Having nosed through the door of the Pooniverse, Pinocchio has officially joined the ranks of Pooh, Bambi, and Peter Pan with Reese Flake-Waterfield’s “Pinocchio Unstrung.” In the latest addition to the ever-growing list of twists on childhood icons that started with 2023’s Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey, Carlo Collodi’s classic doll takes his dream of becoming a boy one step further…
Pinocchio Unstrung, the fifth entry in the expanding Pooniverse, also known as the Twisted Childhood Universe, first introduces James, a young boy grieving the loss of his childhood friend. Seeing his grandson suffer, Geppetto (Richard Brake) presents him with a new companion, the titular doll. Soon, under the influence of the evil Cricket (Robert Englund), Pinocchio begins a murderous rampage to free James from the evils around him, gradually becoming a real boy in the process.
After the film’s two successful showings at the Raindance Film Festival, Flake-Waterfield said in an interview with Variety that his Jagged Edge Productions banner has an extensive list of adaptable IPs, and he has to be careful about who he lets into this complex, bloody world. “‘Pinocchio’ suited my style tonally, because there were two routes you could go: the creepy puppet route, like in ‘Annabelle,’ or the more creepy, clever, fun route. That’s where I went. I’m the type of director who likes to make things feel fun and quirky by nature. This is not a movie that’s meant to be taken seriously.”
“I had just done a VFX-heavy movie with ‘Bambi,’ and it had a giant deer in it, so I had to do that. So I thought I’d challenge myself and make the puppet the star,” he added. “He was easier to work with than other actors (lol). He could control his arm movements, his eyes, everything. It was a lot of fun.”
Pinocchio has been a hugely popular IP in recent years, with two animated adaptations coming out in 2022: a Disney project directed by Robert Zemeckis and a Netflix project directed by Guillermo del Toro. Flake-Waterfield believes that his view of the story is close to that of the Mexican author, primarily due to his interest in practical effects.
“I wanted it to have a crafty feel,” he says. “That was an important direction, and I hope it gives it a quirky, crafty feel. I think that would be nearly impossible to recreate if you went down the VFX or CGI route, because some of the jerky movements of Pinocchio really bring this movie to life. I think what del Toro did with stop motion is the right direction, because the whole story of ‘Pinocchio’ is about handiwork.”
With that in mind, Flake-Waterfield commissioned Emmy Award-winning special effects artist Todd Masters (Child’s Play, Dune Part 2) to design the doll. “Pinocchio is the star. He’s the monster that defeats the heroes, so his design is essential to making the movie good, and Todd is one of the best.”
The director was also keen to bring a fresh concept to the classic story of a doll who dreams of becoming a boy. “Unstrung” doesn’t touch on much of Pinocchio’s backstory, but it introduces a new important character in the form of Mother Tree, and eschews the old “lying is bad” narrative in favor of watching a doll lean into gore. While the familiar elements are there, no other adaptation so accurately depicts a puppet tearing teeth and pulling skin while blood drips from deep cracks in the wood.
“Pinocchio: Unstringed” (Courtesy of Altitude Film)
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This combination of clever practical effects and fresh backstory brought Unstrung to a loving audience, and the film received some of the best reviews in the series. It’s quite a step up from the first film, Blood and Honey, which sparked a frenzied hate campaign on the internet and ultimately pushed the film into theaters, grossing more than 50 times its shoestring budget.
“I’m a very thick-headed person, so it wasn’t an issue for me at all,” Flake-Waterfield said of the online hate for the first film. “People who start any career don’t reach their full potential at first, so we’ve ignored it. It was the same for us when we started making movies. The important thing is to keep growing and keep getting better. I think that’s why ‘Pinocchio’ is such a huge improvement over the first ‘Blood and Honey’ and why everyone thinks it’s the best thing we’ve ever made.”
Improved quality and increased budget meant that Flake Waterfield and the Jagged Edge Productions team were able to bring bigger guns to bear on “Unstrung.” Legendary “A Nightmare on Elm Street” actor Robert Englund provides the voice of Cricket, and famed Rob Zombie collaborator Richard Blake plays Geppetto.
“Since Robert is older, it made sense to give him a character that he could do voice work for without having to fly to England, do aggressive stunts, or take part in physically demanding scenes,” says the director, who also voiced the terrifying Freddy Krueger. “He could do it from a distance, but we still got a lot out of his performance and his ability to portray this character. I obviously didn’t animate Cricket until I had Robert’s voice, so his performance developed the mannerisms of the character.”
With Unstrung now available worldwide, Flake-Waterfield can fully focus on Poohniverse: Monsters Assemble, perhaps his biggest project to date. This massive crossover movie reunites all the characters from the Twisted Childhood universe in an “Avengers” style fashion. “We’ve incorporated Pinocchio’s backstory, but in a way, we’ve created each Avengers in their own way,” he says. “This is one of the scripts I’m working on, and I’m hoping to shoot it late this year or early next year.”
“It’s going to be a lot of fun,” he added. “I think you can tell by the tone of other films I’ve directed. It’s going to be weird and crazy and fun. I hope I can be the first person in the horror world to make a film like this.”
Pinocchio Unstrung is released in the UK on July 24th, courtesy of Altitude. The film will be released in North American theaters on the same day through Viva Pictures.
