AceShowbiz - Guillermo del Toro insists his "Pinocchio" should not be considered as a children's film. Claiming it is darker than the 1940 Disney version, the 58-year-old director - who has helmed the stop-motion take on the classic tale - told parents should watch the film with their children.

"People ask us if it for kids (and) we say, 'It's not made for kids but kids can watch it if their parents talk to them.' It's not a babysitter movie, it's a movie that will have kids ask questions," Guillermo told the New York Post newspaper's Page Six site.

The movie is set in Italy when the country was ruled by Fascist dictator Benito Mussolini and Guillermo said that the time period was deliberately chosen so he could explore the theme of "obedience."

The "Mimic" director said, "Obedience to me is where you are told to follow something whether, on a religious level or social level, that you don't understand, that is a big mistake. Disobedience with consciousness is always the beginning of thought, of soul and self."

"When I was a practicing Catholic, not lapsed as I am now, I used to think about where the human soul lies - it lies in the freedom of choice. The choice is to be human."

Guillermo previously explained how the Netflix movie - which features the voices of Ewan McGregor and Christoph Waltz - deals with issues such as love and death.

The Mexican filmmaker said, "I thought it was important to deal with how briefly we have each other and how life is made valuable by death, which are concepts that are very, very Mexican, but [ones] that, ultimately, I believe in."

"The film is thematically about different types of fatherhood - what it is to be a father, what it is to be a child. And there are different types of parental figures in the movie. Some are lethal, some are exploitative, some are permeable to love. And, finally, a very paternalistic concern is the fascist idea of the Fatherland and the father-figure style of leadership."