Pinocchio (2022)

I have my problems with Disney's 1940 adaptation of Pinocchio and I have my issues with Disney's remaking all their animated classics in "live action" while infusing little to no new insight or perspective. They often feel like they are more about the spectacle than of the reinterpretation. Pinocchio is a very much an example of this whole phenomenon, and exercise in technical wizardry and narrative copying. 

What's new? Well... not much. Like many of these adaptations the film attempts to ape the original very faithfully, copying many lines and scenes directly often veering from facsimile to add in silly jokes, mostly especially anachronistic jokes (like a reference to Chris Pine???). The film does explicitly indicate that Geppetto lost a son and that his creation of the puppet is somewhat in his loss and longing. I wish the film had explored this more but it throws it out there and then leaves it. 

Also the film explains itself quite a bit. At one point Honest John, under the guise of thinking through his ideas, explains explicitly why he wants to kidnap Pinocchio as if we couldn't figure that out as we did in the 1940s version. The film also makes it clear no one sees Jiminy Cricket (other than just as a bug) but Pinoch. The Blue Fairy actually tells Jiminy he's not real. Even the ending explains itself exactly to us, characters tell us what's happening so we have no doubt or perhaps interpretation. 

There are some new songs but the problem here is that the song have to "share the stage" with the original songs and they just don't hold up. Perhaps they would be good enough on their own but hearing them alongside When You Wish Upon a Star, I've Got No Strings, etc. the film highlights just how average they are. Also they seem oddly chosen. The film dedicates a new song to a minor character, focusing on the character development of someone who is out of the film moments later. 

And how about the spectacle? I'm not sure the film improves the experience this way. The hyper "realism" in a scene like Pinocchio's puppet show performance makes it less magical than in the original animated version. The Blue Fairy's animation feel needlessly elaborate, almost distractingly so. And the whole Pleasure Island sequence seems so intent on making a visually stunning amusement park that it saps all the horror and discomfort that the original held. It's all technical without much soul. 

But the ending saved the movie slightly for me. At the end of this Pinocchio the puppet does not "become a real boy" at least not in the literal way he does in every other adaptation I've ever seen. In this one the film tells us that his becoming isn't about a physical transformation but about who he becomes. And I think there is something lovely and profound about that. Sure as I mentioned before I wish the film didn't feel the need to have a character explain all that to the audience directly. But I still appreciated the sentiment. 

Pinocchio

Starring: Tom Hanks, Benjamin Evan Ainsworth, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Cynthia Erivo, Keegan-Michael Key, Lorraine Bracco, Giuseppe Battiston, Luke Evans, Lewin Lloyd, Kyanne Lamaya

Director: Robert Zemeckis

Writers: Chris Weitz, Robert Zemeckis