Del Toro's Pinocchio Was Told to Animate Its Mistakes

By The Backlot

@backlotfriends

Geppetto and Pinocchio face each other in Geppetto's candlelit workshop in Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio (2022)

Del Toro wrote an animation bible before a single puppet moved. One rule: animate mistakes.

Characters were instructed to fail. Take three tries to close a door. Show fatigue. Drop something and fumble to pick it up. The idea was to make every movement feel inhabited rather than performed.

The studio had sixty sets shooting simultaneously. The whole thing took 935 days of filming.

It is a Pinocchio that moves like it is figuring out its body in real time. Every stumble in it was a deliberate choice.

Someone on Backlot watched it today. It has been on Netflix since 2022 and it is worth a night this week.

Quick Facts

Del Toro's Pinocchio Was Told to Animate Its Mistakes

DirectorGuillermo del Toro, Mark Gustafson

CastEwan McGregor, David Bradley, Gregory Mann, Burn Gorman, Ron Perlman

GenreAnimation, Fantasy, Adventure, Drama

Release2022-11-09

Runtime117 min

Rated8.0/10

Instagram caption

Del Toro gave his animators one rule: animate mistakes. The puppets were supposed to fail. It's on Netflix. #Pinocchio #Backlot

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Del Toro gave his animators one rule before the first puppet moved: animate mistakes. Characters were instructed to fail, show fatigue, take three tries to close a door.