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Movie theaterGuillermo Del Toro: «Je suis Pinocchio!»
The Mexican director signs a version very different from that proposed by Disney. Check it out today on Netflix.
- par
- Henry Arnaud, Los Angeles
Guillermo Del Toro’s “Pinocchio” was created frame by frame, thanks to the stop-motion animation process.
Netflix
Forget the Walt Disney cartoon, because it’s a very different approach from that of the wooden puppet child that Guillermo Del Toro tells us regarding in his film available from today on Netflix.
Your “Pinocchio” is very different from Walt Disney’s. Why?
In 2002, artist and author Gris Grimly published his version of “Pinocchio” and, seeing his illustrations, I immediately understood that he had the same vision as me of the character, in his design. I wanted to stay as faithful as possible to Carlo Collodi’s original story. It is that of Geppetto, a man who loses his child and then has another. The connection with the locust goes through the tree and therefore the wood used by this sculptor. It took me 16 years to make this film because I wanted to come to an agreement with my co-director Mark Gustafson, whom I have admired for a long time, and the other screenwriters on the project. It’s vital for me to exchange my ideas with others to detail each scene… even if I don’t always agree! (He’s laughing.) During all these years, I directed other films but never giving up “Pinocchio”.
Why did this movie take so long to come to fruition?
I have been making films for thirty years and it took me half my career to succeed in making “Pinocchio”. All the movie studios told me no for more than ten years, until Netflix agreed. They let me carry out my project, without asking me to make compromises, without a say in the screenplay and even without requiring test screenings before the final version. When I approached my team, I was able to assure them that we would do “Pinocchio” as we wanted, without losing any of our freedom as creators. It’s so rare in Hollywood.
“All the movie studios told me no for more than ten years, until Netflix accepted my Pinocchio,” explains director Guillermo Del Toro.
AFP
You are passionate regarding the stop-motion animation process…
The beauty of the animation is that it’s done very slowly, which gives me time to meditate. We shot for 1000 days. I would like to always have so much time to make a film. (He’s laughing.) For me, animation is an art, it’s a film in its own right that is intended for a wide audience and not just for children. “Pinocchio” thus allowed me to work with animators whom I have admired since childhood and who accepted this project because, precisely, we had no compromise to accept. We were able to animate each character like a real actor, with silences, hesitations… The main thing is to focus on these little moments, to convey the emotion. My desire is for the viewer to be sensitive to this story of love but also of despair, because we have all experienced these feelings in our lives.
Do you identify more with Geppetto? Or to Pinocchio?
I am Pinocchio! There are two characters that are almost autobiographical for me: Pinocchio and Frankenstein. It was my mother who introduced me to cinema by taking me to screenings. Seeing “Pinocchio”, I thought to myself that it was the first film that showed how scary it can be to be a child.
