Guillermo del Toro wants to do animation exclusively

Although he’s a lifelong lover of animation – particularly of the stop-motion variety – Guillermo del Toro has only made one fully animated feature film: Pinocchio. With widespread acclaim and even the Oscar for Best Animated Feature, Pinocchio marked a significant turning point in del Toro’s career…so much so that he’s ready to ditch live action altogether.

Speaking with The Hollywood Reporter, Guillermo del Toro outlined his objective of shifting solely to animation. “There are a couple more live-action movies I want to do but not many…After that, I only want to do animation. That’s the plan.” He added, “Animation to me is the purest form of art, and it’s been kidnapped by a bunch of hoodlums. We have to rescue it. [And] I think that we can Trojan-horse a lot of good sh*t into the animation world.” Although computer-generated, he particularly cited Across the Spider-Verse, The Super Mario Bros. Movie and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles as watershed movies for the future of animation.

At the same time, Guillermo del Toro also expressed a sort of disdain for what animation has become, saying the way characters move and talk makes them look like they’re in a sitcom. This is something del Toro wants to put an end to, saying there is a need to have the field and reality cross over. “We’re all f*cked up. That’s what I want to see animated. I would love to see real life in animation. I actually think it’s urgent. think it’s urgent to see real life in animation…I believe you can make an adult fantasy drama with stop-motion and move people emotionally…I think stop-motion can be intravenous, it can go straight to your emotions in a way that no other medium can.” This is all in line with previous comments del Toro made on how animation should be perceived as a medium and not a genre.

But before he makes the full transition to animation, Guillermo del Toro has a few other projects in the pipeline–including, uh, an animated adaptation of The Buried Giant for Netflix. But come on, Guillermo, you’ll at least give us The Haunted Mansion, right?!

Do you support Guillermo del Toro’s interest in exclusively making animated films? What do you want to see him do before he makes the official move? Give us your thoughts below!