Narrator: Volpe is the owner of a carnival that travels through Italy, including the town where Pinocchio lives.
Director, Mark Gustafson: Volpe is sort of on the downturn when we meet him in the story. He comes in and corrupts Pinocchio. He draws him away from Geppetto and into all the fun and sin of the carnival.
Co-Production Manager, Curt Enderle: Volpe’s cart tells us so much about that character. We wanted to have a backstory there. There’s wear and tear and dirt. Everything’s a little bit more saturated, but it is also sort of a faded glory.
Co-Production Designer, Guy Davis: It started out working with Guillermo, showing him rough sketches and saying, “Here’s six designs, which one do you want us to go forward with?”
And then from there, we would hand off stuff to the art team to work up the details of the interior of, let’s say, the wagon. Giving them what “this is the character looks like, here’s a little bit of a set design,” and they would come up with props that fit, exactly, that world.
Art Production Manager, Whitney Schmerber: Art department builds 90% of what you see in each frame. Every little thing in there, someone spent a lot of time on.
Curt Enderle: We have carpenters and sculptors and model builders and painters, and then set decorators who put it all together.
A lot of the materials that we use are quite common—plywood and plaster and things like that. Guillermo was very concerned that things feel and look real, and so we do reference a lot of period images. You really do want it to feel lived in, you want it to have a sense of place, a sense of age. We’re putting everything there intentionally.