Del Toro's Pinocchio: Beautiful, But Heavy for Family Movie Night?

Okay, so we finally watched Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio on Netflix. Wow. Just...wow. The stop-motion animation is absolutely breathtaking. Seriously, the details in Geppetto's workshop and even just the texture of Pinocchio himself are incredible. It's visually stunning, and you can tell how much love and craft went into every single frame. I'm always a sucker for good animation, and this really delivered. Arthur was mesmerized, but I could tell some of the themes were going over his head. It's definitely NOT the Disney Pinocchio we all grew up with. This one is DARK. Like, dealing-with-loss-and-fascism dark. There are some seriously intense scenes, especially anything involving the Podestà and his son Candlewick. I can see why some parents were hesitant to show it too young. I think Arthur (he's 8) got the gist of it, but we definitely had to pause and talk about the war and what Mussolini was doing. The Cricket was charming, but the puppeteer was a truly disturbing character, ugh! Honestly, I teared up a few times. Geppetto's grief is palpable, and the ending...well, I won't spoil it, but have tissues ready. It's beautifully bittersweet. I just wonder if maybe I jumped the gun showing it to Arthur, but we did talk about it a lot afterward. He seemed to appreciate the message about being true to yourself, even if it's hard. Maybe it's one we revisit in a year or two? Has anyone else watched it with their kids? What were your thoughts? I'm so curious to hear other parents' perspectives! One little typo I wanted to catch was that I was not sure who the director was. But I just wanted to share how beautiful, if not a bit heavy, for movie night was Guillermo del toro's Pinocchio