10 Movie Moments That Were Almost WAY Darker
9. Pinocchio Is Almost Gunned Down By A Shooting Squad - Guillermo Del Toro's Pinocchio
In case you needed another reminder of the fact Guillermo del Toro didn't set out to create a story designed just for kids when crafting his magnificent version of Pinocchio, it turns out that the director initially had an even darker idea in mind for one of the film's already rather dreadful occurrences.
At one point in the gorgeously animated recent flick, the titular wooden boy can be seen mocking Benito Mussolini through song during a circus performance. And it's here when the Italian dictator decides that he's seen enough and has Pinocchio shot to death by one of his guards.
Lovely.
Before this pretty grim moment was thrown into the finished flick, however, del Toro revealed to Comicbook.com that he initially wanted to have an entire shooting squad take out the puppet on a beach instead. Sensing this was likely a little "too dark" even for him, the Pan's Labyrinth and Hellboy director decided against the excessive murder.
The fact the sequence would've also acted as a "big, big pause for a scene that was just not necessary" also influenced the call to go down the more "reasonable" route of simply having Pinocchio shot directly by one soldier in the movie.