My daughter and my oldest son surprised me by wanting to watch Guillermo del Toro's version of Pinocchio during our usual movie night—I honestly didn’t realize he had made one. It certainly presented a unique perspective on the familiar tale. The original Pinocchio holds a special place for me as one of the films I enjoyed as a child. It comes from an era when Disney actually stood for something, when they created movies intended for families rather than catering to a small but vocal and extreme minority with politically charged content. As such, I hadn’t even considered watching their recent reimagining. However, I generally appreciate Guillermo del Toro's films, and my kids—who also reject woke ideology—expressed interest in seeing it, so I didn't really have a choice. I do have some concerns about the themes explored in the movie, but overall I thought it was good. It seems aimed at adults or at least older children compared to Disney’s version; it’s considerably darker and less funny. That shouldn’t come as much of a surprise given del Toro's involvement, though. Because I knew nothing about this film until we started watching, I spent the entire time trying to figure out if it was created using stop-motion animation or CGI designed to mimic it. It turns out that it is indeed stop-motion, and remarkably impressive stop-motion at that; really well executed. The plot, which bears little resemblance to the Disney version, isn’t bad, but this leads me to my biggest issue with the film. I didn't care for the setting in fascist Italy and the constant messaging about fascism. It felt like an unnecessary attempt to emphasize a point and made the movie darker than it needed to be. While Pinocchio is an Italian story, they couldn’t realistically have placed it in communist Russia, even though that would have been more relevant if they wanted some clear-cut antagonists. I just wish they had chosen a different focus. The ending also differs significantly from the original Disney film; it's not entirely sad, but certainly not overwhelmingly cheerful either. It’s a decent conclusion, but again, more suitable for adults than for children. Despite that, I did enjoy the movie. It was well-made and an intelligent, technically accomplished adaptation of the Pinocchio story.

Source on TMDB