Guillermo Del Toro’s Pinocchio ending explained – does it have a post-credits scene?

Guillermo Del Toro’s Pinocchio ends unlike the book or the Disney adaptation, and with the film now on Netflix, the following is an explanation of what happens, as well as details of the film’s post-credits scene.

Guillermo Del Toro’s Pinocchio takes Carlo Callodi’s 1883 novel as a jumping off point, telling a quite different tale set in 1930s Italy.

Playing out in that time and place, the rise of fascism plays a prominent role in the story, while Benito Mussolini even makes an appearance in the film.

The ending is also different, though retains the spirit of Callodi’s story. So here’s what happens, just beware of spoilers ahead…

What happens at the end of Guillermo Del Toro’s Pinocchio?

At the end of Guillermo Del Toro’s Pinocchio, the title character – Pinocchio that is, not Del Toro – becomes a real boy. But with that comes mortality, and so his immediate efforts to save his father Geppetto get Pinocchio killed.

But Sebastian J Cricket has a wish coming to him, and uses that wish to bring Pinocchio back to life. Making it a happy ending, with Geppetto then realising the error of his ways in wanting the boy to replace his dead son Carlo, and promising to love Pinocchio for who he is rather than who he is not.

We then see their lives play out, though with Pinocchio seemingly permanently young, both Geppetto and Cricket age and pass on while he remains boy-like. They are buried alongside Carlo, at which point Cricket – narrating from beyond the grave – says that Pinocchio ventures into the world, and wonders if the world will embrace him. Cricket then answers that question with one of the film’s key themes by stating: “What happens, happens, and then we are gone.”

Does Guillermo Del Toro’s Pinocchio have a post-credits scene?

No, Guillermo Del Toro’s Pinocchio does not have a post-credits scene.

It does however, feature a musical mid-credit sequence, one that then plays over the rest of the credits and is very, very funny…

What happens in the film’s mid-credits scene?

Sebastian J Cricket – hilariously voiced by Ewan McGregor – is able to narrate that aforementioned moment because the film’s post-credit scene finds him hanging out and playing cards with hares in the afterlife.

They ask if he’s going to stop yappin’ and play, at which point Cricket says “Hit it boys” and starts belting out a song about how his father used to sing.

Which maybe elicits the film’s biggest laugh, as Sebastian has spent much of the movie trying to sing this song, only to be thwarted at every turn. Making this a marvellous pay-off to a gag that’s been carefully set-up throughout the film.

Guillermo Del Toro’s Pinocchio is available on Netflix now. read our review of the movie here.