Upon a STAR...
FATHER FIGURE
Heartbroken and angry over the death of his young son, a drunken Geppetto decides to carve a puppet out of wood and names him Pinocchio. To voice the weathered woodcarver, the director turned to veteran actor David Bradley, whose many credits include and
‘It’s an emotional roller coaster of a part,’ says David, 80, who previously collaborated with Guillermo on animated TV series and American horror drama
‘It’s more like than the I remembered from when I was a kid. Geppetto’s much more gnarled and less cuddly, but he’s a good soul, I think. It’s the sheer grief that turns him into this bitter alcoholic who can never move on. And when this puppet arrives, you think, “Well, this isn’t going to help him,” but it does.’
The Talking Cricket in Carlo Collodi’s story was renamed Jiminy Cricket in Disney’s 1940 animation and is called Sebastian J Cricket in Guillermo’s film. When Pinocchio is behaving badly, the intelligent insect acts as his conscience. Voicing Cricket is
star Ewan Mcgregor, 51.
‘I knew what voice was in my head for Cricket, how he would use highfalutin words,’ says Guillermo. ‘I imagined he would think of himself as a philosopher and a raconteur, but Ewan gave a performance that I haven’t heard from him. It has a nobility and a sweetness in the extreme.’
The voice cast also includes a trio of Oscar winners: Tilda Swinton as Wood Sprite and Death, the sisters who give life and take it, Christoph Waltz as villainous Count Volpe and Cate Blanchett as Spazzatura, Volpe’s mistreated monkey assistant.