Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio movie debuts with rare 100% rating

Guillermo del Toro’s stop-motion animation version of Pinocchio has been hailed as a ‘masterpiece’ and has even scored a 100 per cent rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

While there’s definitely no shortage of Pinocchio film adaptations, the Mexican filmmaker’s flick has already been labelled as one of the year's best films. Do I smell an Oscar?

Nicholas Barber, film critic for The Wrap, said that while Robert Zemeckis’ reimagining of the famous fable missed the mark, del Toro has struck pure gold.

He wrote: “del Toro’s is a soulful stop-motion masterpiece. But it’s partly because, as the title suggests, the latest version is so unmistakably a del Toro passion project.”

Barber added that the movie featured del Toro’s signature dark and twisted imagery, something audiences are familiar with in his past films such as Shape of Water and The Devil’s Backbone, where ‘monsters’ are also persecuted. 

Discussing Film writer Ben Rolph said the retelling was ‘a far darker imagining of Pinocchio that is still sincerely heartfelt in every sense of the word’.

He also noted the stop-animation in no way compromised the emotional complexity of the story but instead redefined what’s possible in the medium. 

He added: “The sheer talent on screen throughout the entire film makes for an awe-inducing experience as one wonders how on earth anyone could manage to bring such a gorgeous and lively stop-motion piece to life.”

However, critics weren’t the only ones to commend the movie, as many took to Twitter to provide glowing reviews.

One fan wrote: “If you see only one Pinocchio movie this year- make it Guillermo del Toro’s.”

Another shared: “Guillermo Del Toro’s PINOCCHIO just played the London Film Festival, and it’s a masterpiece.”

While a third person said: “To differentiate from the others I hereby proclaim we refer to this film as Pinocchio Del Toro.”

Veering away from the 1940s classic, the movie is set in the 1930s during the rise of fascism in Benito Mussolini's Italy. 

Recently, during an event for Netflix ahead of the world premiere, del Toro explained that he decided to have the film take place during fascism in Europe to explore the relationship between the wooden puppet and his father, as per The Credits.

He said: “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.”