{"id":95907,"date":"2022-10-13T13:44:58","date_gmt":"2022-10-13T13:44:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/guillermo-del-toro-explains-why-he-set-his-pinocchio-against-a-backdrop-of-fascism-the-hollywood-reporter\/"},"modified":"2022-10-13T13:44:58","modified_gmt":"2022-10-13T13:44:58","slug":"guillermo-del-toro-explains-why-he-set-his-pinocchio-against-a-backdrop-of-fascism-the-hollywood-reporter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/guillermo-del-toro-explains-why-he-set-his-pinocchio-against-a-backdrop-of-fascism-the-hollywood-reporter\/","title":{"rendered":"Guillermo del Toro Explains Why He Set His ‘Pinocchio’ Against a Backdrop of Fascism \u2013 The Hollywood Reporter"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\tA Guillermo del Toro version of beloved children’s character Pinocchio was always likely to be a little darker than most adaptations and perhaps something not exactly child-friendly. But \u2014 although it’s not the first time he’s done so \u2014 few would have immediately expected his stop-motion musical adaptation of the fantasy drama to be set against the backdrop of fascism. <\/p>\n

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\tSpeaking at a special event held by Netflix ahead of Saturday’s world premiere of Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio <\/em>\u2014 his animated feature film directorial debut (he co-directed alongside Mark Gustafson) \u2014 the acclaimed Mexican director said that the movie was \u201cthematically\u201d on the same level as Pan’s Labyrinth<\/em> and The Devil’s Backbone<\/em>which both involved the Spanish Civil War (The Devil’s Backbone<\/em> set during and Pan’s Labyrinth<\/em> afterwards, during Franco’s early reign). Keeping geographically correct, his Pinocchio takes place in Benito Mussolini’s Fascist Italy. <\/p>\n

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\t\u201cThe three movies are to do with childhood coming up against something that has to do with war and violence,\u201d he explains. \u201cI think for me, it’s always been the movies about fatherhood and being a father or being a son, and I think in those iterations, Fascism seems to be concerned with a father figure of a different kind, and the desire to deliver ourselves to a father that unifies thought. So I think it’s both a background and it is something interesting thematically.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\tDel Toro said he understood why his pinocchio<\/em> came with his name in the title, because he wanted to turn his version on its head.<\/p>\n

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\t\u201cFor me, there is Carlo Collodi’s pinocchio<\/em>there is Walt Disney’s pinocchio<\/em>and there’s Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio<\/em>,\u201d he explained. \u201cBecause to me, the interesting thing was: Can I make a Pinocchio that celebrates disobedience as opposed to celebrating obedience? Can I make a Pinocchio in which he doesn’t have to turn into a real boy at the end because he was obedient?\u201d<\/p>\n

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\tIn a rare instance of name-dropping for a filmmaker who has worked with numerous major stars, del Toro said he once spent a \u201cdrunken evening in Brazil\u201d discussing literature with the late One Hundred Years of Solitude<\/em> author Gabriel Garcia Marquez. \u201cAnd he said there were 10 characters in the history of literature that can be interpreted any way they want, including Tarzan, Sherlock Holmes, Dracula, Frankenstein, Pinocchio and the Count of Monte Cristo. He said you could use them for symbols of many, many different things. You can put them in space, you can make them president, you can put them in a political or financial context. anything. There will always be songs that will change with the key of the singer. And I thought that was incredibly liberating.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\tStarring a voice cast including Ewan McGregor, Christoph Waltz, David Bradley, Cate Blanchett, Tilda Swinton, Ron Perlman, Finn Wolfhard and newcomer Gregory Mann as Pinocchio, Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio<\/em> is due for release in select cinemas in November and will land on Netflix on Dec. 9. <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n