Yahoo News In case you're confused, this is the Pinocchio that just won an Oscar
Pinocchio just won Best Animated Feature at the 2023 Oscars — but if anyone says it was Robert Zemeckis' 2022 musical version that took home the hardware, their nose will grow. Guillermo del Toro's stop-motion version is the one that won the award at Sunday's ceremony, earning the filmmaker his third career statue.
"Animation is cinema. Animation is not a genre, and animation is ready to be taken to the next step. We're all ready for it," del Toro said during his acceptance speech. "Please help us. Keep animation in the conversation."
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The filmmaker, who previously won the Best Director and Best Picture Oscars for The Shape of Water in 2018, shares the award with director Mark Gustafson and producers Gary Ungar and Alexander Bulkley. Other nominees in the category this year included Marcel the Shell With Shoes On, Puss in Boots: The Last Wish, The Sea Beast, and Turning Red.
Del Toro's Pinocchio reimagined the classic story of a wooden puppet brought to life, using visual imagery inspired by Gris Grimly's artwork. The film is set against the background of pre-World War II fascist Italy as the toy boy is recruited into a military camp. Gregory Mann voices Pinocchio in the movie, which also features David Bradley as Geppetto and Ewan McGregor as Sebastian J. Cricket. The cast is rounded out by Tilda Swinton, Christoph Waltz, Finn Wolfhard, Cate Blanchett, John Turturro, Ron Perlman, Tim Blake Nelson, and Burn Gorman.
"There are several reversals in the film," del Toro said from the press room about his adaptation. "One of the most important is that it's not about a kid learning to be a real boy but a father learning to be a real father. It's about disobedience, and disobedience is urgent in the world now. How we can love each other in our failings, in our flaws, in our humanity."
Meanwhile, Zemeckis' recent live-action musical adaptation of Pinocchio starred Evan Ainsworth as the titular puppet, Tom Hanks as Geppetto, Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Jiminy Cricket, and Cynthia Erivo as the blue fairy. The Disney+ film was a critical bomb, while del Toro's version is now officially an Oscar winner.
See the full list of 2023 Oscar winners.
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