Gepetto - "Meet Pinocchio in SF"
Webtoon
As you notice from the name Gepetto, this webtoon is an SF Fantasy genre from a motif of ‘The Adventure of Pinocchio’, the Italian children’s novel.
When you hear ‘Pinocchio’, the first thing that comes to your mind will be a wooden doll whose nose grows when he lies.
‘Disney’ animation of Pinocchio is most popular since ‘Disney’ targets children and puts the high value in the family. So, Pinocchio seems relatively light and friendly to the audience.
However, Pinocchio's original content is not as fairy-tale and beautiful but as cruel.
The original included contents; the hardship and journey that Pinocchio experiences while he struggles to become a human, and a high-level of criticisms of greed and dark society narrated by many characters whom Pinocchio meets in his adventure. During the process this original is adapted to various animation and children’s story, Pinocchio has become the friendly wooden doll character.
'Gepetto', Linewebtoons’ completed webtoon is notable because it gives life to the original’s theme and sentiment although it uses the background of the SF Fantasy and most of its story is changed that it’s a completely different work from the original.
The setting of Pinocchio in ‘The Adventure of Pinocchio’ is a ‘doll’, but the setting in the webtoon is changed commensurately with SF. The story presents the conflict between Androids and humans, a secret of ‘Shelter’ city where humans live, and the false authorities, which brings the bitter sentiment of the original up well.
On the other hand, there is already a Hollywood movie that narrates the perspective toward ‘Pinocchio’ in the SF Fantasy genre. It is Steven Spielberg's 'AI'.
'AI' is also considered to be a masterpiece that places Pinocchio in the background of SF and expresses sharp criticism of society and cruel yet painful directing.
Although Pinocchio's prequel work with the same background of SF is already released, there is a reason to recommend the webtoon 'Gepetto'. It’s because this webtoon sets up the 3rd character, ‘Carlo Collodi’ to illustrate the story, not by ‘Pinocchio’.
The main character, 'Carlo Collodi' is named after the original Pinocchio author. He’s placed in a position somewhere between humans and Androids, and his existence leads the story to a different direction from the original. It offers a chance to think of ‘humans’ position’ which may be missed out.
‘Pinocchio’ fights against humans as the chief of Androids. Collodi who used to be a weak human modifies his body into a machine and acquires power. And it gives a tension to the overall atmosphere of the drama and this part brings out its unique attraction not found in other
Pinocchio works.
In the webtoon, there is a unique worldview of the SF Fantasy. And the webtoonist has well-regarded various characters to describe both positions of humans and Androids and their actions lead the story to make a twist on the top of the twist. Now, the story rushes up to the ending!
The webtoon, 'Gepetto' is recommended for those who like the original Pinocchio or just like cartoons. Everyone will read this webtoon with a fresh viewpoint.