You never know what you’re going to get from a Guillermo del Toro movie. Each Guillermo del Toro project is a passport to a whole new world, with his best movies – from Pan’s Labyrinth to The Shape of Water – cementing him as one of the best directors working today.
When it comes to his new movies, though, Del Toro has a change of focus on his mind. Last year, he delivered one of the best animated movies in years with his masterful stop-motion version of Pinocchio for Netflix, and he has now been bitten by the animation bug.
The Hollywood Reporter revealed that Del Toro spoke at the Annecy Animation Festival earlier this month, and made it clear that animation will be his priority going forward.
He said: “There are a couple more live-action movies I want to do but not many. After that, I only want to do animation. That’s the plan.” It seems he might be transitioning to the animated world after he finishes work on his forthcoming version of Frankenstein.
Expanding on his love for the medium of animation, Del Toro added: “I believe you can make an adult fantasy drama with stop-motion and move people emotionally. I think stop-motion can be intravenous, it can go straight to your emotions in a way that no other medium can.”
That’s not to say that Del Toro wants a cosy life making blockbuster animation for the big studios. He thinks he might have a fight on his hands to save a medium that, in his words, has “been kidnapped by a bunch of hoodlums”.
He added: “[If] I see a character raising his fucking eyebrow, or crossing his arms, having a sassy pose — oh, I hate that shit. [Why] does everything act as if they’re in a sitcom? I think it’s emotional pornography. All the families are happy and sassy and quick, everyone has a one-liner.”
A one-man crusade to fix animated cinema? Well, we’d follow anyone as brilliant as Guillermo del Toro into just about any battle, so he has our sword. It’s an animated one, of course.
Meanwhile, Del Toro has been singing the praises of Spider-Verse 2. We agree, as you can see from our Across the Spider-Verse review, and you can also read our Shameik Moore and Hailee Steinfeld interview for more from the Spider-World.
We’ve also got guides to the 2023 movies we can’t wait to see, including the Killers of the Flower Moon release date, the Barbie movie release date, and the Dune 2 release date.