Welcome to The Morning After, where I share with you what movies I’ve seen over the past week. Below, you will find short reviews of those movies along with a star rating. Full length reviews may come at a later date.

So, here is what I watched this past week:

Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio

Guillermo del Toro has a miniseries on Netflix called the Cabinet of Curiosities. That’s as apt a description for del Toro that I can imagine. His films always have a sense of wonder and suspense that make his voice an often thrilling one in cinema. Yet, some of his films feel a bit like those of Tim Burton, visually stunning and mesmerizing, but surprisingly uninspiring. Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio is just such a film. Based on the the popular children’s fairy tale The Adventures of Pinocchio by Carlo Collodi, the definitive version was crafted 80 years ago when Disney turned the beloved character into a feature length animated spectacle.

Del Toro tries to freshen up the story by transplanting it into World War II where Italy is fighting on the side of the Nazis and that provides a firm foundation for the story itself. Geppetto (voiced by David Bradley) is a kindly carpenter who makes statuary and other wooden creations for the village. His son Carlo (Gregory Mann) is a well-behaved young man and the pair live together in peace and harmony. A supposedly accidentally bomb strike no their church leaves Carlo dead and Geppetto grieving. Later, in a drunken rage at all that God had taken from him, he chops down a pine tree he had planted in his son’s honor and turns it into a marionette he names Pinocchio (Mann). He’s a disobedient boy and gets himself into a number of dangerous situations, many of which will be familiar to those who’ve seen the original.

The stop-motion animation is glorious and it’s wondrous to behold, but the story is a bit simplistic and the Nazi connection is a bit too obvious. Del Toro’s direction lacks the spark that made something like The Shape of Water so wonderful. Perhaps his lack of familiarity with the necessities of stop-motion animation made it more difficult for him to fully realize his vision. This is a project that, had it been produced by Laika, would have been even more magical and would have had that panache that makes their films so vibrant and wonderful. The original songs composed for the film aren’t terribly memorable and the score has its charms, but doesn’t have the zest a composer like Danny Elfman was able to bring to the aforementioned Burton’s most inspired works.

Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery

Knives Out was wildly popular upon release. It’s biggest supporters were awed by how the mystery was woven together. Yet, fans of mystery novels, like those of Agatha Christie, were less enamored. What some took for a wonderful sleight of hand, those of us who’ve read or watched extensively within the genre found it tepid and familiar, barely worthy of an episode of Murder, She Wrote. Yet, it was popular enough that writer/director Rian Johnson decided it needed a sequel, another Benoit Blanc (Daniel Craig) mystery.

It is clear from Johnson’s output that he does appreciate a good murder mystery. A cameo by Murder, She Wrote star Angela Lansbury not terribly long for her death, is a bittersweet moment and at a moment of surprising levity. He tries to jumble up the flashback elements of most mystery dramas so they aren’t saved by the end, but he makes some of his reveals anticlimactic as a result. His reveals come at awkward moments and it ultimately feels like one of those refrigerator magnet sets with different words you jumble together to make sentences.

Johnson also returns to the anti-wealthy well with this film. The last film focused on a rich family and this one focuses on rich friends. His digs at Elon Musk add some flavor and Edward Norton is keen on presenting them. However, on par with the prior film, this cast feels a bit weaker. That’s not because there aren’t good actors. Norton, Janelle Monáe, Leslie Odom Jr., Kathryn Hahn, and Daniel Craig are all solid, but this group is notably less starry than the prior. The actors do fine creating their largely disconnected figures with each adding something a little more relatable to their characters than the cast of the original, but apart from Monáe, there are no knock-out performances in this production.