Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio (2022)

Cate Blanchett as: Spazzatura (Voice)

Directed by: Guillermo del Toro and Mark Gustafson
Selected Cast: Ewan McGregor, David Bradley, Gregory Mann, Burn Gorman, Ron Perlman, John Turturro, Finn Wolfhard, Tim Blake Nelson, Christoph Waltz, Tilda Swinton
Written by: Guillermo del Toro and Patrick McHale (Story by Guillermo del Toro and Matthew Robbins; Based on Carlo Collodi’s novel)
Release Year: 2022
Genre: Animation | Drama | Fantasy | Adventure
MPAA Rating: PG

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A father’s wish magically brings a wooden boy to life in Italy, giving him a chance to care for the child. However, the two of them have to struggle to find a place for themselves as Italy becomes embroiled in fascism.

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Behind the scenes; Featurette
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Quotes from Cate Blanchett

  • “It’s great when you’re working on one role that is so particular, and then they ask you to do something wildly different — playing a monkey that never speaks in an animated film. And Guillermo [del Toro] doing Pinocchio is just an unmissable idea. I adore him, and I’m not alone here — I think the whole industry does.” (Empire, June 2021)

Quotes from Others

  • Guillermo del Toro:
    — “We have spent a long time curating a remarkable cast and crew and have been blessed by continuous support from Netflix to quietly and carefully soldier on, barely missing a beat. We all love and practice animation with great passion and believe it to be the ideal medium to retell this classic story in a completely new way.”
    — On Cate Blanchett: “We were having such a good time shooting it [Nightmare Alley], and [Cate Blanchett] said, ‘Can I work with you right away?’ And I said, ‘Well, every [role is taken] in Pinocchio.’ She says. ‘Anything.’ And I said, ‘Well, there is a monkey. And she said, ‘I’ll do it.’
    When she saw I was supposed to do it, she said, ‘I think this monkey is my spirit animal,’
    The thing that is very, very hard to fathom with Cate is she is one of the greatest actors of all time. She’s incredible at her profession. But she’s funny,” Del Toro said. “She’s so damn funny. So she tried everything, and she voices the monkey and the puppets of the monkey.”

Trivia & Facts

  • The film premiered at the 66th BFI London Film Festival on 15 October 2022.
  • The film won Best Animated Feature Film at the Academy Awards, BAFTA, Critics Choice, Golden Globes, Annie Awards, and LAFCA Awards, more accolades here.
  • The film is the longest stop-motion animated film.
  • Cate Blanchett told Guillermo del Toro that she wanted a part in this film while they were working on Nightmare Alley (2021), but the only character that hadn’t been cast yet was Spazzatura the monkey. To Del Toro’s surprise, Blanchett wanted to voice the character anyway even though they have little actual lines and spent most of the film making sounds.
  • Cate Blanchett asked to do her voice-over shot-by-shot instead of making different emotion sounds to be edited later on like it is usually done in other productions.
  • The monkey is named Spazzatura, Italian word for “garbage”, indicating how Count Volpe sees the poor creature.
  • The epitaph on Spazzatura’s grave at the end of the movie reads “Il divo del palco”, which translates to “the star of the stage”.

BFI London Film Festival premiere, 15 October 2022