| “ | Ah! We have found him! Look Spazzatura, our miracle! Our sensation! Our star! | „ |
| ~ Count Volpe to Spazzatura upon finding Pinocchio. |
| “ | I think you misunderstand our relationship, my little fire hazard. I am the puppeteer, YOU are the puppet. I am the master, you are the slave. And you will do as I command, until your wooden body rots, and I use you to warm my FURNACE! You may have no "strings", but I control you. You obey... ME. Capisce? | „ |
| ~ Count Volpe's most infamous line as he angrily threatens to force Pinocchio to work against his will after the latter berates him while trying to defend Spazzatura from him. |
Count Volpe is one of the two main antagonists (alongside the Podestà) of the 2022 Netflix stop-motion animated musical dark fantasy film Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio, which is based on Gris Grimly's designs from his 2002 edition of the late Carlo Collodi's 1883 Italian novel The Adventures of Pinocchio.
He is a former Italian aristocrat who now works as a showman and puppeteer alongside his monkey Spazzatura during Benito Mussolini's rise to power in Fascist Italy during the 1930s. Upon meeting Pinocchio, a magical wooden boy, Count Volpe sees the perfect opportunity to relive his years of glory until becoming his arch-nemesis. He is based on (and is an amalgamation of) Mangiafuoco (more particularly the Disney version named Stromboli) and The Fox from the original Pinocchio story.
He was voiced by Christoph Waltz, who also played Hans Landa in Inglourious Basterds, Benjamin Chudnofsky in The Green Hornet, August Rosenbluth in Water for Elephants, Cardinal Richelieu in The Three Musketeers, Mandrake in Epic, Bert Hanson in Horrible Bosses 2, Walter Keane in Big Eyes, Ernst Stavro Blofeld in the James Bond rebooted film series, Léon Rom in The Legend of Tarzan and Miles Sellars in Most Dangerous Game.
History[]
Past[]
Years before the events of the film, Count Volpe used to be a wealthy and influential nobleman with Italian royalty, spending his days in luxury and prestige. However, with the rise of Fascism over the country after World War I, Volpe lost his social status and most of his money, reducing him to a mere carnival showman. With no other options, Volpe started a carnival of his own to gather enough money to enjoy a rich lifestyle again and possibly to get into Prime Minister Benito Mussolini's good graces, once attending one of his Fascist rallies.
At some point of his life, presumably once he was already working as a carnival showman, Count Volpe came across Spazzatura, a poor little monkey who no one wanted nor cared, trapped inside a cage. Knowing he would otherwise die if not rescued, Volpe got him out of his cage and made him his pet as well as one of his fellow carnival workers. However, Volpe spent most of the time mistreating Spazzatura if he displeased him, despite Spazzatura's immense loyalty to his owner.
Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio[]
Count Volpe is first seen at his circus where Spazzatura informs him of Pinocchio's existence and status as a living puppet, having been given life by the Wood Sprite. He intercepts Pinocchio going to school as he struggles with Sebastian J. Cricket about multiplications and convinces him to join the circus and has him sign a contract to guarantee legal claim, to which Pinocchio just draws a smiley face.
However, after performing a good show, Pinocchio's creator/father Geppetto arrives to reclaim him. Alerted by Spazzatura, Volpe tries to keep him at the circus, pointing out that he signed a contract, but in the scuffle with Geppetto, they accidentally toss Pinocchio to the road and he is run over by the Podestà and his wife. Volpe accompanies Geppetto and the Podestà to the hospital to see if Pinocchio survived or not, but Pinocchio is brought back to life (since he isn't a real human) by Death, the Wood Sprite's sister, from the realm of the dead. When Geppetto takes him away, Volpe states that he now owes Geppetto a fortune since he's making Pinocchio breaking a contract. However, after Geppetto, in frustration, calls him a burden, a hurt Pinocchio decides to be part of Volpe's traveling circus by performing for them throughout a tour over Italy which concludes in Catania if Volpe agrees to erase Geppetto's debt and send him his earnings.
Volpe seemingly agrees to Pinocchio's condition and they leave the village before Geppetto realizes his disappearance, but during the shows, he actually keeps all the money for himself. Once in Catania, during a rehearsal demanded by Volpe due Benito Mussolini's planned attendance to his show, a jealous Spazzatura uses the puppets to communicate with Pinocchio and inform him of Volpe's intentions in a desperate attempt to gain his master's attention back. Pinocchio is skeptical, but Volpe, overhearing this, aggressively attacks Spazzatura senseless for selling him out, prompting Pinocchio to realize that Spazzatura was telling the truth. An enraged Pinocchio come to Spazzatura's defense by threatening to leave the circus, but Volpe angrily threatens the puppet by swearing to force him to work until his wood rots, finally allowing Pinocchio to see how of a cruel person Volpe really is.
Deciding to get back at Volpe for his cruelty, Pinocchio and Spazzatura bomb the performance by ridiculing Mussolini, making all members in the audience, minus Mussolini, his men, and the Podestà, to laugh uncontrollably. In turn, Mussolini orders Pinocchio shot and for Volpe's circus to be destroyed for insulting him. As the Podestà takes Pinocchio (who is brought back to life) away to his juvenile training camp on a cliff, Mussolini angrily orders his men to burn down Volpe's circus and possibly strip him from all his money and co-workers, leaving a infuriated Volpe completely penniless despite having only Spazzatura by his side.
Following the bombing of the Fascist juvenile training camp and the deaths of the Podestà, several of his men and possibly some of his child soldiers, Volpe shows up accompanied by a nervous and devastated Spazzatura after Pinocchio is blown away from the prison camp due to a bomb impact. Taking advantage of Pinocchio losing consciousness, Volpe takes him to the cliff's border, ties him to a stake, and waits for him to wake up. Once Pinocchio wakes up, Volpe angrily rants out how he lost everything thanks to Pinocchio's mockeries at the circus.
He prepares to burn Pinocchio alive as revenge for ruining his business. Pinocchio pleads Spazzatura to help, and the monkey, finally realizing his owner for all his abusive and manipulative acts, turns against him by saving Pinocchio from being burned. Angered, Volpe threatens to kill Spazzatura, and they both engage into a fight until they both fall over the cliff. But while Spazzatura miraculously survives by hitting the water, Volpe hits a large rock by impact, crushing all his bones and killing him in the process.
Personality[]
Initially, Count Volpe is depicted as a gentlemanly, happy-go-lucky and optimistic father figure feigning kindness to his staff and Pinocchio. In reality, his kindness, and optimism were all fake, to hide his true colors; those of a aggressive, evil, remorsless wrathful, sinister, sociopathic, irredeemable, conniving, hateful, manipulative, abusive, angry, harsher, cruel, sadistic, heartless, and ruthless individual with if any redeeming qualites, who is not above exploiting or abusing his staff physically and psychologically to get what he wants, and, like the Podestà, does not take kindly to acts of rebellion. Simply put, Volpe will do anything, even if it involves treachery and murder, to obtain his fortune. He also shown to brutally abusing Spazzatura if he does something that displease him.
He is proved to be extremely vengeful as he tries to burn Pinocchio for costing him his career, and in overall, his abusive nature is what ultimately met his demise as Spazzatura sees that how Volpe really is and has have enough with his abusive acts.
Quotes[]
| “ | Pinocchio: Who, me? Count Volpe: Yes, mon étoile. I am Count Volpe, you have been chosen. Come partake in the fun, fancible, carefree carnival life as a star of my puppet show! |
„ |
| ~ Count Volpe introducing himself to Pinocchio. |
| “ | Sign here, here, here. Need a pen? | „ |
| ~ Count Volpe showing to Pinocchio the contract and offering him a pen to sign with. |
| “ | Is our contract worth nothing?! I'll do my part and you... You will burn! Burn bright! Like a STAR! | „ |
| ~ Count Volpe as he prepares to burn Pinocchio at the stake. |
| “ | How could you do this TO ME?! And FOR a PUPPET!? You LOATHSOME LUSUS NATURAE! You will betray me NO MORE! | „ |
| ~ Count Volpe's last words and breakdown as he foolishly accuses Spazzatura of betraying him when it was Volpe being a traitor before being attacked by him and falling off a cliff to his death. |
Trivia[]
- Count Volpe was conceived by Guillermo del Toro as an amalgamation of Mangiafuoco and The Fox & the Cat, two antagonists in Carlo Collodi's original novel including their Disney counterparts, Stromboli, Honest John and Gideon. His reasoning behind this decision was that he didn't want any sort of magical creatures other than Pinocchio, the Wood Sprite that gives him life and Sebastian J. Cricket, reason for which he also didn't adapt the Coachman and Pleasure Island in his adaptation as well. Thus, Count Volpe is a puppeteer like Mangiafuoco but tricks Pinocchio like the Fox and the Cat.
- That said, Count Volpe acts specifically more like the Fox and pays homage to him by having his wing-like sideburns flare up like a fox's ears, in addition that the word "Volpe" means fox in Italian.
- Originally, Mangiafuoco was indeed going to be the main antagonist of the movie, having his design more akin to Gris Grimly's illustration of him. However, at seemingly last minute, Del Toro decided to scrap this idea as he thought Mangiafuoco's design was "too cliché", leading to the creation of Count Volpe's character. The puppet was then repurposed in the film as a weightlifter who's part of Volpe's circus crew.
- While talking to Vanity Fair about the film's first look, Guillermo Del Toro hinted that Count Volpe symbolically represents the moment in whatever artist's life when such artist in question signs a contract they shouldn't. This may mean that Guillermo may have based Volpe in someone who has wronged him at some point throughout his career.
- According to Guillermo Del Toro, Count Volpe's carnival was partly inspired by the one from Clement Hoately from his previous film Nightmare Alley, as he did a lot of research for that project on how carnivals and circuses operated back in the early 20th century.
- Count Volpe marks the second time the Fox is represented as a human instead of an actual anthropomorphic fox, the first time was in Roberto Benigni's 2019 Pinocchio adaptation, which depicted both the Fox and the Cat as human con artists.
- Besides being Italian, Count Volpe also speaks French.
- Volpe serves as the dark foil to Pinocchio; both of them are those who are willing to earn something they deserves. Particularly, Pinocchio wants his creator and father, Geppetto’s love and approval from the middle of the film, and Volpe on the other hand; wants to reclaim his glory and fortune he dreams the most. But as the story goes throughout the film, while Pinocchio is too naïve and quite disobedient, he proves to be more matured, responsible and selfless who cares deeply about his father and his close friends, while Volpe is an abusive and convincing fiend who only cares about fame and not the well-being of others as he frequently abuses Spazzatura, which he proceeds him a bumbling fool who can’t do anything right. If Pinocchio keep letting his irresponsible antics get the best of him and haven’t learn humility and courage, he would end up like Volpe.
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 Villains
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Books Pinocchio by Winshluss: Stromboli.inc(Mr. Stromboli) | Nazi clowns | Geppeto |Geppeto's wife | The organ collector | The Mutant dogfish |wonder and el baron | The seven rapists Movies | ||