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| “ | Who controls you, wooden boy? | „ |
| ~ The Podestá to Pinocchio. |
| “ | Candlewick... shoot the puppet. | „ |
| ~ The Podestà ordering Candlewick to shoot Pinocchio; thus finally revealing his true nature to Pinocchio, his son Candlewick, and the other children. |
The Podestà is one of the two main antagonists (alongside Count Volpe) 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 an unnamed Fascist Italian officer who works for Benito Mussolini as a podestà in a town during the Fascist Italy of the 1930s, living with his wife and his son Candlewick. Upon discovering Pinocchio, the Podestà decides to recruit him into the Italian army so he can be the perfect soldier. He narratively replaces the Coachman, a character from the original novel.
He was voiced by Ron Perlman, who also played Clayface in the DC Animated Universe, Pap Finn in The Adventures of Huck Finn, Mr. Grasping in An American Tail: The Treasure of Manhattan Island, Drekk in Men in Black: The Series, Count Nikolas Rokoff in The Legend of Tarzan, Dieter Reinhardt in Blade II, the Viceroy in Star Trek: Nemesis, the High Mage in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2003), Slade in Teen Titans, Bane, Killer Croc and Rumor in The Batman, Kago in Tarzan II, Hoodoo Brown in Gun, Sheriff Collie Entragian in Desperation, Biff Wellington in Scooby-Doo! Pirates Ahoy!, Justice in Afro Samurai, Warhok in Kim Possible, Sozin in Avatar: The Last Airbender, Clay Morrow in Sons of Anarchy, Gha Nachkt in Star Wars: The Clone Wars, Nicola in Bunraku, the Stabbington Brothers in the Tangled franchise, The Lich in Adventure Time, Nino in Drive, Sinestro in Green Lantern: The Animated Series, Deathstroke in Justice League: The Flashpoint Paradox, Polyphemus in Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters, Rust in Payday 2, Xibalba in The Book of Life, Armaggon in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2012), Gnarlak in Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them and Bular in Trollhunters.
History[]
Past[]
Twenty years before the events of the film, around the time of the Great War, the man who would later become his town's Podestà used to work as a blacksmith with his wife. One day, during work, he saw the woodcarver Geppetto going to the church with his son Carlo to finish a crucifix he had been carving for the town's priest. He remarked how Geppetto was the ideal citizen, with his wife adding him that he was also a good father. Tragically, later that day, Carlo died when one war Austrian-Hungarian plane carelessly dropped a bomb into the church, devastating Geppetto. The blacksmith was assigned to help with Carlo's tomb the day of his burial, setting the tombstone into the ground, though he didn't seem particularly sorry for Geppetto's pain throughout the funeral.
As everyone in the town, minus Gepetto, moved on from the church's bombing, the blacksmith quit his job and somehow joined the Italian military. By the 1930s, with Benito Mussolini's rise to power in the Fascist Italy, the former blacksmith had become the Podestà of his town, technically serving as its highest civil officer akin to a mayor. In the interim between World War I's conclusion and World War II's prelude, the Podestà and his wife sired a son, whom they named Candlewick. However, it's implied that he became, if he already wasn't, an emotionally distant husband and father, often indoctrinating Candlewick with his Fascist ideals.
Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio[]
One day, the Podestà is seen at the church with his family attending the usual mass, but suddenly stops praying when Candlewick points out at a living wooden boy named Pinocchio, who was created by Geppetto during a grief breakdown and given life by the magical Wood Sprite last night. Everyone in the town deems Pinocchio to be the Devil's work, so Geppeto takes Pinocchio to home before things turn bad. Later that night, the Podestà, accompanied by his son and the priest, come to Geppetto's home to speak to him about Pinocchio. As they all drink hot chocolate, the Podestà insists Geppetto to enroll Pinocchio at the local school, disapproving of Pinocchio's disobedient behavior as demonstrated when Pinocchio accidentally burns his feet after being deceived into doing so by Candlewick.
The next day, Pinocchio skips school out of confusion over the multiplication tables and due to the nefarious Count Volpe tricking him into joining his carnival. The Podestà is presumably informed by the school's teachers about Pinocchio's absence, so he goes to the church and disapprovingly reports it to Geppetto. Later that day, as Geppetto goes to the carnival and confronts Pinocchio for not obeying him, the Podestà and his wife are driving near the carnival when suddenly, Pinocchio is accidentally thrown into the road by Geppetto and Volpe fighting for who owns the boy, leading the Podestà and his wife to accidentally run over Pinocchio. As his wife apologizes for what they did, the Podestà insists that Pinocchio got into the road too quickly for them to stop.
Pinocchio's body is taken to the doctor's to see if he died or not, but Pinocchio unexpectedly comes back to life due to him visiting limbo and finding out from Death that he is immortal. Amazed at Pinocchio's powers, the Podestà comes up with the idea of recruiting Pinocchio for the Fascist army due to him having the chance of never dying, but Geppetto doesn't want to see Pinocchio drafted into the upcoming war. The Podestà's demands, coupled with Volpe tricking Pinocchio before into signing a contract, leads Geppetto to get angry at Pinocchio for all the troubles he has caused, which leads Pinocchio to run away with Volpe to gain enough money for his father in an attempt to stop being a "burden" and to avoid being recruited into the army. As the weeks go by, as Pinocchio goes around Italy with Volpe's carnival and Geppetto and Sebastian J. Cricket look for him. Meanwhile, the Podestà decides to take a bunch of kids, Candlewick included, to a Fascist youth training camp, much to his wife's reluctance.
Some days later, the Podestà and Candlewick go to Catania, presumably upon finding out that Mussolini is coming to see Count Volpe's carnival and that Pinocchio is there. They salute Mussolini before they all enter into the tent to see the show. During the performance, Pinocchio ridicules Mussolini and mocks Fascism, making all the kids laugh, including Candlewick, leading the Podestà to slap him in the back of the head. Enraged, Mussolini orders for the carnival to be burned down and to have Pinocchio shot for his insolence, but the Podestà, aware that Pinocchio is temporarily dead but will resurrect minutes later, takes Pinocchio into the truck taking all his child recruits to the Fascist youth training camp. Once Pinocchio revives, the Podestà tells him what he is going to learn to serve the fatherland before taking him and the kids for a tour around the camp and then sending all of them to sleep.
The next day, the Podestà takes Pinocchio, Candlewick and all the other kids to the facility's camp and orders them to participate in a paintball battle to practice for when they actually go into battle, dividing the kids in two groups and instructing them to use paint guns and confetti grenades against themselves so one team can win by raising their flag. The practice ends with both Candlewick and Pinocchio, who were in opposing teams and had befriended each other last night, raising their flags in a tie. However, once he is informed of the result, the Podestà takes his real gun and orders Candlewick to reclaim his glory by shooting Pinocchio. Horrified, Candlewick tells his father that he can't shoot Pinocchio with a real gun, but the Podestà furiously orders him to follow orders as the training camp's alarm notify everyone that some Allied planes are going to attack the base, leading several soldiers to hand gas masks and guns to the other kids so they can defend the camp.
Uncaring of all the chaos around them, the Podestà keeps ordering his son to shoot Pinocchio and be a man, but Candlewick, inspired by his conversation with Pinocchio last night, firmly stands up for his new friend and tells his father that he has never been good enough for him and now realizes that he will never be, hoping for his father to realize his flaws like Pinocchio told him that sometimes fathers do. However, rather than understanding and apologizing to his son, the Podestà furiously yells at Candlewick and disowns him for always being weak, throwing him into one of the paintball battleground's trenches before taking his gun back and ordering Pinocchio to look at him. Cocking the gun, the Podestà tells Pinocchio that he will finally learn what means serving the fatherland, but Candlewick, hoping to save his friend, shoots his father in the face with a paintball gun, knocking him backwards into a rope ladder, where he gets tangled. Seconds after recovering, the Podestà realizes in horror that an Allied bomb has been dropped into the camp and is falling towards his direction. Unable to untangle himself in time, the Podestà is killed by the bomb offscreen, which throws Pinocchio out from the camp. Although both Pinocchio and Candlewick ultimately survive the bombing, all that is left of the Podestà is his charred hat, confirming his death.
Personality[]
The Podesta is a detestable, intimidating, aggressive and authoritative man. While not explicably shown on-screen, it's also possible that he treats his wife no differently than his own son. The Podesta also despises weakness, disowning Candlewick after he stands up to him when ordered to shoot Pinocchio despite the fact that he’s a coward as his neglectful behavior prove to be his downfall.
Quotes[]
| “ | You filthy coward!!! Yes, you are weak! You are no son of mine!!! | „ |
| ~ The Podesta threatening Candlewick as he foolishly, wrongfully and hypocritically calls him a cowards and harshly disowns him; even though when in truth like the latter says when he finally stands up to him and refused to kill Pinocchio as he has the right to correctly tells his father otherwise that he’s the true coward. |
| “ | Puppet! On your feet! | „ |
| ~ The Podesta ordering Pinocchio to stay. |
| “ | Time for the final lesson. Now, you will know what it is to truly serve the fatherland! | „ |
| ~ The Podesta's last words before being shot in the face by Candlewick with a paintball gun and blown up by the bomb. |
Trivia[]
- The Podestà is an original invention of Guillermo del Toro for his Pinocchio film. He didn't appear in Carlo Collodi's original Pinocchio novel nor in previous adaptations. Overall, the Podestà serves as a stand-in for the Coachman from the original novel, who was omitted from the film adaptation due to Guillermo del Toro's desire to not include any magical creatures other than Pinocchio, the Wood Sprite and Sebastian J. Cricket, which is also why he also didn't adapt Mangiafuoco or The Fox & the Cat (although these last two, despite being anthropomorphic talking animals, are not considered or seen as magical creatures in their story). In this version, the Podestà is also Candlewick's father, whereas Candlewick's father wasn't featured in the source material.
- He serves as a dark parallel to Gepetto.
- Both of them are fathers. But the difference between them is that while Gepetto started out rockily with Pinocchio as he was still grieving the loss of his son Carlo, he still warmed up to him, whereas the Podestà always treated Candlewick harshly, eventually disowning him when he doesn't meet his standards. If Gepetto hadn't moved on from Carlo's death nor warmed up to Pinocchio, he would've possibly ended up like the Podestà.
External Links[]
- The Podestá on the Pure Evil Wiki
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