Is Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio kid friendly? We discuss the age rating and themes for this animated remake.
Despite Disney Plus releasing a new Pinocchio movie earlier this year, Netflix decided to one-up its biggest competitor and set to debut yet another wooden-boy film two months later. This is Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio, a stop-motion animation project years in the making that features a stellar voice cast and is receiving rave reviews across the board. It could also be a major contender in the upcoming Academy Awards, with a Best Animated Feature nomination locked in, a Best Score nomination in the cards, and the possibility for a Best Picture nomination not completely off the table.
Our review called it “a visionary take that’s bleak and still beautifully hopeful.” Across the board, the film has been praised as one of del Toro’s best films in recent memory. It currently holds an unprecedented 98% critic rating for him on Rotten Tomatoes, based on almost 200 reviews.
The filmmaker has been talking for years about this movie, and one of his main goals when making it was for it to be an adaptation of the original source material rather than the animated Disney movie from 1940. Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio is a reimagining of the 1883 Italian novel The Adventures of Pinocchio by Carlo Collodi, and like that story, is much darker than Disney’s version. That poses the question of whether or not Netflix’s new film is suitable for kids to watch.
Is Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio kid-friendly?
Despite the film’s age rating, there is plenty of darkness and violence in the film. There is no profanity, but the film starts during the Great War where Gepetto loses his son during a bombing raid. The plot then moves forward to 1930s fascist Italy, which already tells us a lot about what we can expect in terms of violence and kid-friendly themes.
Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio is definitely not targeted at kids, but whether or not they can watch it will depend on their age and how developed they are. It deals with death and loss, but in some ways, so do Disney’s animated classics. Del Toro simply takes a slightly darker approach at times.
What is the age rating for Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio?
The movie has been rated PG for “dark thematic material, violence, peril, some rude humor, and brief smoking.” Despite that, the movie does lean more on the PG-13 side than most animated movies out there, and if it weren’t for its animated format, it would’ve definitely been rated PG-13.
Ironically, this is also the same rating that Robert Zemeckis’ Pinocchio was given for “peril/scary moments, rude material and some language.” Notice that Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio rating includes a mention of “dark thematic material” that Robert Zemeckis’ live-action remake does not.
What themes are there in Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio?
The movie, like the original novel, explores a lot of themes, from parenting to honesty, loyalty, or braveness. But it also features war sequences that involve a more dramatic tone and inevitably deal with death and loss. This is something that was already present in the original animated film, but Guillermo del Toro goes a bit deeper this time. Reviews overall agree that the movie is a tearful rollercoaster that includes character arcs based on personal growth through enduring pain and emotional suffering.
Have you seen Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio? If not, are you planning to check it out this weekend? Will you be showing it to your kids, after all? Let us know in the comments below!
