There’s a part of Northwest Portland, on the outer rim of the Pearl District, where the neighborhood retains its industrial roots. Out among the warehouses, commercial printers, brewery equipment shops and industrial suppliers, a group of artisans from around the globe are preparing to perform a bit of magic.

From wood, resin, metal, fabric and ceramics, they will build an entire world – and make the characters to inhabit it. This is the art of stop-motion animation, an old-fashioned kind of moviemaking that blends a variety of crafts into a uniquely tactile kind of film. They’re reincarnating Pinocchio, the Italian puppet best known for his redemption story in the much-loved Disney classic. Oscar-winning director Guillermo del Toro has something quite different in mind for his version, to be filmed in Portland but set in the fascist Italy of Benito Mussolini.