Mike Flanagan Calls This Guillermo del Toro Film “Absolutely Gorgeous”
Guillermo del Toro has enjoyed success across many different cinematic genres. He’s excelled in fantasy, horror, comic book adaptations, science fiction, and more. In fact, he even tried his hand at animation with overwhelmingly positive results. Is there anything he can’t do? Speaking of his foray into animation, the auteur’s 2022 stop-motion feature, Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio, was a runaway hit that won the Oscar for Best Animated Feature and caught the attention of many high-profile film lovers, including Mike Flanagan.
Flanagan previously critiqued the film on Letterboxd. Most of the Doctor Sleep director’s reviews are somewhat in depth, but he rather succinctly sums up Pinocchio in just two words, simply saying, “Absolutely gorgeous.”
A Heartbreaking Affair
Del Toro adapts the classic tale alongside co-director Mark Gustafson, and the pair put a unique spin on the material, taking care to include commentary on life and death along the way. Their version follows a grieving father (David Bradley) who brings a marionette (Gregory Mann) to life with unexpected results.
Flanagan is dead on in his concise assessment. The film is absolutely gorgeous. The stop motion animation is rendered in painstaking detail, giving every character expressive features that make each feel almost human.
Though del Toro first announced that he was working on an adaptation of Pinocchio way back in 2008, it took time for the project to materialize. I, for one, think the wait was well worth it.
Fair warning: The proceedings are utterly devastating. The central theme regarding the fleeting nature of life and the way that death makes life worth living is profoundly true, but it also means watching the titular character die over and over again. At the same time, he loses several of those closest to him, which absolutely gutted me. It’s one of those films that you absolutely need to see, but I suggest making sure you’re in the proper frame of mind before taking it in. It’s a much darker take than the Disney version, but that should come as no surprise with del Toro at the helm.
When you’re ready to endure the picture, you can do just that on Netflix. The film is a platform exclusive. So, it should be available to stream there for the foreseeable future.
That’s all that we’ve got for you, for the time being. Make sure to stay tuned to Dread Central in the near future for more streaming recommendations from your favorite personalities in the genre cinema space.
Categorized: Streaming News
