First look at Netflix’s ‘Pinocchio’ promises a very un-Disney dark fairy tale

For those who watched the original Disney Pinocchio movie, with its traumatizing scenes of kids morphing into donkeys, and thought “hey, what if you made this story even darker?” then the perfect movie for you is coming right up. Later this year, Netflix is serving up Guillermo del Toro’s own unique adaptation of Pinocchio, a stop-motion animated effort that promises to be a dark and gothic fairy tale that’ll go even harder than the Mouse House’s 1940 version.

We got a brief teaser for it back in January, but this batch of first-look images supply us with our best look yet at the upcoming feature film. As shared by Vanity Fair, these pics not only showcase the movie’s breathtaking visual style, but also highlight many of its key characters. From Pinocchio himself (Gregory Mann) to his toymaker father Gepetto (David Bradley) and insectoid guide Sebastian J. — not Jiminy — Cricket (Ewan McGregor). Catch the images in the gallery below:

Just as you would expect, del Toro is putting his own stamp on the material with this one, with his innovations promising to make the story much more mature and surreal. For instance, one pic above sees Pinocchio in a strange void, which is apparently another realm he will enter to reflect on what he has learned on his adventures throughout the film. Meanwhile, another depicts Geppetto and a young boy in a church. This is Carlo, Geppetto’s biological son who dies, hence his desire to create himself a new child.

Elsewhere, the puppet boy will encounter two original villains in the film — Count Volpe (Christoph Waltz), based on the cunning fox from the classic tale, and the Podesta (Ron Perlman), who views Pinocchio as the perfect soldier. The A-list voice cast doesn’t end there, either, as Finn Wolfhard, Tilda Swinton, and Cate Blanchett likewise have roles.

Pinocchio is set to release exclusively on Netflix sometime this December.