Guillermo del Toro has a new stop-motion film in the works, and he wants to be very clear about one thing: it is not for kids. During a career conversation at the BFI Southbank in London this week, the Mexican filmmaker described his upcoming project The Buried Giant as a “fascinatingly difficult stop-motion movie for adults” that is being produced “without any concession to a family audience.”
The occasion was del Toro receiving a BFI Fellowship, the British Film Institute’s highest honor. He sat for an onstage Q&A with film historian and BFI executive Jason Wood, where the conversation ranged from his childhood in Guadalajara, Mexico, to his passion for design and scrapbooking. But it was his comments about The Buried Giant that turned the most heads.
The BFI Fellowship places del Toro alongside names like David Lean, Orson Welles, Martin Scorsese, Akira Kurosawa, and most recently Christopher Nolan. The BFI cited his extraordinary contribution to film and the distinctive artistry running through his work across both animation and live action, noting his Oscar triumphs with Pan’s Labyrinth (2006) and The Shape of Water (2017), as well as his recent Frankenstein (2025).
What is The Buried Giant about
The Buried Giant is an adaptation of the 2015 novel by Nobel Prize-winning author Kazuo Ishiguro. The story follows an elderly British couple, Axl and Beatrice, living in a fictional post-Arthurian England where no one is able to retain long-term memories.
As they set out on a journey to find their son, they are joined by others, a Saxon warrior, an orphan, and a knight, and slowly begin to uncover the dark, troubling history they share. The book is described as an intense rumination on the power of memory and collective trauma.
Del Toro adapted the novel alongside Dennis Kelly, the writer behind Matilda the Musical. And just like he did with Pinocchio, he made the deliberate choice to tell this story through stop-motion animation rather than live action.
His reasoning was straightforward: “If you do a live action Pinocchio and all of a sudden a puppet walks through it becomes uncanny valley, which is a horrible thing that doesn’t belong in the same world. Just like if you do a live action movie about an old couple crossing a landscape full of trolls and fairies, and there are special effects and actors.” He added: “I want all the creatures to be of the same material. It’s gonna take us years. And it’s incredibly difficult.”
Del Toro has been consistent on this point for years. He has previously said that animation has been “kidnapped by a bunch of hoodlums” in the mainstream studio system, his way of pushing back against the idea that animated films are automatically a genre for children. The Buried Giant is his most direct answer to that argument yet.
Ron Perlman returns, Netflix backs the project
Del Toro also confirmed during the BFI talk that longtime collaborator Ron Perlman will be involved in The Buried Giant. He didn’t reveal what role Perlman will play, but said simply: “He’s coming on the next movie.” Their collaboration goes all the way back to del Toro’s debut feature Cronos, and the two most recently worked together on Pinocchio.
The Buried Giant is set up at Netflix, continuing del Toro’s creative partnership with the streamer after Frankenstein. According to IMDb, the film is being produced through del Toro’s production company Double Dare You (DDY), alongside Netflix Animation and ShadowMachine, with filming taking place at ShadowMachine Studios in Portland, Oregon.
When news of the film first broke, it came alongside reports that Netflix was launching a new stop-motion studio specifically to support del Toro and other animators. No release date has been announced yet, which makes sense given that del Toro himself said the production will take years and is “incredibly difficult.” Patience is going to be a virtue here.
Before diving deeper into production, del Toro is heading to Cannes, where he will present a 4K restoration of Pan’s Labyrinth as part of the Cannes Classics lineup. The BFI is also re-releasing his 1992 debut feature Cronos this month, recently remastered in 4K.
The Buried Giant has no trailer, no release window, and no finished puppets to show, but when del Toro says something is going to be difficult and uncompromising, that’s usually the best sign that it’s worth waiting for.
Are you excited to see del Toro tackle stop-motion for a fully adult audience? Tell us what you think in the comments!