In Carlo Collodi's 1883 novel "The Adventures of Pinocchio," the author creates a truly fantastical world where all sorts of magical creatures exist throughout the Italian countryside. Pinocchio himself is the result of magic brought about when his creator, Geppetto, finds a sentient piece of wood which cries in pain as he tries to carve into it. And there are even more examples of fantastic beasts that are encountered throughout the episodic tale, with Pinocchio coming across a talking cricket, a fairy with turquoise hair, talking animals, shapeshifting spells, and other examples of otherworldly magic.
For his adaptation, Guillermo del Toro wanted to distance the story from some of the more unrealistic magical elements in order to root it as much as possible in reality. Essentially, this version cuts out all examples of magic aside from Pinocchio himself, the talking cricket, and two fairy sisters who oversee the puppet's journey between life and death.
During an interview with Vanity Fair, the director commented on this decision. "I didn't want magical creatures other than the wood spirit that gives him life, and Pinocchio himself," del Toro explained. "I didn't want a talking fox and a talking cat and the magic of transforming him into a donkey. I wanted everything else to feel as close as we can to the real world." This is a significant difference from both the original story and the Disney adaptation, which fully embraced the magical world that Pinocchio inhabited.
