Netflix has announced the voice cast for Guillermo del Toro’s stop-motion Pinocchio ! According to Animation World Network, the main cast includes Ewan McGregor (Birds of Prey) as Cricket, David Bradley (Game of Thrones) as Geppetto, with newcomer Gregory Mann (Victoria) as our favorite wannabe boy.
The musical film will be made in stop-motion animation with the additional voice talents of Tilda Swinton, Christopher Waltz, Finn Wolfhard (Stranger Things), Cate Blanchett, John Turturro (The Batman), Ron Perlman (Nightmare Alley), Tim Blake Nelson (Watchmen), and Burn Gorman (Enola Holmes).

The film marks the culmination of del Toro’s lifelong passion project:
“After years of pursuing this dream project, I found my perfect partner in Netflix. We have spent a long time curating a remarkable cast and crew and have been blessed by continuous support from Netflix to quietly and carefully soldier on, barely missing a beat. We all love and practice animation with great passion and believe it to be the ideal medium to retell this classic story in a completely new way.”
Guillermo del Toro
Guillermo del Toro and Mark Gustafson (Fantastic Mr. Fox) are the co-directors, and The Jim Henson Company and ShadowMachine are conjointly producing the film. Despite the wide-spread pandemic, production has been able to continue uninterrupted.
Co-written by del Toro and Patrick McHale (Adventure Time), the film presents a different twist from the famous Disney version:
“Drawing on the classic Carlo Collodi tale, this stop-motion musical follows the extraordinary journey of a wooden boy magically brought to life by a father’s wish. Set during the rise of Fascism in Mussolini’s Italy, del Toro’s Pinocchio is a story of love and disobedience as Pinocchio struggles to live up to his father’s expectations.”
Animation World Network
The upcoming stop-motion film is set to premiere in theaters as well as on Netflix sometime in 2021.