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If you look up the words “passion project” in the dictionary, you would find a photograph of acclaimed director Guillermo del Toro and the film he has been lovingly crafting and fretting over for nearly a decade-and-a-half, Pinocchio. Officially going under the title of Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio, the Mexican auteur has long had a love affair with the story of a simple wooden puppet who desires nothig less than being turned into a real life human child. Such is del Toro’s passion for this story that even the passing of his beloved mother who first introduced the director of The Shape of Water and Nightmare Alley to this children’s classic could not deter him from attending the world premiere of his new film.
According to our friends over at Variety Guillermo del Toro, a mere day after the death of his mother, was in attendance at the premire of his new film Pinocchio at the BFI London Film Festival.
A highlight prior to the world-premiere showing was del Toro making to the stage to speak to those in attendance of just how important this film was to him and how very intimately tied to his mother the whole production has been.
“I saw the film as a kid and it’s a film that bonded me with my mom for an entire life,” an emotional del Toro told the audience. “It affected me because Pinocchio saw the world the way I saw it. I was a little bit enraged that people demand obedience from Pinocchio so I wanted to make a film about disobedience as a virtue, and to say that you shouldn’t change to be loved.”
Long an advocate for the field of animation, del Toro shared thoughts of his late mother and what animation meant to him and how it helped him achieve his own vision for Pinocchio: “Everybody who is here believes that animation is not a genre. That animation is art. Animation is film…I just want to say, my mother just passed away, and this was very special for her and me. This is not only the first time you’ll see the movie, it’s the first time she’ll see the movie with us. Thank you.”
“Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio” is set to have it’s North American premiere at the vaunted AFI Fest next month before its limited theatrical engagement. It officially premieres on Netflix on December 9, just in time for Christmas.
