Guillermo Del Toro’s Pinocchio
Netflix | Release Date: November 9, 2022 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
79
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 49 Critic Reviews
Positive:
43
Mixed:
6
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
Film ThreatJosiah TealDec 22, 2022
Though it may not be as iconic as the 1940s version, Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio is still astounding. Every character is fleshed out and filled with eccentricities lacking in prior versions. Themes of empathy, fascism, dealing with death, and learning to live again run deep within this masterpiece. And for all the complexities, the film is just plain enjoyable. Read full review
100
New York PostJohnny OleksinskiDec 8, 2022
As he did so ingeniously with “Pan’s Labyrinth” and the Spanish Civil War, del Toro explores fantasy, myth and childhood in a time of oppressive fascism; the specks of light that escape the darkness. Read full review
100
RogerEbert.comCarlos AguilarDec 7, 2022
It may go against its ethos to deem del Toro's Pinocchio an impeccable masterpiece, even if that's an adequate description, but know that if the art of making movies resembles magic, this is one of its greatest incantations. Read full review
100
Little White LiesKambole CampbellDec 7, 2022
By changing the cautionary tale to be against assimilation and categorisation, plus its invigorating update of traditional technique, the film carves out a space not just as the best Pinocchio film of this year, but among the finest films the director has made. Read full review
100
San Francisco ChronicleBob StraussDec 5, 2022
It’s a remarkably life-affirming message coming from a mess of animated puppets and a monster-loving filmmaker. Read full review
100
The Observer (UK)Mark KermodeNov 29, 2022
Ultimately, it’s the film’s sheer strangeness – that peculiarly magical, lapsed-Catholic sensibility that runs throughout all of Del Toro’s most personal works – that makes this sing and fly. Read full review
100
IndieWireRafael MotamayorOct 15, 2022
Pinocchio feels like the best mix of classic del Toro and new del Toro, with the wisdom and melancholy that comes with age and experience, yet his bright-eyed love of fairy tales from his Spanish-language films. Perhaps more impressive is how Pinocchio pushes the oldest form of animation to new places, and like the puppet himself, breathes life into inanimate objects. Read full review
100
Screen DailyWendy Ide
A film which doesn’t sugar-coat the ache of bereavement, the futility of war or the manifold failures of mankind, but which manages to balance the darkness with sparks of hope, humour and humanity. Read full review
100
The PlaylistRafaela Sales Ross
Through the eyes of the Mexican filmmaker, the familiar fable is made anew, carefully carved by the hands of an artist eternally enamored with his craft. This loving relationship between creator and creation imbues the film with the type of contagious excitement that brings one back to the joy of the early days of cinemagoing, a thrilling jolt of nostalgia that only emphasizes the miraculous nature of this fresh recreation. Read full review
100
NMEPaul Bradshaw
Looking and feeling every inch like a film made without compromise, Pinocchio was worth the wait. Del Toro has been talking about making the film for most of his career now, and the pay-off shows in every brushstroke and thumbprint. Read full review
94
Paste MagazineKathy Michelle ChaconDec 9, 2022
The stop-motion musical is an artistic triumph that colors Collodi’s cherished storybook characters with humanity and depth to craft a mature tale about rebellion, mortality and the love between a parent and child. Read full review
91
ConsequenceClint WorthingtonDec 8, 2022
It’s easily one of the best animated films of the year, and one of the most assured, endearing works of del Toro’s filmography. Read full review
91
The Film StageAlistair Ryder
Several directors have told the tale of Pinocchio over the years, but none have been anywhere near as successful in reimagining it to fit their own sensibilities. Del Toro putting his own name in the title isn’t a move motivated by ego—nobody else could have made it but him. Read full review
90
IGNHanna FlintNov 23, 2022
Guillermo del Toro sprinkles his signature dark whimsy on a fairytale classic with stunning puppetry and catchy original songs. Filled with heart, humor, and historical grounding, it’s a phenomenal feat of animated cinema. Read full review
90
ABC NewsPeter TraversNov 23, 2022
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. Read full review
90
We Got This CoveredAlejandra MartinezNov 17, 2022
Pinocchio is more than a movie about a wooden boy’s adventures. It’s a movie, to quote Sebastian, about “imperfect sons and imperfect fathers,” the futility and impotence of fascism, and the transcendent power of love above everything else. While a lesser movie would have been crushed by the weight of these themes, Pinocchio manages to carry them all with relative ease. Read full review
90
TheWrapNicholas BarberOct 15, 2022
It’s intense, creepy, often harrowing stuff, so you can see why del Toro has said in interviews that his Pinocchio isn’t a children’s film. But that doesn’t mean that brave children, and brave adults, won’t adore it. Read full review
90
SlashfilmHannah Shaw-Williams
Overall, I wouldn't say Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio is a "dark" movie so much as it is a challenging one — refreshingly so, with knotty, complex questions and real peril. Read full review
90
The Hollywood ReporterLeslie Felperin
I feel tempted to say there’s a leaner, stronger film inside this that could have been coaxed out, but in the light of the film’s message about accepting people as they are, maybe we shouldn’t be shaming this film either. It is what it is, and that’s perfectly imperfect. Read full review
89
Austin ChronicleSteve DavisNov 17, 2022
Like all del Toro films, this Pinocchio thrives on a storytelling imagination that thinks outside the box. Read full review
88
Movie NationRoger MooreDec 9, 2022
The best animated film Netflix has ever made, and the best animated film of 2022. Read full review
88
USA TodayBrian TruittDec 9, 2022
[Del Toro's] wonderful new take on the classic tale is the most essential adaptation of Carlo Collodi’s novel since Walt Disney’s 1940 cartoon masterpiece, with a practically perfect mix of tragedy, comedy, adventure, parental worries, societal expectations, childhood precociousness and antiwar leanings. Read full review
88
ObserverDylan RothDec 6, 2022
It’s as cheeky as it is morbid, and the two flavors play well together. Read full review
88
LarsenOnFilmJosh LarsenNov 17, 2022
To borrow a phrase from the movie itself, Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio is a “terrible joy.” Read full review
88
Slant MagazineJosh Wise
The film is marked by wild flashes of invention, all born of painstaking craft and devotion. Read full review
83
ColliderRoss BonaimeDec 8, 2022
Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio shows that if you’re going to adapt this story yet again, it’s best to bring something exciting and new to it, as well as put some of your own personality into it. Read full review
83
The A.V. ClubLuke Y. ThompsonDec 7, 2022
Carlo Collodi’s serialized story for kids may have inspired it, but del Toro isn’t going for fealty. He very much has a take, and if he creeps you out with it, so much the better. Read full review
83
Original-CinJim SlotekNov 9, 2022
Deeper, darker, mordant, with a definite horror movie vibe, it is what you might expect from del Toro, a filmmaker who gave us Pan’s Labyrinth – essentially a dark fairy-tale wrapped in real-world fascism, as this is as well. Read full review
83
PolygonOli Welsh
It’s an unruly, wild, and tender film that sometimes gets lost but, by the end, finds its way to a very moving state of grace. Read full review
80
The TelegraphRobbie CollinNov 23, 2022
The script, co-written by Del Toro and Patrick McHale, is perhaps a little slick when it comes to hustling the plot towards the next moral lesson. But the storytelling itself is unashamedly old-fashioned, and forays into the political and the macabre are all carefully tailored to younger viewers. Read full review
80
EmpireAlex GodfreyNov 22, 2022
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. Read full review
80
Time OutOlly RichardsNov 21, 2022
As you’d expect from the Mexican master, this is rich with macabre imagination and tiptoes between dreaminess and nightmarishness. In a contest with 2022’s other Pinocchio, Disney’s drab live-action redo, this wins by far more than a nose. Read full review
80
VarietyGuy Lodge
Unfolding over a faintly indulgent but never dull two hours, this is a rare children’s entertainment that isn’t afraid to perplex kids as much as it enchants them, down to a coda that prompts a certain level of junior existential contemplation (not to mention a mournful tear or two). Read full review
75
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliDec 12, 2022
Although the 1940 landmark may work better as pure family fare, this slightly more mature film (which is by no means child-unfriendly) is artistically and narratively superior. Read full review
75
The Seattle TimesMoira MacdonaldNov 22, 2022
It’s an artful, moving and often beautiful film, but be careful about showing it to young children; nightmares could ensue. (It haunted me, and I’m quite grown.) Read full review
70
Rolling StoneK. Austin CollinsDec 16, 2022
The movie is moving — the source material has been hanging around since 1883 for good reason — but del Toro’s better at the violence and the dark irony, better at revealing the ways in which this story was already sort of twisted. Read full review
70
SlateSam AdamsDec 12, 2022
At times, the movie simply feels overstuffed, mimicking the episodic structure of the book—if very few of its particulars—to the extent that it can feel like you’ve nodded off and woken up in the middle of a different story altogether. But its inventiveness is so vivid that no matter where you are at any given moment, you’re happy to be there Read full review
70
TimeStephanie ZacharekDec 9, 2022
This loose retelling of Carlo Collodi’s weird and often unsettling 1883 fantasy novel (the screenplay is by del Toro and Patrick McHale) is a little too long, and hammers away too eagerly at its central idea: that fathers who expect too much of their sons can do untold emotional damage. Even so, del Toro’s creation is clever and lively and just strange enough to keep you guessing what’s coming next. Read full review
70
The Irish TimesTara BradyDec 9, 2022
It’s a lovely thing to behold, but who exactly is this for? Unlike Matteo Garrone’s sublime 2019 fantasy, a version that managed to be faithful, wildly imaginative and all-ages in appeal, this brooding musical veers wildly between primary school scatology, repeated journeys to the underworld and darkest history. Read full review
70
Los Angeles TimesRobert AbeleNov 9, 2022
It’s all plenty inventive and heart-conscious, grim without being punishing and, in its openness about impermanence and humility, could spark some significant parent-child exchanges about love, flaws and the necessity of meaningful time together. Read full review
63
The Associated PressJocelyn NoveckDec 9, 2022
Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio is clearly not aimed solely at kids, but rather is banking on the fact that adults, too, will be drawn to the striking visuals and mature themes at play. Read full review
63
Boston GlobeMark FeeneyNov 16, 2022
GdTP starts out pretty slow and doesn’t speed up for far too long — it’s the rare movie that might accurately be described as more imaginative than good — but the occasional bit of inspiration like the tree-branch proboscis encourages the viewer to hang on. It’s a nose job like no other. Read full review
63
Washington PostMichael O'SullivanNov 14, 2022
True to form for the horror-loving filmmaker behind Oscar winners “Pan’s Labyrinth” and “The Shape of Water,” this is a dark affair, despite the occasional song. And yes, it’s a musical. Read full review
60
CNNBrian LowryDec 9, 2022
Despite its beauty, several of those narrative touches don’t fully work, leaving behind a movie that’s aesthetically lovely but narratively uneven. Read full review
60
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Radheyan SimonpillaiDec 8, 2022
The movie bites off way too much. It lumbers inelegantly between confrontations with grief and fascism. The performed seriousness of it all stifles most attempts at having fun, which makes this an even harder prospect for young audiences. Read full review
60
The New YorkerAnthony LaneDec 5, 2022
To be honest, del Toro has thrown too much into the mix. For no compelling reason, for instance, and to unresounding effect, the movie also happens to be a musical. Read full review
60
The GuardianPeter BradshawNov 29, 2022
It certainly has its moments of poignancy and sadness and McGregor’s droll tones as the longsuffering cricket provide some grace notes of fun.
50
New Orleans Times-PicayuneMike ScottDec 5, 2022
To be fair, del Toro’s “Pinocchio” does, indeed, get a lot of things right. It’s got a nice sense of humor, for example. It is ambitious. It has heart. Where it falters, however, is in its near-total absence of charm. Read full review
40
The New York TimesManohla DargisDec 9, 2022
It’s evident that the filmmakers wanted to create a different, tougher and putatively more serious Pinocchio than the Disney version that has been lodged in the popular imagination for decades. But the movie’s decontextualized and disturbingly ill-considered use of Fascism is reductive and finally grotesque. Read full review
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