In Guillermo del Toro’s darker, weirder ‘Pinocchio,’ it’s Geppetto learning the lessons of the world, not Don Quixote de la Mancha. Instead of one man out to kill another, there are two — one good, the other bad — who learn from each other’s lessons.
Del Toro has said that working with Geppetto was a gift, something that would stay with him for the rest of his life. So much so that the director hasn’t worked in movies with a single character being evil or good throughout — which is saying something, since he’s worked with so many characters.
In some ways, del Toro said, in working with Geppetto, he found the ideal combination of man and animal.
“I love him,” del Toro said. “I mean, I could see him as human, and he could be human, but he’s an animal as well.”
No one would be as happy as Geppetto to see Don Quixote go to the evil side, but what really makes the movie work is that we have the same bad guy, but in the role of the donkey, and we have the good guy, which is really the point. Geppetto sees people for what they’ll do, not what they may be.
“Look, you could take a picture of Don Quixote and Geppetto — they’re the same man,” del Toro said. “They’re all the same person. So one thing that’s weird about Pinocchio — and it’s an unusual story — is the guy is an idiot, but he’s an idiot who has been taught to be in control. And then that kid comes out and he tries to kill him.”
Geppetto’s goal isn’t to bring down the father figure as a means to punish the son. It’s to learn about life.
“I’m not a good person or a bad person,” del Toro said. “