Pinocchio, previously described as a “lifelong passion project” for Oscar-winning filmmaker Guillermo del Toro, was given a new teaser trailer on Wednesday.
The voice cast for the film, directed by del Toro and Mark Gustafson, is led by Ewan McGregor as Cricket and newcomer Gregory Mann in the titular role. Also contributing vocal talent are David Bradley, Tilda Swinton, Finn Wolfhard, Christoph Waltz, Ron Perlman, Cate Blanchett, Tim Blake Nelson, Burn Gorman, and more.
In a statement shared back in 2018 when Netflix first announced the stop-motion musical film, del Toro credited the Pinocchio character (whose story dates back to an 1883 Carlo Collodi novel) as the one with whom he’s always had the deepest personal connection.
“In our story, Pinocchio is an innocent soul with an uncaring father who gets lost in a world he cannot comprehend,” the director, who is making his animated feature directorial debut with Pinocchio, said at the time. “He embarks on an extraordinary journey that leaves him with a deep understanding of his father and the real world. I’ve wanted to make this movie for as long as I can remember.”
The production team bringing this long-awaited take on Pinocchio to life includes del Toro, the Jim Henson Company, and Shadow Machine. The latter, of course, previously helped bring BoJack Horseman to the streaming platform for six acclaimed seasons.
Del Toro’s Pinocchio is slated to hit select theaters in November and Netflix this December. Notably, this year will also see the release of another iteration of the Pinocchio story, i.e. a Robert Zemeckis-directed iteration that’s set to be unveiled on Disney+ in September. Among the cast of Zemeckis’ live-action film are Tom Hanks and Cynthia Erivo.
