Everyone’s favorite wooden puppet once again returns to the television screen with its best film adaptation to date. Pinocchio is superb, finely detailed, and masterful in execution. This delightful and magical film is easily enjoyable for both adults and children alike. The heartwarming live-action adventure retells the iconic story from its original 1940 animated film where a puppet is brought to life and seeks the life of adventure while striving to become a real boy. The result of Pinocchio is another perfect example of why Disney’s live-action remakes are a must.Spoiler WarningDirected by Robert Zemeckis, the musical fantasy film begins with Jiminy Cricket (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) addressing the audience as the narrator of the story. The film takes place in a village in Italy sometime during the late 19th century. Pinocchio’s opening scene reveals a shop, which is owned by a toymaker and woodworker named Geppetto (Tom Hanks) who is in the process of crafting a puppet (spoiler alert: that puppet is actually Pinocchio). Geppetto lives alone in his shop along with his two pets, Figaro the kitten and Cleo the goldfish. After successfully creating the puppet, Geppetto wishes upon a bright star in the night sky for Pinocchio to become a real boy just before falling asleep.
Late in the same evening, the Blue Fairy (Cynthia Erivo) arrives in Geppetto’s shop and brings Pinocchio (Benjamin Evan Ainsworth) to life, although he remains as a puppet. The Blue Fairy informs him that if he proves himself to be brave, truthful, and unselfish, Pinocchio will then become a real boy. The Blue Fairy also assigns Jiminy to be Pinocchio's conscience. Geppetto wakes up the next morning and is immediately overjoyed to discover that Pinocchio is alive.
On his way to school, Pinocchio is led astray by a con-artist fox Honest John (Keegan-Michael Key) and his sidekick Gideon the Cat. Despite Jiminy’s objections, Honest John was able to convince Pinocchio to join Stromboli's (Giuseppe Battiston) puppet show. Pinocchio becomes Stromboli's main attraction during their first performance, where he’s also introduced to Fabiana (Kyanne Lamya). After Stromboli locks Pinocchio in a bird cage, Jiminy arrives and is able to set him free.
On his way back home, Pinocchio is swiftly taken by The Coachman (Luke Evans) and Lampwick (Lewin Lloyd) and brings him to Pleasure Island. Without any rules or authority, Pinocchio and Lampwick enjoy their time on the island until they discover that not everything it what it seems. With the help of Jiminy (again) Pinocchio escapes the island and arrives back on the mainland. Finally returning home, Pinocchio and Jiminy discover that Geppetto is actually on his way to Pleasure Island by boat to look for Pinocchio.
After a quick teary-eyed reunion, Monstro arrives from underwater and swallows everyone. Inside Monstro’s stomach, Pinocchio devises a scheme to make Monstro sneeze, giving them the opportunity to escape. The plan works, but Monstro forces Pinocchio, Geppetto, Jiminy, Figaro, and Cleo to crash the raft onto a cove. Geppetto seemingly dying, Pinocchio sheds a tear on him, and he wakes up and reveals how much he truly loves and cares for Pinocchio. As they decide to return home together, Pinocchio can be briefly seen slowly turning into a real boy.
Pinocchio’s Plot isn’t Identical as its Treasured Animated Predecessor
Ever since Walt Disney Pictures started to develop live-action remakes based on its most popular animated films, it became quite clear that the stories are never the same. Those that are very familiar with the 1940 animated Pinocchio film will certainly see several big changes in the live-action adaption. Unfortunately, Cynthia Ervio’s Blue Fairy will only appear once in the film, when in fact the animated film had the Blue Fairy appear multiple times throughout the story. Monstro’s appearance caught me off guard with the creature being some sort of sea monster instead of a sperm whale.
If you’re still scarred from watching Pinocchio die in the animated film, then look no further because that definitely won’t happen this time around. While it’s pretty common at this point for Disney to change up these classic stories for live-action adaptions, this new version of Pinocchio seems to be the greatest one so far. The film is strikingly well-made with impressive cinematography and CGI. The ending of the film was quite unexpected as it somewhat happened really fast and out of nowhere without even fully seeing Pinocchio turn into a real boy.
The Cast of Pinocchio
Tom Hanks was a perfect casting choice to play the role of Geppetto. It seems as if he was made to take on this character as he pulled off an excellent performance. Listening to Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s Jiminy Cricket voiceover made me question myself if I was still hearing the original voice of Cliff Edwards in the new film. Although Cynthia Erivo's character only appeared once in Pinocchio, her own version of “When You Wish Upon a Star” made her character debut ten times better.
Keegan-Michael Key's voiceover as the deceptive red fox, Honest John, was easily fun to watch. Kyanne Lamaya’s role as Fabiana was a nice addition to the story as her character has never appeared on-screen before, as well as her puppet Sabina. Luke Evans’ was completely unrecognizable as The Coachman but oddly enough did not really receive as much screen time as expected. Nonetheless, the entire cast performed absolutely wonderfully as their characters, respectively.
Just sticking to the Disney adaptions of Pinocchio (because we all know there are a ton of them), the plot of this live-action version is certainly an upgrade from the original animated film. There are pretty much two ways the fans will decide if they enjoyed watching the live-action adaption of Pinocchio or not, which is simply accepting or disliking the changes in the subplots that were made in this film. In celebration of Disney+ Day, Pinocchio will be released on September 8, 2022. Although Pinocchio does deserve a theatrical release, the film will only be released via streaming exclusively on Disney+.