Guillermo del Toro to give 'political' twist to 'Pinnochio'

Oscar-winning filmmaker Guillermo del Toro says his upcoming "Pinocchio" project for Netflix will be a political parable and not the kid-friendly fare of the competing Disney remake.

"It's not a Pinocchio for all the family," he said of his story, set in 1930s Italy, according to hollywoodreporter.com.

Is it a political film?

"Of course. Pinocchio during the rise of Mussolini... A puppet during the rise of fascism, yes, it is," he said at the Marrakech Film Festival here.

This darker turn on the fable is perhaps not surprising from the director, who compared the puppet who longs to be a real boy to Frankenstein's monster.

"He's a creature that is created through unnatural means from a father that he then distances (himself) from, and has to learn about failure and pain and loneliness," he said, noting that he chose stop-motion animation for the project because it's "more expressive" than working with actors.

While del Toro is resistant to making an overtly political film, he said he finds fantasy films always end up with political messages.

"There's no fable without politics," he said, citing the gender and class struggles of stories such as Cinderella and Snow White, and even the message of his own "The Shape of Water".

His dark approach on the material made "Pinnochio" a hard sell for the director, who took it around for a decade before Netflix took on the project.

--IANS

rb/mr