Is the world ready for Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio? Considering that his last film, the “unique” love story The Shape of Water, took home four Academy Awards, including for Best Director and Best Picture, we’re going to say that, yes, we’re pretty much open to anything his imagination brings forth.

Pinocchio will be produced for Netflix and it will be created using stop-motion animation (think Tim Burton’s A Nightmare Before Christmas or The Corpse Bride as examples of stop-motion), and it will likely be very different from any version of the fairy tale that we’ve seen before.

“No art form has influenced my life and my work more than animation and no single character in history has had as deep of a personal connection to me as Pinocchio,” Guillermo said regarding the project. “In our story, Pinocchio is an innocent soul with an uncaring father who gets lost in a world he cannot comprehend. He embarks on an extraordinary journey that leaves him with a deep understanding of his father and the real world. I’ve wanted to make this movie for as long as I can remember. After the incredible experience we have had on Trollhunters, I am grateful that the talented team at Netflix is giving me the opportunity of a lifetime to introduce audiences everywhere to my version of this strange puppet-turned-real-boy.”

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(Photo by Franco Origlia/Getty Images)

Guillermo first mentioned his dream of a stop-motion animated Pinocchio as far back as 2008. In fact, last year at the Venice Film Festival during a press conference for The Shape of Water, he mentioned the project, commenting, “I’ve been looking for financing for almost ten years. We have the puppets, we have the design. I always or almost always complicate my life. None of the movies I want to do are easy. And they don’t belong to anything anyone wanted to do at that time. No one wanted to do superheroes when I did Hellboy. No one wanted to do monsters when I did Pacific Rim. When I announced Pinocchio, I got many calls: ‘Yeah but it’s set during the rise of Mussolini; it’s an anti-fascist Pinocchio.’ [mimes they all hung up] If you have $35 million and if you want to make a Mexican happy, here I am.”

Obviously, Netflix has $35 million and they want to make this particular Mexican very happy indeed.

An anti-fascist Pinocchio? We can’t wait!