Festivals - SBIFF 2023: at Mike's Field Trip To The Movies - Screening Of Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio

By Mulder, Santa Barbara, Arlington Theater,, 16 february 2023

Mike’s Field Trip to the Movies reaches over 4,000+ underserved and low-income elementary school students each year, from around 30 schools throughout Santa Barbara County. The program includes a Common Core-compliant film studies unit for the classroom, school visits from industry professionals and a trip to the historic Arlington Theatre during the height of the Film Festival for a screening of one of the year’s best animated films, with a Q&A with the film’s director. SBIFF creates the study guides, arranges the classroom visits, and provides transportation for all Title 1 schools, all with the goal of enriching these students’ arts education, exposing them to the worlds of filmmaking and film analysis, and sparking a lifelong connection to the arts. For many of these students, Mike’s FieldTrip is their first trip to the movies, and what an experience it is!

Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio (or simply Pinocchio) is a 2022 stop-motion animated musical dark fantasy film directed by Guillermo del Toro and Mark Gustafson, with a screenplay by del Toro and Patrick McHale from a story by del Toro and Matthew Robbins.[7] Loosely based on the 1883 Italian novel The Adventures of Pinocchio by Carlo Collodi, and strongly influenced by Gris Grimly's illustrations for a 2002 edition of the book, it reimagines the story of Pinocchio, a wooden puppet who comes to life as the son of his carver Geppetto. It is "a story of love and disobedience as Pinocchio struggles to live up to his father's expectations, learning the true meaning of life", set in Fascist Italy during the interwar period and World War II.[8] The film stars the voices of Gregory Mann and David Bradley as the title character and Geppetto respectively, alongside Ewan McGregor, Burn Gorman, Ron Perlman, John Turturro, Finn Wolfhard, Cate Blanchett, Tim Blake Nelson, Christoph Waltz, and Tilda Swinton.

A longtime passion project for del Toro, who considers that no other character ever "had as deep of a personal connection to [him]" as Pinocchio, the film was originally announced in 2008 aiming for a 2013 or 2014 release. However, it went into development hell. In January 2017, McHale, creator of Over the Garden Wall, was announced to co-write the screenplay, but production was suspended in November 2017 as no studios were willing to provide financing. It was revived the following year after being acquired by Netflix. The film is dedicated to the memories of del Toro's parents.

Pinocchio premiered at the BFI London Film Festival on October 15, 2022. It was released in select theaters on November 9, 2022, and began streaming on Netflix on December 9. The film received critical acclaim for its animation, visuals, music, story, emotional weight and voice acting. It received many accolades, including a nomination for Best Animated Feature at the 95th Academy Awards,and three nominations at the 80th Golden Globe Awards, winning Best Animated Feature Film. Del Toro is the first Latino to win the Golden Globe category, and Pinocchio is the first film for a streaming service to win it.

You can discover the official photos on our Flickr page

Synopsis : 
A retelling of the famous Carlo Collodi fairytale about a wooden puppet who comes to life and dreams of becoming a real boy takes place in 1930s Fascist Italy. When Pinocchio comes to life, however, he turns out not to be a nice boy but instead the opposite, causing mischief and playing mean tricks. But at its core, Pinocchio is "a story of love and disobedience as Pinocchio struggles to live up to his father's expectations, learning the true meaning of life."

Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio
Directed by Guillermo del Toro, Mark Gustafson
Screenplay by Guillermo del Toro, Patrick McHale, Matthew Robbins
Based on The Adventures of Pinocchio by Carlo Collodi
Produced by Guillermo del Toro, Lisa Henson, Alexander Bulkley, Corey Campodonico, Gary Ungar
Starring  Ewan McGregor, David Bradley, Gregory Mann, Ron Perlman, Cate Blanchett, Finn Wolfhard, Christoph Waltz, Tilda Swinton
Cinematography : Frank Passingham
Edited by Holly Klein, Ken Schretzmann
Music by Alexandre Desplat
Production companies : Netflix Animation, The Jim Henson Company, Pathé, ShadowMachine, Double Dare You Productions, Necropia Entertainment, El Taller del Chucho
Distributed by Netflix
Release dates : October 15, 2022 (LFF), November 2022 (United States), December 9, 2022 (Netflix)
Running time : 114 minutes

Videos and photos: Courtesy of SBIFF
Photos: Copyright Tibrina Hobson / Getty Images for SBIFF