Pinocchio has never been my favorite fairy tale character. Like many, I grew up on old Disney animated classics my parents had on VHS and the little wooden puppet boy's adventure simply didn't click with me no matter how many times I watched it. As a result, despite coming from probably my favorite modern director I hadn't been terribly excited for this movie for the longest. It wasn't until having recently loved Nightmare Alley, another del Toro film I was apprehensive about beforehand, that I began to believe that the mind behind Pan's Labyrinth could create a version of this story I'd finally be able to appreciate. Something I think he succeeded at marvelously even if it still isn't 100% my thing. This might very well be the absolute best display of stop-motion animation I have ever seen. In other efforts I've witnessed that use this style, no matter their overall quality movements have always appeared a bit stiff as if the slightest pause between the figurines' staged poses remains visible. Here though, even the most complex motions are so fluid and lifelike you can almost trick yourself into thinking you're witnessing living, breathing actors performing onscreen. It's staggeringly impressive and the rest of the presentation is just as good with stellar voice acting across the board and del Toro's wonderfully fantastical designs for the human and non-human elements alike. Content-wise, this is such an odd amalgam of tones that on paper probably shouldn't work, but strangely does. You get instances of slapstick and silly cartoonish humor paired with shockingly dark moments and thematic material. Similarly to other of the Mexican director's works (i.e. The Devil's Backbone, Pan's Labyrinth) the plot is set against the backdrop of a real-world war. Allowing the narrative to explore mature subtexts that include anti-facism and the indoctrination of child soldiers, among many more. It leads to a final product that's just as much for adults as it is for (slightly older) children, and is extremely del Toro in nature. Honestly, the only aspect that didn't affect me in some way was the musical numbers, which I was left totally underwhelmed by with exception to Gregory Mann's incredible vocal talent for one so young. Netflix gets a TON of crap for funding projects that other producers/studios have, usually rightfully, passed on, but this maybe serves among the best examples of why that "greenlight whatever comes across our desk" approach has occasionally payed off in massive ways. By backing this potentially high risk, low reward feature that had been sitting on a shelf in development hell for years the streaming service secured what is easily a clear late contender for the best animated movie of 2022. Hopefully it will at last teach those in the industry to stop denying so many of Guillermo's ideas and just give the man the money to make whatever the heck he wants.