While people have waited years for a new adaptation of Pinocchio, 2022 has managed to deliver two very different iterations of the little wooden puppet who wants to be a real boy. Earlier this year, Disney added the live-action remake of their 2nd animated feature film to Disney+. While the Tom Hanks-starring movie was a decent enough remake, not trying too hard to move from its source material, this December brings a second version of the story from the mind of Guillermo del Toro. However, unlike Disney’s upbeat, sing-along movie, del Toro’s Netflix movie does not necessarily have its sights set on the kind of happy family viewing that is the norm.

Guillermo del Toro has become synonymous with dark, fairytale-like movies such as Pan’s Labyrinth and The Shape of Water. With Pinocchio, the director has created a brand-new take on the wooden boy in stop-motion animation that he says is something for adults to enjoy. He told SFX Magazine:

“It was not made for kids. Kids can watch it. But it’s not made for kids. It’s made for us.”

Del Toro noted that his movie only came about after he found a 2002 version of the classic 1883 novel The Adventures of Pinocchio by Carlo Collodi. The version in question was illustrated by Gris Grimly, and without it, del Toro says the movie would not have been made. He continued:

“I think that was the moment the movie could get made. The moment we found Pinocchio by Gris Grimley. [It’s] not exactly the one we ended up with, but the basics of it [are there]. I think otherwise we wouldn’t have tried at all. Without it, there would be no reason for the endeavor, but it embodies an unruliness, and an elemental nature, a beauty, a roughness, a tactile, wooden sort of feel…it’s really the key to the whole thing.”

Related: Guillermo del Toro and Patrick McHale Discuss Challenges of Bringing Pinocchio to the Screen

Guillermo del Toro Wanted to Show More of Geppetto Than Other Pinocchio Movies.

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Netflix

In most adaptations of Pinocchio, Geppetto is mostly an unseen character. Once the story sees Pinocchio being brought to life, everything is focused on the wooden boy’s misadventures. Still, del Toro didn’t want to lose the wood-carver after his initial creation of Pinocchio. Having explained that the puppet looks a little off in Grimly’s illustrations, as he said Geppetto was drunk while making him, the director said:

"That sounds like a funny, glib answer, but it gave us a portal into making Geppetto irascible, sort of intolerant, a little bit of a perfectionist or a curmudgeon at times. When we were talking about one of the hardest moments in the movie—where Geppetto says, 'You are such a burden'—some members of the crew were saying, This is too much. And I said, 'No, no, no, no, no. Keep it exactly as it is. We need the worst point in the relationship.' Patrick and I believed in not making a perfect, saintly Geppetto. And a very annoying Pinocchio.”

Pinocchio was released in select cinemas on November 9, 2022, and is scheduled to be released via streaming on December 9 by Netflix.