Transmedia storytelling at its core is the migration of narrative content across various media and how they interact with each other in ever more complex ways (Jenkins, 2010). In recent times there is no lack of examples of transmedia storytelling. Seeing world famous characters and series such as Spider-Man, Barbie, Pokémon, Star Wars, etc, entering various universes is becoming a regular occurrence. The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles appeared in the latest entry of the Street Fighter game series, Robocop entered a Mortal Kombat game, The Witcher became one of the most acclaimed games of the last decade, and Pinocchio entered the world of gaming to combat a puppet revolt in the city of Krat. In this blog I will look at Collodi’s Pinocchio and its intertextual elements (Kristeva, 1960) with the Bible, as well as Pinocchio’s hand drawn readaptation by Walt Disney (1940), Guillermo Del Toro’s stop motion animated readaptation (2023), and the video game readaptation Lies of P (2023) developed by Neowiz.
Pinocchio, a novel written by Carlo Collodi in 1883, features intertextual elements. For instance, it incorporates references from the Bible’s book of Jonah by having Geppetto, Pinocchio’s father, and Pinocchio eaten by a sea monster. As Jonah gets eaten by a sea monster and then released to obey God’s orders, Pinocchio gets eaten by a sea monster and then released to receive a reward. The book has historically been aimed at a younger audience, having a young protagonist, and other fantastic creatures such as fairies and talking animals, made the novel one of the best-selling books for children (BBC, 2023). One of Pinocchio’s main interpretations was to teach the youth to behave and follow orders to be rewarded. Pinocchio has seen many other representations, such as Disney’s Pinocchio animated musical fantasy film in 1940. The animated adaptation, the third animated film made by an American studio, won several prestigious awards such as the best music and best original song by Leigh Harline and Ned Washington with “When You Wish Upon a Star.” Although the film was a success, it flopped at the box office, due to the World War II which blocked the European and Asian markets. Nonetheless, the film was a groundbreaking achievement in effects and animation, and it is now considered one of the best animated films ever according to Metacritic (2022).
More recently, Guillermo Del Toro readapted Pinocchio’s novel and released his rendition using stop motion animation with a more grounded, realistic setting for the film. Differently from Disney’s hand drawn animated adaptation, Del Toro’s Pinocchio (2023) features an historical representation of the novel, setting Pinocchio in the Fascist Italian regime of the 1940s. in my opinion, this is a transmedia example where one readaptation has influenced the other one since Del Toro’s film has been set in the 1940s, the year when Disney published the Pinocchio animated film. Del Toro’s version has been awarded some of the most important awards including best animated feature film at the Golden Globe Awards 2023. Besides the political context of the film, there are other significant differences that contradistinguish this version of Pinocchio. For instance, Geppetto’s sorrow and drunkenness when sculpting Pinocchio, trying to release the pain of having lost a son, Carlo. Another notable difference is that Pinocchio does not turn into a human boy after the sea monster episode. In an interview with Variety (2022), Guillermo Del Toro says:” 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.” Also, talking about the topic of obedience, which Pinocchio is historically associated with, Del Toro sees Pinocchio as an exuberant, full of life character, compared to other human characters who quickly start taking advantage of the young protagonist and behave more like puppets of a system. For instance, characters such as Podesta will try to manipulate and enrol Pinocchio in the fascist army, seeing in him as a potentially immortal soldier.
A clear connection between the original and the renditions has been the concept of death and rebirth. One concept that probably inspired the developer Neowiz to create another rendition of Pinocchio as a videogame with Lies of P. The videogame which enters the growing list of Souls like games inspired by Hidetaka Miyazaki, loosely follow the Pinocchio’s novel setting the story in the city of Krat, under the siege of a puppet revolt. Central to the theme of Souls games is the concept of death and how it affects world exploration and gameplay. Similarly to other Souls games such as Bloodborne, the city is infested by a mysterious disease and the protagonist is on a quest to find the root cause of the problem. However, there are some key differences to the Souls formula which make this game stand out and bring it closer to another game of the genre: Sekiro (Activision, 2019). Like in Sekiro, the character is a hero, Pinocchio is the protagonist; this is fundamental to the story and differs from other Souls games which have a non-hero, customisable character with a generic background. However, this trait is ambiguous as Pinocchio is usually associated with non-hero characteristics such as lying and misbehaving. His inability to follow rules, his reluctance to work and lies, have historically associated Pinocchio with immoral behavior. In the video game, what contradistinguishes Pinocchio from other puppets is his ability to lie; this ability will allow Pinocchio to advance. This is one of the main departures from the original Collodi’s tale where lying was portrayed as a bad trait. Analogously, Geppetto, usually portrayed as a benevolent figure, will result in being dishonest. Regarding the level design, this separates the game from other Souls games like Bloodborne. Although death is a principal component of the gameplay, the positioning of the save points favours a more action-oriented style of playing rather than a level exploration approach. Similarly to Sekiro, the ability to parry enemies is a central skill to winning battles. Obviously Sekiro and Lies of P have major differences, especially about the world setting, one being set in Japan and the other in Europe, giving characters different skills as a result. The challenging gameplay and initial settings make Lies of P a Souls game, but the originality of the Pinocchio theme remains central to the development of the narrative and gameplay.
In conclusion, it is interesting to see how Pinocchio can inspire such different stories across multiple media. Transmedia can be a remarkably effective practice to create engaging stories which people can empathise with and relate to. Nonetheless, it is also interesting to see how different games such as Sekiro and Lies of P can influence each other and create effective storytelling using different references.
References:
Baroni, R., Goudmand, A., Ryan, ML. (2023). Transmedial Narratology and Transmedia Storytelling. In: Bruhn, J., López-Varela, A., de Paiva Vieira, M. (eds) The Palgrave Handbook of Intermediality. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-91263-5_16-1
Collodi, C. (1883) Pinocchio: The Story of a Puppet.
Del Toro G., Gustafson M. (2022) Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio. Online: Netflix
Guy Lodge (2022) ‘Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio’ Review: The Fantasy Master’s Distinctive Stop-Motion Take on the Old Story Carves Out Its Own Way Available at: https://variety.com/2022/film/reviews/guillermo-del-toros-pinocchio-review-1235404540/ [Accessed 7 Jan 2024]
Ilkka Lähteenmäki (2021) Transmedia history, Rethinking History, 25:3, 281-306, DOI: 10.1080/13642529.2021.1963597
Jenkins, H. (2010). Transmedia Storytelling and Entertainment: An annotated syllabus. Continuum: Journal of Media & Cultural Studies, 24(6), 943–958. https://doi.org/10.1080/10304312.2010.510599
Lies of P (2023) Playstation 5 [Game] Online: Neowiz, Round 8 Studio
Pinocchio (1940) [VHS] Directed by Ben Sharpsteen, Hamilton Luske. Walt Disney
Sekiro (2019) Playstation 4 [Game] Online: Activision, FromSoftware
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