Netflix dropped the first official teaser for Guillermo del Toro's upcoming Pinocchio adaptation, featuring a first look at the new animated Jiminy Cricket.
The upcoming film takes place in the 1930s in Fascist Italy and has been described as a dark retelling of the classic fairytale involving a wooden puppet who attempts to overcome his playful and mischievous nature in order to become a real boy. He is aided only by Jiminy Cricket -- or in this case, Sebastian J. Cricket -- who acts as his conscience.]
Not to be confused with Disney's live-action remake of the animated classic, Netflix's Pinocchio features a star-studded cast including Gregory Mann as the titular wooden boy, Ewan McGregor as Sebastian J. Cricket, David Bradley as Geppetto, Ron Perlman as Mangiafuoco, Tilda Swinton as the Fairy with Turquoise Hair, Christoph Waltz as the Fox, Cate Blanchett as Sprezzatura the Monkey, Tim Blake Nelson as the Coachman, Finn Wolfhard as Lampwick, John Turturro as Master Cherry and Burn Gorman as Carabiniere.
The stop-motion musical fantasy film draws heavily from the original 1883 novel, The Adventures of Pinocchio, written by Carlo Collodi. The upcoming film was directed by Guillermo del Toro and Mark Gustafson and marks the latter's first animated feature film.
The project has been a passion for del Toro, who began developing the film in 2008. In a previous interview, the director has stated that the story of Pinocchio influenced him greatly. "No art form has influenced my life and my work more than animation and no single character in history has had as deep of a personal connection to me as Pinocchio," the director explained. However, the project was stuck in development hell for a number of years. In 2017, del Toro even suggested that the film would be cancelled. Fortunately, Netflix acquired the film in 2018 and gave the project the budget to bring it to life.
It's worth noting that Netflix has made huge efforts when it comes to animation. Co-CEO Reed Hastings previously suggested that the streaming giant will aim to compete with the likes of Disney-- an animation titan. He stated that Netflix is "very fired up about catching them in family animation — maybe eventually passing them, we'll see, a long way to go just to catch them — and maintaining our lead in general entertainment that’s so stimulating."
Pinocchio is scheduled for release on Netflix in December 2022.