - Wendell and Wild

                Welcome back to the Weekend Watch where each week we take a look at a new piece of film or television media and give it a rating, review, and recommendation. This week’s subject, as voted by the blog’s Instagram followers, is Netflix’s latest stop-motion animated film Wendell and Wild. The film features the voice talents of Lyric Ross, Keegan-Michael Key, Jordan Peele, Angela Bassett, James Hong, Sam Zelaya, and Ving Rhames. It tells the story of Kat, an orphaned girl who makes a deal with two demons (Wendell and Wild) to bring them to the world of the living in exchange for her parents’ resurrection. It’s an interesting film that has been getting some awards buzz in recent days, so let’s get into it.

Letter Grade: C+, there’s a lot to like here, but it ends up being a little underwhelming.

Should you Watch This Film? If stop-motion animation or films about the prison industrial complex are your particular cup of tea, this film is for you. Otherwise, there’s not a ton to write home about.

Why?

                Wendell and Wild is an animated film that has both style and substance but is lacking in the department that brings those two elements together – its story. For starters, there are a lot of fun things going on in the animation department. The colors, the textures, the movements, and the sets all look great and craft a really fun world for the film to explore, both in the underworld and on the surface. Fans of the stop-motion style of animation who enjoy finding the little details in each shot will be rewarded with plenty of easter eggs to keep them happy on multiple rewatches. The film’s overall message and themes are surprisingly heavy, dealing with issues of privatized prisons, coping with the death of loved ones, and the evolving role of parents in the lives of their children. By the end of the film, I was able to say that I agreed with the film’s message and that it felt fairly relevant. Unfortunately, the film’s story does not have a whole lot going for it to make the delivery of its message feel worthwhile. The plot progresses via convenient development after convenient development with few of the film’s conflicts providing any kind of actual issue for the film’s protagonist and her friends. In addition, Kat, the protagonist, ends up being one of the film’s least compelling characters. She is the archetypal troubled teen, lacking in much complexity aside from some very questionable decision-making skills. Wendell and Wild also fail to live up to the typical charm of Key and Peele, ending up feeling more like childish caricatures than fully fleshed-out characters. The film’s most compelling character and its high point, in my opinion, is Kat’s friend Raoul. Raoul’s hesitancy to trust the demons and drive to help his mother discover the culprits that ruined their hometown serves to make him the film’s most interesting character with ties to both Kat’s present and her past and his own story of seeking acceptance within their school community. At the end of the day, Wendell and Wild’s weak story detracts from its stellar animation and resonant message to create a film that is somewhat underwhelming, bolstered only by its more compelling side characters. This film is currently streaming on Netflix, so if you need an okay spooky season watch in the next couple of days, check it out.