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Fridge Brilliance
In interviews, Guillermo del Toro has stated that in his version, Pinocchio's nose grows not just when he lies but when he is not true to himself. This adds an intriguing interpretation to the way his nose 'grows' organically - it is a visual indication that his grip on his personhood is fading away and he is in danger of returning to the base materials from which he came.
It's also thematically connected to writer Patrick McHale's best-known work Over the Garden Wall, which also ends with a child gradually turning into a tree because he believes he is "bad".
Geppetto also tells Pinocchio that when he lies, his nose grows. Before he gains some Character Development, Pinocchio is a Horrible Judge of Character and trusting to a fault. But why? Well, when a fed-up Geppetto calls him a burden, Pinocchio believes him immediately because he didn't see Geppetto's nose grow. This is at least partially why Pinocchio is so gullible; because he initially never sees other people's noses growing, he assumes that other people are saying exactly what they think and aren't being dishonest.
Count Volpe's song is a good dramatic lead-in to the movie's darker political themes - after all, a core principle of fascist movements is dreaming up an idealistic (fictional) past state to which it is imperative to return.
"Imperfect"/"Left-Hand" symbolism:
In early shots of Geppetto and Carlo's life together we see a three-legged dog missing its front left paw;
The incomplete crucifix is missing its left arm;
Spazzatura is blind in their left eye, and this parallels with the textual character they are based on, the Cat, who loses a paw to Pinocchio in the original story;
When Pinocchio is injured in the explosion towards the end he is also missing his left arm;
When Carlo is looking for pinecones, Geppetto praises him specifically for finding one "with all its scales" - i.e. one which is still perfect. This is subtle foreshadowing for Geppetto's own character growth through the story, learning to accept Pinocchio (and himself perhaps) as imperfect beings, trying their hardest. It's no coincidence that pursuit of the same perfect pinecone is partly what gets Carlo killed.
And even this perfect pinecone creates the tree resulting in imperfect Pinocchio.
In the "Making Of" documentary accompanying the movie, character designers mention that Death's tail was scaled to resemble the texture of a pinecone so that she would be a combination of many kinds of living thing (human, mammal, reptile, bird, plant, etc). This also further cements the theme that seeking perfection can only lead to death.
Gepetto's fellow citizens describe him as a model Italian and perfect father - but this is through the lens of their own professions (butcher and blacksmith), which involve brutal subjugation of the creatures/materials in their care. The butcher sisters slice up pigs; the blacksmith hammers at iron to make shoes to turn horses into servants. All foreshadowing Gepetto's own turn to aggression in his childcare method.
Why does Pinocchio draw a smiling sun? Because it's the first drawing a new born would draw.
It also parallels with Gepetto's song - "My son, my son, you are my shining sun".
Carlo Collodi's source text originally intended "The Blue Fairy" as a commentary on cholera and plague houses, so in her initial serialized appearance she takes the form of a pale-skinned child at the window of an empty house, who speaks "[w]ithout moving her lips in the least". Though Collodi later softened this into the more recognisable benign fairy figure, Del Toro's version splits her into the Forest Sprite and Death, retaining both her friendly and fearsome aspects, and animates her so that her mouth never moves while speaking.
Pinocchio's creation is compared to Frankenstein's Monster, right down to Pinocchio being new to everything like an actual infant. At one point, Sebastian calls out Geppetto on focusing more on making Pinocchio the perfect replacement for Carlo, instead of recognizing what he already had. Frankenstein was guilty of the same folly. In the book, the monster was a rather decent specimen. The only reason Frankenstein rejected it? He thought his eyes looked wrong. Looks like both "Pinocchio" and "Frankenstein" have another theme outside of outcasts who defy the natural order: their creators were too focused on perfection.
Geppetto dying in the end may seem sad on the surface, but remember what kick-started this whole thing. Geppetto's biggest trauma was losing his son. Pinocchio was able to give Geppetto a happier outcome: the child got to outlive the parent.
When Candlewick shoots the Podesta in order to keep the latter from shooting Pinocchio, the paint bullet is yellow. On the surface, it seems like the red paint would've been more appropriate to reflect his war-like and bloodthirsty nature. But using the yellow paint was actually a good call. First, the red paint would've been dark, even for this movie. Second, the yellow paint signifies the Podesta's cowardice: for all his pride in being a "brave" fascist soldier, he's a coward of a father who needs to talk down and demean his own son to feel big.
As opposed to the hot chocolate scene earlier, Pinocchio can feel pain when Count Volpe burns him at the stake. Why is that so? The answer could be that it's a metaphor for Pinocchio's character growth: even if he's not a real boy physically, he's metaphorically real enough to feel pain like one.
Spazzatura impersonates some puppets to tell Pinocchio that Count Volpe is lying to him and isn't sending any money to Geppetto. Despite this action being motivated by jealousy, this isn't actually a bad action in the long run, as Spazzatura is telling Pinocchio the complete truth and this partially motivates Pinocchio to stand up to Master Volpe. This is foreshadowing that Spazzatura isn't as bad as he seems to act at first.
Why is Mussolini portrayed as The Napoleon, unlike his Real Life self? Aside from Del Toro obviously mocking the infamous dictator and his massive ego, it's quite likely that wasn't even the real Mussolini, but rather a (very poor) Body Double. Mussolini was historically very proud and grumpy and his whole Cult of Personality revolved around acting macho, and thus never lower himself to go watch a puppet show for children, even for the sake of propaganda. This is also foreshadowed by Volpe claiming to be a "close friend" of Mussolini, but it's clear from the pictures he shows Pinocchio (taken at Mussolini's rallies from VERY far away) that he never even met the man and thus would never have any sort of influence or familiarity for Mussolini to attend his circus himself.
If this theory is correct, Mussolini very likely sent this body double to the circus to weed out potential rebels.
In one of his earliest scenes, the Podestà is seen quietly stirring his teaspoon in his hot chocolate. Just before he orders Candlewick to shoot Pinocchio (and his death), he is doing the same thing with a cup of coffee. Word of God from Del Toro is that this indicates he is incapable of change - despite Pinocchio reassuring Candlewick that fathers can be different, the Podestà is still the cold, sadistic monster he was at the beginning of the movie.
Volpe's ultimate fate for Pinocchio is to burn him at the stake - a fitting punishment considering he is partly based on the character Mangiafuoco - whose name translates to "Fire-Eater"!
Gepetto and Carlo were shown to be very religious, and during Gepetto's drunken rant the night he carved Pinocchio, he shouts "Why won't you listen to my prayers?!" while looking up at the stormy sky. We don't get any direct answer, but the Wood Sprite does resemble a seraph.
The Podesta tells Candlewick to "shoot the puppet." Candlewick refuses, as Pinocchio is his friend. However, he does shoot the Podesta with a paint gun to protect Pinocchio from him. The Podesta is fanatically devoted to Fascist Italy, to the point of disowning his own son over it. So, Candlewick does indeed "shoot the puppet."
There's a subtle second meaning in Mussolini's "I like puppets". He's a dictator, so he likes it when people obey him. And what makes him dislike one (literal) puppet in particular? Said puppet showing disobedience and irreverence by mocking him.
The motif of the song "Everything Is New To Me", sung by Pinocchio moments after he comes to life, is a longtime personal fascination for Del Toro. In the novelization of Pan's Labyrinth, Ofelia imagines her newborn brother saying "this is all new to me" when she attempts to escape with him, explaining why he doesn't know to stay quiet.
Fridge Horror
The Podestà's wife is last seen watching how her son and husband leave for the Fascist youth training camp, with her tears evidently indicating how much she wishes her husband would not take Candlewick there, though his husband's stern look shows that he doesn't really care about her feelings. Later, in the climax, the training camp gets bombed by the Allies and the Podestà is killed, with the possibility that Candlewick may have also been killed by the subsequent bombings. How is the poor woman going to react upon learning that her husband and possibly her son perished there?
If a sea monster such as the Terrible Dogfish exists in this movie's world, and it periodically comes out of its abyss to sunbathe before going back down after eating several ships it runs into... what other creatures could be hiding in the depths?
Count Volpe claims that he rescued Spazzatura from a cage he had been left to die in. However, Volpe's wagon contains some taxidermied monkey heads that the Museum of Modern Art exhibit (when pointing out the details of the wagon) identifies as Spazzatura's ancestors. If Volpe's story is even true and not just something he made up that is meant to take place when Spazzatura would be too young to remember anything, would he really be "rescued" for long before Volpe decided he wanted to decorate his wagon with another head?
Fridge Logic
When Pinocchio first roasts his feet in Geppetto's fireplace at Candlewick's behest, he's rather delighted at how warm it feels. Later, when Count Volpe is burning Pinocchio in revenge, the wooden boy is actually in pain. Why did he feel burning the second time, but not the first?
It's possible that what he's feeling the second time is fear, not pain. The first time he didn't know what it could do, but now he's aware it can harm or kill him.
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