Pinokio

Zemeckis’ retelling of the Disney classic has its moments, but overall it comes across a little half-assed, both in the modernization as against the original and in the visual approach. Pinocchio tries to warn kids against the evil of influencers and the dangers of showbiz, but while doing so he turns formerly enchanting moments in the story into a breakneck blurt. There are maybe too many songs for my liking, but my daughter liked that, so I have no complaints. The way they brought the wooden puppet to life was fantastic. Hanks was really affected, maybe over-acting. Silvestri’s music is great. P.S.: Maybe they threw Pinocchio out of school because he put the apple for teacher next to the horse dung and the race bit was just an excuse. Maybe... (12.09.2022)

Real handmade wooden crafts can hardly be replaced with “more modern” versions made of cheap plastic. The only positive aspects of Pinocchio are Tom Hanks and his clock, the splendidly dubbed Honest John (in English), the scenes with the whale (which the filmmakers turned into a sea monster with tentacles) and occasionally the tricks, which are very convincing in some scenes, but alarmingly bad in others. Almost everything in this film is digital and it looks ugly and artificial (the animals, the water and the unrealistic drinking of soda...omg). In comparison with the original 80-year-old animated classic, this version’s extra half-hour adds nothing interesting, instead horribly diminishing the conciseness of the opening exposition and changing the impression given by many of the scenes and themes (including Geppetto’s motivation for creating Pinocchio). From the moment of Pinocchio’s awakening, the plot is so excessively rushed and the individual acts so narratively sloppy (or changed for the worse) that the original moralizing message, which should have comprised the core of the film, is lost in the climax. Important characters (including the blue fairy) are introduced in one scene and then disappear from the plot, never to be seen again. Whenever there is a sung passage, you immediately find yourself hoping that it ends as soon as possible. The attempt at contemporary gags is annoying, misses the mark and makes no sense. The new Pinocchio has none of its forebear’s amusing playfulness or inventiveness, nor does it enchant with sudden wonder or disturb with dark undertones. It’s just sad and unnecessary. (11.09.2022)

The year 2041: an excerpt from the Wikipedia entry on "The new nihilistic wave of late Hollywood": "Pinocchio is an ideal illustration of the creative nihilism that characterized the era. It was the remake of a classic cartoon, produced by a major film studio in the hands of a formerly renowned director and technical innovator. The film combined live actors with digital objects and environments, even when it would have been no problem to make the environment or objects real. The result ultimately demonstrates the creative chaos that was then unfolding in the freshly acquired and merged studios and the production companies attached to them, where the resulting work is a hectic clash between a seventy-year-old director's idea of a technologically advanced film and the inputs of dozens of focus groups and elusive external forces such as the COVID-19 pandemic or changes in distribution trends, all backed by many millions of dollars. We end up with a fairy tale that is muddled, unappealing, and (due to the poor quality special effects) creepy, obviously having completely slipped the hand of any creative contribution. The palpability of how much everyone who had anything to do with the film had already given up during production was another element that added to the collective depression on which the culture wars of the time were based." (12.09.2022)