Guillermo del Toro is undoubtedly one of the most interesting auteurs working today, gaining huge acclaim for films like Pan’s Labyrinth and The Shape of Water. His latest work, the stop-motion animated feature Pinocchio, is one of his best projects so far.
Pinocchio has made history by becoming the first Netflix film to win the best animated feature prize at the Golden Globes, marking a major milestone for streaming services. A haunting story about the human-artificial dichotomy, Pinocchio is a prescient commentary about the future of human civilisation.
During his acceptance speech, del Toro highlighted the importance of animation within the contemporary landscape of cinema. He also expressed how happy he was to attend the ceremony in person, joking: “Some of us are drunk. What can be better?”
Guillermo del Toro said: “It’s been a great year for cinema … a great year for animation. Animation is cinema. It’s not a genre for kids. It’s a medium.” While talking about the contributions of his team, he added: “we gave life and beauty and truth to a tale about life, loss and belonging.”
Previously, del Toro expressed concerns about the future of animation (via Decider): “I talked to Dave McKean, who is a great artist. And he told me, his greatest hope is that AI cannot draw. It can interpolate information, but it cannot draw. It can never capture a feeling, or a countenance, or the softness of a human face, you know? Certainly, if that conversation was being had about film, it would hurt deeply. I would think it, as Miyazaki says, ‘an insult to life itself.'”
