Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio Review Roundup, Rotten Tomatoes Score Revealed

Guillermo del Toro’s all-new Pinocchio is in theaters now and set to hit Netflix on December 9th and if the critics are to be believed, it’s an adaptation that delivers. The first reviews of the upcoming, stop-motion animation film have hit Rotten Tomatoes and are overwhelmingly positive. The film is Certified Fresh on the review aggregate site with a 96 percent Tomatometer score (at the time of this article’s writing) and consensus that Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio “delivers fully on its title — which is to say it’s a visually stunning adaptation that embraces its source material’s darkness.”

“The patron saint of monsters and misfits teams with award-winning, stop-motion legend Mark Gustafson to helm a deeply enchanting journey full of heart, breathtaking craftsmanship, and poignant themes set against a backdrop of Fascism,” Bloody Disgusting‘s Meagan Navarro wrote about the film giving it a 4.5 out of 5 rating.

The Los Angeles Times‘ Robert Abele was a little more critical of the film, pointing out its occasional awkwardness, but ultimately found it to be a good thing as compared to the Disney adaptation from the 1940s. “More of a Frankenstein-ed fairy tale than some irreverent answer to the Mouse House’s 1940 hand-drawn classic. That’s a good thing. Sometimes an odd, awkward thing, and at times a naggingly modern thing, but mostly a good thing,” Abele wrote.

ABC News‘ Peter Travers wrote “You’ve never seen a Pinocchio like this one, a funny, touching, and vital masterpiece from del Toro that uses stop-motion animation to create a world of beauty and terror to get lost in. The Oscar for best animated feature belongs right here.”

Empire Magazine‘s Alex Godfrey gave the film a 4 out of 5, writing “Guillermo del Toro’s perspective runs through every frame of this unique retelling, which isn’t afraid to tackle troubling themes. A sincere, soulful, exploration of what it means to be human.”

Who Stars in Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio?

Pinocchio is del Toro’s first animated feature and stars Ewan McGregor as Sebastian J. Cricket, the cricket who lives in Pinocchio’s wooden heart and serves as the film’s storyteller. Del Toro teams with the Jim Henson Company and ShadowMachine on the stop-motion animation take on Carlo Collodi’s novel, which follows a puppet boy who comes to life. With McGregor, the voice cast also includes David Bradley as Geppetto, Gregory Mann as Pinocchio, Finn Wolfhard, Cate Blanchett, John Turturro, Ron Perlman, Tim Blake Nelson, and Burn Gorman, with Christoph Waltz and Tilda Swinton.

Pinocchio debuts in theaters in November and on Netflix in December.