Guillermo del Toro to Produce Pinocchio Stop-Motion Movie.

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Jamal Timbukkake

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Guillermo del Toro Developing Pinocchio

Source: Variety
November 14, 2008

Guillermo del Toro (upcoming The Hobbit) is developing Pinocchio as a stop-motion feature with the Jim Henson Co. as a darker version of the original fairy tale.

The project will be produced by JHC co-toppers Brian Henson and Lisa Henson along with senior VP Jason Lust. Del Toro will executive produce.

Del Toro's working on the screenplay with Gris Grimley, who illustrated a 2002 version of "Pinocchio." Grimley and Adam Parrish King will co-direct the film.
 
Do we really need more "dark fairy tales"? Can't we let some pieces of our childhood stay the way it is without nightmares encroaching in? Granted, this is the guy behind "Pan's Labyrinth"...
 
Darker like Tim Burton, or darker as in not like Disney? There's a sliding scale of darkness. It would be interesting to see a new version of Pinocchio where they stuck with the idea of Pinocchio starting out as a naughty, mischevious little puppet like in the original story.

It's interesting to hear news of both this and Boorman's Wizard of Oz project. Between them and Disney's Frog Prince and Rapunzel projects, are we seeing a swing back towards fairy tales and children's books for animation projects?
 
Why did we need so many "light fairy tales"? Those ones are a far cry from what the original stories told over centuries were like. Fairy tales were ALWAYS meant to give kids nightmares.

The whole "light fairy tale" thing didn't even start to show up until Disney, and even he kept some level of darkness which further retellings have just minimized and minimized. People like Del Toro are simply reclaiming classic stories by making them closer to how they were originally told.
 
Ah, yes. Back when they used to believe you could teach kids through trauma. Simple lessons like "Don't leave the path in the woods" become "Don't leave the path or else you could get eaten by a big, bad wolf". :rolleyes:

Anyway, the problem I have is that there tends to be too much going in one direction or another. Like I said, there's a sliding scale regarding tone, and people often move it too far to either extreme.
 
This is gonna be interesting. Del Toro is a great director and I think his artistic style would lend itself well to stop-motion.
 
Guillermo del Toro + the Hensons + dark (or at least dark-ish)? Woo.

To be fair, even the Brothers Grimm ultimately gave in to toning some things down back in the 19th century.

Back in the day, it would have been a whole pack of big bad wolves. :p
What are few nightmares compared to having your kid picked off by the local predators whose territory and food supply your own species has been encroaching upon? You do what you can to survive.

It may be possible to go too far in the other direction, but we've had so much on one end over the last few decades that I'll do more than just tolerate a few entries at the other extreme.

--Romey
 
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