Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio (2022) (with Lisa Scoggin)

Chris and Alex delve into the stop-motion world of Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio (Guillermo del Toro & Mark Gustafson, 2022) for Episode 152 of the podcast, joined in this discussion of loss, love, control, and craft by musicologist and animation historian Dr Lisa Scoggin. Lisa is an expert in animation and its relationship to music, publishing widely on everything from United Productions of America (UPA) to Cartoon Saloon, and with expertise that covers film and television music, ludomusicology, and twentieth-century American and British art music. Topics include where Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio fits within Hollywood’s growing stop-motion renaissance; puppetry, agency, monstrosity, and the “terrible joy” of Pinocchio’s creation; the film’s wartime context and contribution of its Fascist imagery to images of collective national trauma; Geppetto’s narration and twice-told tales foregrounded as memory; the ‘lyrical’ role of lullabies and folk songs in depicting Pinocchio’s self-growth; and what del Toro’s film tells us about how things that take time to build can be destroyed in an instant. **Fantasy/Animation theme tune composed by Francisca Araujo** **As featured on Feedspot’s 25 Best London Education Podcasts**