Make no mistake - this is a visually stunning animation accomplishment with stellar moments and interesting new ideas and themes that seem to haunt del Toro quite a lot.
The biggest difference is probably the change of the original story's setting from the late 19th century to World War II era Italy. Yes, even Mussolini plays a minor role, and his design is glorious.
But even if you're willing to go with the flow and accept all the changes, some things still are a bit confusing. This is a much more mature version of Pinocchio, so why put in so many musical numbers?
Speaking of which - the music was great for the most part, except for the singing. I have no idea why so many modern movies have to resort to such horribly executed pitch correction, but boy, was it horrible here. I'm guessing that mixing engineers with no music mixing experience had to do it, because it's so obvious and bad that I refuse to believe that it was actually done by someone with musical ears. It kinda takes you out of the story if it's a warm-hearted story about being human, but the singing sounds like it was generated by some first generation A. I.
But in the end there are way more positive aspects to this film than negative ones, so don't listen to all those geniuses who take their kids to a Guillermo del Toro film and then complain that it wasn't for kids at all and enjoy an emotional ride with a lot of sad and dark elements, realized with a beautifully designed approach in its design and execution.
The biggest difference is probably the change of the original story's setting from the late 19th century to World War II era Italy. Yes, even Mussolini plays a minor role, and his design is glorious.
But even if you're willing to go with the flow and accept all the changes, some things still are a bit confusing. This is a much more mature version of Pinocchio, so why put in so many musical numbers?
Speaking of which - the music was great for the most part, except for the singing. I have no idea why so many modern movies have to resort to such horribly executed pitch correction, but boy, was it horrible here. I'm guessing that mixing engineers with no music mixing experience had to do it, because it's so obvious and bad that I refuse to believe that it was actually done by someone with musical ears. It kinda takes you out of the story if it's a warm-hearted story about being human, but the singing sounds like it was generated by some first generation A. I.
But in the end there are way more positive aspects to this film than negative ones, so don't listen to all those geniuses who take their kids to a Guillermo del Toro film and then complain that it wasn't for kids at all and enjoy an emotional ride with a lot of sad and dark elements, realized with a beautifully designed approach in its design and execution.