'Pinocchio' review: Guillermo del Toro crafts a practically perfect revamp

Del Toro's wonderful new take on the classic tale is the most essential adaptation of Carlo Collodi's novel since Walt Disney's 1940 cartoon masterpiece. – Photos: Netflix

The story of Pinocchio is pretty strange if you think about it: Wooden puppet comes to life, wants to be a real boy, has conversations with a morally superior cricket – as one does, apparently – and discovers in a terrifying fashion that his nose grows when he lies. (That bit has been carried through generations of fibbing kids by their moms and dads.)

This is all to say that's the sort of thing made for Oscar-winning filmmaker Guillermo del Toro, whose wheelhouse (which includes the likes of Hellboy and Pan's Labyrinth) is built of weirdness.