Del Toro interest into setting imagination against fascism, one of the most constant themes of his career, serves his take of Pinocchio. Quite a few of his reimaginings of the tale are successful. And stop motion animation works towards making the best of his fanciful horror sensibility in a way he hardly manage elsewhere. It peaks early with Pinocchio's violent birth, but lots of this have the best of Del Toro's visual ideas and little of the bland qualities that often hold him back. I wish there were no songs and a little more Cricket, but those are small misgivings.