Mark Gustafson
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Filmography
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Pan's Labyrinth (2006)
Directed by Guillermo del Toro
influenced Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio (2022)
Visuals Themes
From the supernatural creatures with uncanny peepers scattered about their bodies — like one of the most famous monsters in Pan’s Labyrinth with eyes in its hands — to the carnival settings that recall his last feature, Nightmare Alley , and the watery realms echoing The Shape of Water and other back-catalogue efforts, the film sometimes plays like a greatest hits album of del Toro tropes.
Despite many similarities in production design and themes between Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio and Pan’s Labyrinth , Pinocchio ultimately isn’t like Ofelia, the intelligent child lead from the latter.
It’s the themes of Collodi’s novel that Guillermo del Toro picks up and runs with, but in classic fashion, the Nightmare Alley and Pan’s Labyrinth filmmaker reshapes Pinocchio into something far stranger, sharper, and better.
Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio displays the director of Pan's Labyrinth and The Shape of Water's grasp of profound themes with a sense of macabre whimsy.
There are echoes of Pan’s Labyrinth , a childlike wonder facing the utter evil of fascist violence.
It’s a very blatant metaphor, but one where Pinocchio finds true inspiration, interpreting familiar story beats in a manner that makes it feel like the final part of a trilogy that began with The Devil’s Backbone and Pan’s Labyrinth , two other tales about children contending with the evils of fascism.
Naked Lunch (1991)
Directed by David Cronenberg
influenced Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio (2022)
Visuals
He gives us a Jiminy Cricket – here called Sebastien J. Cricket (Ewan McGregor) – who looks borrowed from the set of David Cronenberg’s Naked Lunch.
In addition to his contributions to those icons of late-1980s marketing, the California Raisins, Gustafson worked on the Nome King effects for Millennial cult favorite-slash-nightmare fuel Return to Oz (1985) and on Will Vinton’s profoundly strange claymation adventure feature The Adventures of Mark Twain (1985).
Del Toro (who co-wrote the film with frequent collaborator Patrick McHale) directed this stunning stop-motion reworking of Carlo Collodi’s classic tale alongside animation legend Mark Gustafson ( The Adventures of Mark Twain ; Fantastic Mr. Fox ; Return to Oz ; The PJs ), and the resulting work is both beautiful and low-level terrifying—exactly the kind of movie kids of all ages should be able to appreciate.
Academy Award®-winning director Guillermo del Toro (“ The Shape of Water “) and award winning, stop-motion legend Mark Gustafson (“ Return to Oz “) team up to reimagine the classic Carlo Collodi tale of a wooden boy, Pinocchio, on an enchanted adventure that transcends worlds and reveals the life-giving power of love.
It’s very reminiscent of the darker breed of children’s films from the 1980s like “The Dark Crystal” (which makes sense, considering The Jim Henson Company are producers of it), and more contemporarily, it has obvious echoes of Laika’s recent output.
Frankenstein (1931)
Directed by James Whale
influenced Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio (2022)
Visuals Themes
But the scene is tuned to the same crackling frequency as the one in James Whale’s Frankenstein , in which the monster is jolted into being.
In fact, the only less-than-glorious move del Toro makes in his Pinocchio-by-way-of-Frankenstein is keeping in songs — his movie is magical enough without them.
The Devil's Backbone (2001)
Directed by Guillermo del Toro
influenced Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio (2022)
Themes Visuals
Del Toro and his co-writers — Patrick McHale for the screenplay and Matthew Robbins for the story — retain the setting of Collodi’s land, Italy, but the time frame has been bumped up into the 20th century, during the reign of Benito Mussolini and the fascists (in this way, GDT’s Pinocchio can be seen as a spiritual successor to the director’s condemnations of Franco’s Spain, The Devil’s Backbone and Pan’s Labyrinth ).
In this way, Pinocchio is of a piece with works like Pan’s Labyrinth (Swinton’s wood sprite reminds one of Doug Jones’ faun) and The Devil’s Backbone (one shot of a bomb dropping from the POV of the bomber is repeated in both films) — morality tales presented through the otherworldly sheen of the supernatural.
It’s a very blatant metaphor, but one where Pinocchio finds true inspiration, interpreting familiar story beats in a manner that makes it feel like the final part of a trilogy that began with The Devil’s Backbone and Pan’s Labyrinth , two other tales about children contending with the evils of fascism.
It’s more The Devil’s Backbone than Disney, Pinocchio by way of Pan’s Labyrinth .
The director behind The Devil’s Backbone and Pan’s Labyrinth only plays with fairy tales when he can put such a gothic and grave stamp on them.
As you might expect from the man behind “Pan’s Labyrinth” and “The Devil’s Backbone,” there’s a dark, violent sense of consequence to this one, a healthy sense of grotesquerie, that makes its happy ending — yes, that’s still on the cards, but not exactly as you’d expect — feel hard-earned.
From its very premise to a musical interlude straight out of a Fred Astaire/Ginger Rogers pic like Top Hat , this is one of our great dreamers operating with total confidence and freedom.
With apologies to David Bradley, who voices Master Geppetto in the new version — recently released in select theaters — we really liked what “America’s Dad” brought to the role in the film helmed by his “Forrest Gump” director, Robert Zemeckis.
Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992)
Directed by Francis Ford Coppola
influenced Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio (2022)
Themes
There’s confidence — some would even say arrogance — in filming an oft-told story at least as old as the hills, and suddenly branding it as your own: Even two auteurs as ballsy as Francis Ford Coppola and Baz Luhrmann didn’t slap their own names on “Bram Stoker’s Dracula” and “William Shakespeare’s Romeo + Juliet,” respectively.
The Shape of Water (2017)
Directed by Guillermo del Toro
influenced Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio (2022)
Visuals Music
From the supernatural creatures with uncanny peepers scattered about their bodies — like one of the most famous monsters in Pan’s Labyrinth with eyes in its hands — to the carnival settings that recall his last feature, Nightmare Alley , and the watery realms echoing The Shape of Water and other back-catalogue efforts, the film sometimes plays like a greatest hits album of del Toro tropes.
Still, “Pinocchio” – the filmmaker’s best outing since winning best picture for 2017's “The Shape of Water” – captures the whimsical, crowd-pleasing nature of the story that made it a cultural touchstone for nearly a century.
The trademark style and vibe he made famous with films like Pan’s Labyrinth, Hellboy , and The Shape of Water can be felt throughout, though.
Meanwhile, Alexandre Desplat’s score is essentially a spiritual continuation of his “The Shape of Water” score, and it works wonderfully for the romantic tone of the film.
In select theaters now and coming to Netflix December 9th, Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio is exactly what one expects from the author of Pan’s Labyrinth (2006) and The Shape of Water (2017), a classic child’s tale that isn’t afraid to bear its teeth toward the follies of humanity in its quest to open and uplift hearts.
The Shape of Water director Guillermo del Toro's version, on the other hand, is rated PG, yet clearly aimed at adults, not children.
A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001)
Directed by Steven Spielberg
influenced Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio (2022)
Themes
Peppered with forebodings of mortality, Pinocchio ends on an unusually somber note, one that conjures up emotional memories of Steven Spielberg’s A.I. Artificial Intelligence .
King Kong (1933)
Directed by Merian C. Cooper
influenced Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio (2022)
Visuals
I’d rank Del Toro’s “Pinocchio” alongside the 1933 "King Kong," Tim Burton's "The Nightmare Before Christmas" and Wes Anderson’s "Fantastic Mr. Fox" in terms of the visual and emotional miracles that can be accomplished through stop motion.
Pinocchio’s swagger is less Disney and more Zack Snyder’s Dawn of the Dead.
Pinocchio (1940)
Directed by Hamilton Luske
influenced Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio (2022)
Plot Characters Visuals
It adds an extra edge, which is saying something, considering how wildly impressive 1940’s Pinocchio from Disney still is as one of their best hand-drawn animated features.
The story beats will be familiar to audiences since the movie mostly splits the difference between Carlo Collodi’s source material, The Adventures of Pinocchio, and the classic 1940s Disney adaptation.
Although it’s credited as a direct adaptation of Collodi’s text, del Toro’s Pinocchio owes as much to the 1940 Disney version, including the central presence of a garrulous insect, here named Sebastian J. Cricket and voiced by Ewan McGregor.
And not just any feature, but Pinocchio (1940), one of the most beloved, impeccable, and technically breathtaking films of Disney’s Golden Age.
Perhaps even more so than Disney’s terrifying 1940 Pinocchio, this stop-motion variation—co-directed by del Toro and animator Mark Gustafson—leans into the more unnerving aspects of a wooden puppet coming to life, while still capturing the fairy-tale wonder at the heart of the tale.
And boy, this is not your Disney “Pinocchio” — not the 1940 classic nor the remake of a few months ago.
That much can be expected from del Toro, who is co-directing here with Fantastic Mr. Fox animator Mark Gustafson from a screenplay he co-wrote with Patrick McHale.
This take on the material, co-directed by del Toro and Mark Gustafson (animation director on Wes Anderson’s Fantastic Mr. Fox ) and co-written by del Toro and Patrick McHale (from animated series Adventure Time ), puts many of the scary parts from Collodi back in, but much more besides.
Following his Oscar-winning The Shape of Water and Oscar-nominated Nightmare Alley , this is Guillermo Del Toro’s first directorial foray into animation; he shares credit with Mark Gustafson, who served as the animation director on Wes Anderson’s Fantastic Mr. Fox , to which this could be an oddball cousin.
Which brings us to Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio, co-directed by del Toro and Mark Gustafson, the unsung animation director of Wes Anderson’s Fantastic Mr. Fox.
Compared to that effort, Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio, directed by Guillermo del Toro and Mark Gustafson (animation director of Wes Anderson's Fantastic Mr. Fox), is a stone-cold dark masterpiece, refashioning Carlo Collodi's story, first published weekly and then in novel form in 1883, into a reflection of his (del Toro's) sensibilities.
Del Toro (who co-wrote the film with frequent collaborator Patrick McHale) directed this stunning stop-motion reworking of Carlo Collodi’s classic tale alongside animation legend Mark Gustafson ( The Adventures of Mark Twain ; Fantastic Mr. Fox ; Return to Oz ; The PJs ), and the resulting work is both beautiful and low-level terrifying—exactly the kind of movie kids of all ages should be able to appreciate.
The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993)
Directed by Henry Selick
influenced Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio (2022)
Visuals Characters
I’d rank Del Toro’s “Pinocchio” alongside the 1933 "King Kong," Tim Burton's "The Nightmare Before Christmas" and Wes Anderson’s "Fantastic Mr. Fox" in terms of the visual and emotional miracles that can be accomplished through stop motion.
Let’s be blunt: he’s kinda scary, like he could have sashayed over from “The Nightmare Before Christmas.”
It belongs to the odd 80s and 90s school of movies for kids that gave us Labyrinth, Time Bandits and The Nightmare Before Christmas, in other words, some of the weirdest and best of the genre.
Time Bandits (1981)
Directed by Terry Gilliam
influenced Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio (2022)
Themes
It belongs to the odd 80s and 90s school of movies for kids that gave us Labyrinth, Time Bandits and The Nightmare Before Christmas, in other words, some of the weirdest and best of the genre.
It’s the most blatant Christian metaphor in a mainstream film since “Man Of Steel,” and I’m unsure what del Toro was going for with it, but it ultimately compliments its other themes more than distracts from them.
Finding Nemo (2003)
Directed by Andrew Stanton
influenced Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio (2022)
Themes
You all remember the beginning of “Finding Nemo” right?
Kubo and the Two Strings (2016)
Directed by Travis Knight
influenced Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio (2022)
Visuals
It’d be pretty simple for a passing onlooker to think this “Pinocchio” is the latest Laika production, as it has a similar aesthetic to the underrated studio that brought us “Coraline” and “Kubo and the Two Strings.”