Del Toro's 'Pinocchio' And What Japanese Animation Can Teach The West

Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio - Netflix / Netflix Animation / Double Dare You / ShadowMachine / The Jim Henson Company / Taller del Chucho

In his acceptance speech for this year’s Academy Award for Best Animated Feature, the acclaimed Guillermo del Toro echoed what animators have been saying for years: “[A]nimation is not a genre for kids[.] It’s a medium.” Though animation in Hollywood is still largely seen as a children’s medium, animation in Japan has long stood on its own as an art form capable of telling a wide range of stories. Some of the world’s highest-grossing traditionally animated films are Japanese anime films. Iconic anime films that may not gain Western critical acclaim have become seminal animated works, setting significant precedents in the industry as well as serving as inspiration for filmmakers regardless of medium. At the same time, Hollywood has attempted to create live-action adaptations of some of the most popular anime, only to see them struggle with critics and in the box office alike. It’s clear there is something about the animated medium that deeply resonates with audiences. As Western animators strive to show animation is more than a children’s medium and indeed a force to be reckoned with, it only makes sense to analyze the success of Japanese anime and discover the lessons that can be learned from Japan's powerhouse of an animation industry. 

Though Japanese animation goes all the way back to early 20th century, it wasn’t until the 1980s that anime experienced its golden age. Japan’s bubble economy in the ‘80s allowed for more anime films and shows to be made with higher budgets and more experimental styles, resulting in content exploring an array of different genres, as well as immense worldwide interest the medium. 1988 gave the world Akira, known as one of the greatest films of all time. Despite being animated, the film is not for children. Akira is rated R for graphic violence and brief nudity and is given a 16+ label by Common Sense Media. It is packed with profanity, gore, and brutal violence. One of the most gruesome scenes of the film is in its beginning: a man repeatedly shot down by riot police. Despite its brutality, Akira’s international success proves that Western audiences do appreciate animated films for adults. So many iconic Western works are inspired by the film one way or another: from The Matrix (1999) to Nope (2022) to Michael and Janet Jackson, it’s not hard to see that the West absolutely loves Akira. So why aren’t there more films like it? 

The West’s bias against animated films that restricts the medium as whole to being for children means some Western animated films aimed at adults go to extreme lengths to prove themselves as such and this comes at the expense of possibilities for more earnest stories. Despite its gore, Akira wasn’t pure bloody mayhem. Set in a dystopian 2019 cyberpunk Neo-Tokyo (renamed after the Japanese government dropped an atomic bomb on the city in 1988 to cover up its failed experiments on children), Akira follows a bike gang leader as he tries to save his friend who is experiencing symptoms of unhinged insanity after gaining psychic powers. Akira’s story, noted to be an allegory for the aftermath of the U.S. nuclear bomb drops on Japan in WW2, deals with themes of government corruption, military and police brutality, and the uncontrollable dangers of one person having too much power. Meanwhile, most of the content from the West that is identified as “adult animation” proves that status through its black comedy and dark humor, filled with gratuitous vulgarities, indulgent physical violence, and overtly sexual content. Though there’s nothing wrong with films like Sausage Party (2016), raunchy adult animated films seem to only succeed in calling themselves adult by being overtly inappropriate. It’s as if the filmmakers are so afraid for their film to be seen as childish that they go to incredible lengths to prove just how bad for children they can be. Of course, that doesn’t mean animated films must be serious and void of any fun. On the contrary, anime films like the works of internationally acclaimed director Hayao Miyazaki prove that animated films can be about more “childish” fantasy worlds and storylines and still have deep messaging aimed at adults and older kids. Internationally acclaimed as one of the greatest animation directors of all time, Miyazaki’s work is known for exploring philosophical themes in high fantasy or magical realist settings. Though many of his protagonists are girls or young women, part of the wide appeal of his work is their humanist narratives that deeply resonate with people from all walks of life and of all ages. One of his breakthrough films, the acclaimed Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind (1984), is one of Japan’s Agency for Cultural Affairs highest ranked Japanese anime. Though the film’s protagonist is a 16-year-old girl, its anti-war and environmentalist political messaging make it a sophisticated work of art that even adults can thoroughly enjoy.  

Hollywood tends to talk down to its audience in its animated films, as show in the quality of live-action adaptions of popular Japanese anime series and films. The 2017 live-action remake of the 1995 anime film Ghost in the Shell embarrassingly bombed at the box office, losing around $60 million where the original made $10 million on a $2 million budget. Though Ghost is a Japanese-British international co-production, it’s screenplay and original manga are both written by Japanese creatives. The original Ghost used its cyberpunk setting and characters to explore questions of human consciousness. If processes like memory can be edited or moved from body to body, what is ours, and how much of it is still human? The film challenges this through Major Motoko Kusanagi, a cyborg government agent leading Public Security Section 9 of New Port City, Japan. Kusanagi’s team is tracking down the Puppet Master, a mysterious entity who hacks the “ghosts” or cybernetic consciousnesses that inhabit “shells” or cyber-human bodies. Most impressive about the 1995 film is its unique ending which, unlike most human versus technology narratives, resolves in not a victor and loser but a merging of the antagonist Puppet Master and protagonist Kusanagi. 2017 live-action Ghost didn’t have that same level of nuance. Instead, 2017’s Ghost in the Shell completely misses the mark when it comes to the original film’s existential tone, resulting in an unremarkable story. 2017 Kusanagi decides very unremarkably that she is both human in the mind and machine in the body, simplifying if not ignoring what made Ghost 1995’s conclusion so epic. This kind of patronizing and diminishing failure is consistent among Western live-action anime adaptations. Western creatives seem afraid of animation's limitless power. Much like 1995 Kusanagi’s decision to erase the lines between her humanity and machinery, the West should embrace uncertainty in storytelling and limitlessness in animation. As the Puppet Master put it all those years ago: “All things change in a dynamic environment. Your effort to remain what you are is what limits you.” 

Though anime-inspired animation has been made more popular in kid’s TV and film in the West, the West’s view of animation as a children’s medium makes it difficult for adult animated film to gain footing. Animation’s range can enhance storytelling no matter the theme or plot, but Western creators are often hesitant to use it. The author of the graphic novel Persepolis spoke on the importance of the film adaptation being animated because of the story’s serious political themes and not despite them. Author Marjane Satrapi said that “with live-action, it would have turned into a story of people living in a distant land who didn’t look like us[.] At best, it would have been an exotic story, and at worst, a ‘third-world’ story.” The producer for Persepolis (2007) noted the power of the medium, despite his original reluctance to work in animation: “I didn’t want to work on an animated movie at all! […] I knew how complicated it was.” The production for The Breadwinner (2017) has a similar story, with director Nora Twomey saying “I think that animation is very broad... so I don't see why it needs to be thought of as just a babysitting device...” Similarly, Guillermo del Toro chose to explore political themes in Pinocchio (2022) and didn’t reposition the more serious storyline in a live action setting. Rather, Pinocchio (2022) is even more fantastical than Disney’s 1940 film. Del Toro’s subversive film reconsiders what it means for Pinocchio to be a “real boy”: “To me, it's essential to counter the idea that you have to change into a flesh-and-blood child to be a real human. All you need to be human is to really behave like one, you know? I have never believed that transformation [should] be demanded to gain love.” Similarly, films needn’t be live-action to be “real” serious works. What makes a story truly groundbreaking is what it seeks to question, not how it looks doing so. Hopefully, Japan’s continued success with adult animation and the recent triumphs of Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio wake Hollywood up to the fantastic and limitless potential of the animation medium.