Netflix showed off a brand new story teaser on Monday for the new Pinocchio movie that shows Ewan McGregor cast as Sebastian J. Cricket, in a return to the story’s roots.
In a fantastical stop-motion teaser, Guillermo del Toro‘s Pinocchio introduces fans to the new narrative which borrows from the old. In the teaser, Ewan McGregor’s unmistakable voice comes through to the audience as a violet-clad cricket that suggests they’ll tell a story “you think you know.”
The stylish Netflix production aims to take fans back to the very beginning, to the original story penned by Carlo Collodi titled The Adventures of Pinocchio. Although the seemingly more popular Walt Disney animated film captures the essence of the children’s book, Sebastian J. Cricket understands the popularity as if to read the audience’s mind, and to tell it where it all began.
The original book tells the perils of child disobedience and rash behaviour, but in the trailer where this cricket seems very alive, in Collodi’s tale, he meets his demise to a hammer thrown by Pinocchio after he utters a warning. The book sees the cricket take a Virgil-type guide approach to Pinocchio’s mischievous nature, and is far more graphic in nature than the popular Disney film. The stop-motion storytelling featured in the teaser is true to a fairy tale style and sees the alive Talking Cricket nestled within the wooden marionette’s heart.
Netflix’s Pinocchio is helmed by Guillermo del Toro and Mark Gustafson, and is set during the rise of Italy’s Fascist period with a star-studded cast as backup for the film. Gregory Mann will play Pinocchio; with Ewan McGregor as Sebastian J. Cricket; David Bradley as Master Geppetto; Ron Perlman as Mangiafuoco; Tilda Swinton as the Fairy with Turquoise Hair; Christoph Waltz as the Fox; Cate Blanchett as Sprezzatura the Monkey; Tim Blake Nelson as the Coachman; Finn Wolfhard as Lampwick/Lucignolo; John Turturro as Master Cherry, and Burn Gorman as the Carabiniere.
Guillermo del Toro describes the film as not only a very personal movie to him but as a darker musical adaptation. Pinocchio is set to release not only on Netflix but in theaters in December of 2022.
