‘Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio’ is a crafts masterpiece that deserves Oscars attention below-the-line

“Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio” hit Netflix a few weeks back, and it has already received a few critics’ awards and nominations, though it’s a very different animated movie than we normally get over the course of a year, being a stop-motion animated film del Toro directed with Mark Gustafson, working with Portland stop-motion animation house ShadowMachine. Lisa Henson, daughter of the late great puppeteer Jim Henson, is one of the film’s producers, which gives the film even more of a pedigree within that world.

But let’s rewind a bit. Del Toro’s 2006 movie “Pan’s Labyrinth” was Oscar-nominated for Best Foreign Language Film (now known as Best International Feature), but lost to Germany’s “The Lives of Others.” Nevertheless, it was a visual masterpiece that won three Oscars for Best Cinematography, Best Art Direction, and Best Makeup. Eleven years later del Toro’s “The Shape of Water” received even more Oscar love, getting 13 Oscar nominations and winning Best Picture, Best Director, Best Original Score by Alexandre Desplat, and Best Production Design.

Now del Toro has turned his attention to animation, specifically stop-motion animation, in order to retell Carlo Collodi’s story of “Pinocchio,” the wooden puppet that comes to life and gets into all sorts of troublesome adventures. Like del Toro’s previous films, it’s a visual masterpiece, and it’s guaranteed to get into the Best Animated Feature category, but there’s been such love for del Toro’s version that it could potentially get other Oscar nominations too.

Collodi’s classic children’s story has been adapted in many different forms over the years, and Matteo Garone’s fairly recent version of the story in Italian received two Oscar nominations for its costume design and makeup and hairstyling, despite not being Italy’s Oscar submission that year.

Production Design has regularly been a category in which del Toro’s films have shined, even being one of four nominations that his last film, “Nightmare Alley,” got earlier this year. “Pinocchio” was designed by the team of Guy Davis, a long-time collaborator with del Toro doing concept art and designs for his earlier films, and Curt Enderle, who designed the sets for Laika’s stop-motion animated film “ParaNorman.” 

The duo’s work includes every single building and location, as well as the look of the characters, both human and otherwise. Among them are the distinctive looks for Sebastian J. Cricket, voiced by Ewan McGregor, and Christoph Waltz’s Count Volpe, as well as two characters voiced by Tilda Swinton — the Wood Sprite and Death — and Volpe’s chimp Spazzatura, voiced by Cate Blanchett. The art team employed no less than six set decorators adding further detail to the sets with hand-crafted items to bring various locations like Geppetto’s workshop to life.

Another key role in creating the look for del Toro’s movie was the film’s “director of character fabrication,” Georgina Hayns at Mackinnon & Saunders in the UK, who was in charge of creating the puppets, which involved costuming them as well as paint and wigs, duties that would normally be handled by specific departments in a live action production.

Cinematographer Frank Passingham previously provided his skills to Laika’s Oscar-nominated “Kubo and the Two Strings,” a rare animated film to also get an Oscar nomination in the Visual Effects category. His lighting and camerawork here helped make the puppets and locations feel even more real than normal for stop-motion animation.

The film’s editors, Holly Klein and Ken Schretzmann, also deserve a lot of credit since they’re assembling stop-motion work from dozens of animators that includes close-ups of the puppets cut into longer shots; the editing helps establish the movement flow of the puppets that makes them feel more lifelike. Klein previously worked in the editorial department for “ParaNorman,” and Schretzmann also has experience editing animation but for CG movies like “The Secret Life of Pets” and “Toy Story 3,” one of three animated films ever to get a Best Picture nomination.

Although the filmmakers behind “Pinocchio” pride themselves on the amount of hand-crafted work on display, visual effects are still important to stop-motion animation even if it only involves digitally removing the wires and rigging necessary to bring the puppets to life. But there are probably enough live-action movies with impressive visual effects that this will be a tough category for this animated film to get much traction in.

Composer Alexandre Desplat won one of his two Oscars for del Toro’s “The Shape of Water,” and his score for “Pinocchio” has already been shortlisted for Desplat to potentially get another Oscar nomination. Desplat also co-wrote many of the film’s songs, of which “Ciao Papa,” co-written with del Toro, also made the shortlist. 

It makes one wonder why a stop-motion animated film hasn’t been able to get more awards love for its below-the-line crew. The directors branch of the academy has almost never shown love for the directors of animated movies either, even as those movies have won in the Animated Feature and Original Score categories.

“Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio” is guaranteed to be one of those five Animated Feature nominees, but the academy could really turn some heads if some of its other branches give an animated movie love for the work by some of its talented below-the-line craftspeople for once. (Incidentally, if you happen to be in New York City between now and April 15, you can see many of the puppets and sets for “Pinocchio” at the Museum of Modern Art.)

Make your predictions at Gold Derby now. Download our free and easy app for Apple/iPhone devices or Android (Google Play) to compete against legions of other fans plus our experts and editors for best prediction accuracy scores. See our latest prediction champs. Can you top our esteemed leaderboards next? Always remember to keep your predictions updated because they impact our latest racetrack odds, which terrify Hollywood chiefs and stars. Don’t miss the fun. Speak up and share your huffy opinions in our famous forums where 5,000 showbiz leaders lurk every day to track latest awards buzz. Everybody wants to know: What do you think? Who do you predict and why?