Filmmakers are reading each other’s mail again.
The memory of Italian director Matteo Garrone’s live-action 2019 version of Pinocchio remains fresh — in part because it didn’t reach our shores until spring 2021 — and now we have Disney’s sorta-kinda live-action reboot of its 1940 animated classic.
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| Geppetto (Tom Hanks) has no idea that the wooden puppet, which he so lovingly crafted, is about to be brought to life by a magical blue fairy. |
But back to the present…
Of late, the current Disney regime has been hell-bent on putting a live-action spin on all of Uncle Walt’s animated classics, along with many of the studio’s more recent hits. The results have been mixed, to say the least; for every successful Alice in Wonderland (2010) and Jungle Book (2016), we’ve suffered through misfires such as the bloated Beauty and the Beast (2017), the excessively distressing Dumbo (2019) and the blink-and-you-missed it — trust me, not a bad thing — Lady and the Tramp, a streaming debut that same year.
The obvious question arises: Why bother?
Inclusion and political correctness can be a factor, and — in theory — there’s nothing wrong with reviving a beloved chestnut. After all, how many local theater productions of (as just a couple of examples) The Music Man and My Fair Lady get mounted every year, to the delight of packed audiences?
Uncle Walt’s Pinocchio is eight decades old, which certainly seems far enough back to justify a fresh take. And, in fairness, director Robert Zemeckis’ new film has much to offer: Doug Chiang and Stefan Dechant’s sumptuously colorful production design is amazing — gotta love all the cuckoo clocks in Geppetto’s workshop — and Don Burgess’ equally lush cinematography gives the saga a lovely fairy tale glow.
But the film fails on the most crucial level. Despite the CGI trickery with which this version’s title character is brought to life, and even despite young Benjamin Evan Ainsworth’s earnest voice performance, this Pinocchio doesn’t have anywhere near the warmth, vulnerability, poignant curiosity, chastened regret or beingness of his hand-drawn predecessor.
In short, 1940’s Pinocchio felt like a real boy, even while still a marionette. This CGI Pinocchio is a cartoon character.
And everything crumbles from that misstep.
Tom Hanks’ Geppetto is an exercise in mumbled absent-mindedness, as if he’s constantly on the verge of forgetting his lines, or where to stand. He’s also much too calm when initially confronted with the miracle of his wooden puppet come to life, as if this is somehow a routine occurrence.
Indeed, Pinocchio’s very existence similarly is taken for granted by all the villagers and schoolchildren; the schoolmaster banishes Pinocchio from the classroom because he’s “just a puppet,” but seems unfazed by the fact that he is a puppet brought to life.
Perhaps this results from the fact that the village also is home to con artists J. Worthington Foulfellow — better know as “Honest John” — and his mute, bumbling sidekick Gideon. If you share the street with an anthropomorphic, nattily dressed fox and his feline companion, perhaps a walking, talking puppet isn’t that big a deal.
Even so, this still points to a serious shortcoming in the script, by Zemeckis, Chris Weitz and Simon Farnaby: It lacks magic. Not enough sense of wonder. The story hits all of the 1940 film’s major plot points — including abbreviated versions of the key songs, “I’ve Got No Strings” and “When You Wish Upon a Star” — but the execution is … well … rather blasé.
Emotion is absent.
When Pinocchio and Geppetto have their climactic encounter with Monstro, in the 1940 film — after everything else they’ve already endured — the impact is traumatic and emotionally wrenching.
Here, it’s just another action sequence.
Even Pinocchio’s prevaricatory “tell” — his lengthening nose, when caught in a lie — is little more than a hasty sight gag, which (worse yet!) has a positive result.
That rather blunts the significance of the Blue Fairy’s initial admonishment that Pinocchio must learn to be “brave, honest and unselfish.”
So, OK, other good stuff: Giuseppe Battiston is excellent as a odious and loathsome Stromboli, owner of the Marionette Traveling Theatre, where Pinocchio is briefly seduced by the lure of fame and fortune. Kyanne Lamaya is sweetly endearing as Fabiana, a new character: a young puppeteer apprenticed to Stromboli, who — because of an injured leg — vicariously dances through her marionette, Sabina.
Lewin Lloyd, well remembered as Roger Parslow in the ongoing HBO adaptation of Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials, is equally memorable as the fast-talking Lampwick: the “naughty boy” who encourages Pinocchio to follow a gaggle of delighted children who frolic in Pleasure Island, little realizing the fate that awaits them all.
Keegan-Michael Key is note-perfect as the voice of the cunningly fraudulent Honest John.
Geppetto’s two beloved pets — the black and white cat Figaro, and goldfish-in-a-bowl Cleo — are CGI-adorable, without ever saying a word.
Which brings us to the story’s other key character: Jiminy Cricket, the leaping insect who serves as “Pinoke’s” chaperone and moral compass. Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s scratchily solemn vocal performance cannot be faulted — he also serves as this saga’s narrator — but the character’s CGI presentation is a bit odd; it looks like his actual face is covered by a whole-head cricket mask.
This may be anatomically correct, cricket-wise, in terms of how the head attaches to the thorax … but, given that Jiminy stands on two legs, it’s rather distracting.
I’ve no doubt young viewers will enjoy this film; it’s well-paced, with plenty of adventure and mischief, and the essential moral remains present (if muted).
As also was the case with the recent release of Luck, though, adults and older viewers will respond with a shrug. (Frankly, I fully expect a lot of parents to haul out their DVD of the 1940 version, with words along the lines of “Wait until you see this one!”)
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