Few children's novels have proved as popular and ageless as Pinocchio (or The Adventures of Pinocchio, to give it its full original title), written by Italian author Carlo Collodi and first published in 1883. It famously tells the story of how a puppet carved from pine by lonely, childless woodcarver Geppetto and dubbed Pinocchio by him is magically brought to life as a wooden boy by a kindly fairy, who promises Pinocchio that if he proves himself brave, truthful, and unselfish, he will one day become a real flesh-and-blood boy. Pinocchio promises her that he will do, but he is soon led astray, falling into bad company and suffering all kinds of misfortunes as a result. Yet whenever he is challenged about his bad behaviour, Pinocchio invariably attempts to defend himself by telling lies, but every time he does so, his nose grows, and the bigger the lie, the longer his nose becomes. Eventually, however, Pinocchio redeems himself by rescuing his ever-loving creator/father Geppetto from the belly of a huge fish (or whale in certain later reimaginings) at the cost of his own life – at which point the fairy intervenes, transforming him as promised into a real boy.
Down through the decades, there have been numerous movie versions of this highly imaginative and in parts quite frightening but emphatically moralistic story. However, the most famous and best-loved is unquestionably the classic 1940 Walt Disney animated feature Pinocchio, widely deemed by movie buffs to be one of the best animated films of all time – if not THE best (and certainly one of my all-time favourites) – with its principal song 'When You Wish Upon A Star' winning an Academy Award as Best Original Song and going on to become the unofficial theme song of the entire Disney movie empire. In my film collection, I have over a dozen different big-screen interpretations of Collodi's literary legend, but in 2022 a couple of major new film versions were released, each of eminent cinematic heritage, but very different indeed in both style and storyline from one another. Having now watched both of them, one the creation of celebrated Mexican director Guillermo Del Toro, the other Disney's live-action/CGI remake of its very own 1940 animated masterpiece, here are my own personal thoughts and opinions of how well, or otherwise, they shape up.
GUILLERMO DEL TORO'S PINOCCHIO
On 15 November 2022, I watched Guillermo Del Toro's Pinocchio, the great Mexican director's first foray into musicals and movies for youngsters, and I found it absolutely captivating, even though the songs were, with a single exception, entirely forgettable. Del Toro co-directed the film with Mark Gustafson, as well as co-producing it, co-writing its screenplay, and co-writing most of its songs, and it was released by Netflix in October (UK)/November (USA).
As one would expect from a Del Toro movie, his vision of the Pinocchio plot veers considerably from Collodi's, resetting the story in Fascist WW2 Italy, amid fighting, and bombing (plus a brief but highly comical appearance from a midget Mussolini). During one novel but notable back-story incident taking place early in the movie, Geppetto's original, human son, Carlo (a character not present in Collodi's book but named after him), is killed by a stray bomb, leading Geppetto to carve Pinocchio as a substitute.
However, the movie does also feature various more traditional Pinocchio themes, such as a talking cricket (voiced by Ewan McGregor and named Sebastian J. Cricket), Pinocchio (Gregory Mann, who also voices Carlo) being led astray and kidnapped by a shyster puppeteer (Count Volpe, voiced by Christoph Waltz), and Geppetto (David Bradley) being swallowed by a huge sea monster.
Incidentally, other notable thespians voicing characters include Ron Perlman as a Fascist government official who makes Pinocchio become a soldier, Cate Blanchett as Count Volpe's ill-treated pet monkey Spazzatura who becomes an ally of Pinocchio, and John Turturro as the village doctor.
A major new addition to the story is Pinocchio dying on three different occasions and visiting the After-Life where Death turns out to be the sister of the pale-blue four-winged seraph-like Wood Sprite (both sisters voiced by Tilda Swinton) who originally gave life to him. Death herself takes the phantasmagorical form of an electric-blue chimaera-like entity with eyed wings recalling those of the Angel of Death in Del Toro's earlier movie Hellboy 2.
Overall, therefore, this telling of the Pinocchio tale is very different from any previous one, to the extent that it is virtually an entirely original story in its own right, but no less entertaining. The stop-motion animation is superb throughout, with Pinocchio himself being both surreal in appearance (inspired by the artwork of Gris Grimly) but sweetly child-like in behaviour – loving, ultimately loyal to Geppetto, yet also wilful and carefree, his naivety inciting many of the dramatic situations in which he finds himself and those who care for him embroiled.
The movie's ending, contrasting Pinocchio's never-ageing immortality (bestowed upon him by Death in order to honour an earlier wish-granting pledge by her to Sebastian J. Cricket) with the mortality of his father and friends, is extremely poignant, as are the final words, spoken by the now-deceased cricket: "What happens, happens, and then we are gone". Yes indeed, that says it all so succinctly about life and its ending, for all of us.
And the single exception to this film musical's otherwise unmemorable collection of songs? 'Ciao Papa', co-written by Del Toro, and wistfully sung by a conscience-stricken Pinocchio as he slips away from Geppetto to join the puppet show in order to earn money for his father and prove himself worthy of his love. I see this as a major contender for a Best Original Song Academy Award nomination, even though some of its lyrics are decidedly bizarre (why would seeing a camel cry be something that Pinocchio aspires to experience one day??). Anyway, if you click here, you can view and listen to an official musical video of it on YouTube, and judge for yourself.
In short, I found Guillermo Del Toro's Pinocchio to be a truly magical movie, dark and even heart-rending in places as one would expect of any film from this director, but thoroughly enthralling throughout. And if you'd like a sneak preview of it, be sure to click here to watch an official trailer on YouTube.
UPDATE: Sadly, 'Ciao Papa' did not receive an Academy Award nomination (which surely IS enough to make a camel cry!). However, this surprising omission was more than adequately compensated for when at the Academy Awards ceremony held in March 2023 Guillermo Del Toro's Pinocchio did win the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature - and deservedly so!
PINOCCHIO (Disney live-action/CGI 2022 remake)
On 10 December 2022, I watched the Disney live-action/CGI remake (hereafter referred to for convenience as Pinocchio 2022) of its beloved 1940 animated classic, Pinocchio (hereafter referred to as Pinocchio 1940), released in September 2022 on Disney+. Yet in spite of its being directed by the legendary Robert Zemeckis, who also co-wrote its screenplay, what a travesty this remake is, at least as far as I'm concerned.
Succinctness is replaced by endless monologues (yes, Blue Fairy, I'm thinking of you!), with sweetness usurped by vulgarity (what precisely was the reasoning or purpose behind Pinocchio – voiced by Benjamin Evan Ainsworth – paying rapt attention to a decidedly large, fly-attracting horse turd on the road to school?). And who on earth at the Disney studio thought that it might be 'edgy' when Pinocchio escapes from his evil grasp for the Coachman (Luke Evans) to exclaim loudly and unmistakeably a word that is a notable expletive, especially in the UK, and which horrified the parents of children whom they'd allowed to view this movie in the not-unreasonable expectation that it would be as wholesome as its enchanting predecessor? (Just to confirm that my ears weren't playing tricks on me regarding the swear word in question, click here to read a major UK newspaper article about it.) As a Welshman, Luke would certainly have been able to inform the American film makers of its less than salubrious British connotation, so surely there can be no excuse for their including it?
Tom Hanks's Geppetto is a masterclass in over-acting, Stromboli the malevolent puppeteer (Giuseppe Battiston) is much weaker here in Pinocchio 2022 than was his literally volcanic Pinocchio 1940 counterpart, and the tentacle-wielding Monstro (or Monstrum as he is superfluously renamed here) resembles the outlandish outcome of a bizarre coupling between a sperm whale and the kraken. Some of Pinocchio 1940's most delightful songs ('Little Woodenhead' and especially 'Give a Little Whistle') are replaced by a vastly inferior copycat composition in the former case, and in the latter case by the interminable exposition of the redesigned multi-winged Blue Fairy (Cynthia Erivo).
Three new characters are also introduced – a friendly young puppeteer named Fabiana (Kyanne Lamaya), her girl puppet Sabina (Jaquita Ta'le), and seagull Sofia (Lorraine Bracco). Sofia obligingly transports Jiminy Cricket (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) in times of need, just like a huge dove transported Pinocchio in Collodi's novel, and the presence of Fabiana enables a catchy yet infuriatingly brief new song to be included. Otherwise, however, their impact is minimal. Also: performing on stage in Pinocchio 1940 the song 'I Got No Strings', when Pinocchio sings its final line 'I got no strings on me' he finds himself with delightfully humorous irony hopelessly entangled in the strings of all the stringed dancing puppets on stage with him, but no such entanglement occurs when he sings that same line on stage in Pinocchio 2022, thereby rendering the whole purpose of that line, and song, worthless.
Speaking of Jiminy, he still serves satisfactorily here as Pinocchio's Blue Fairy-appointed Conscience (albeit a little less prominently than in Pinocchio 1940). And the slick spiel and patter of the sly fox Honest John (Keegan-Michael Key) is just as entertaining (if not even more so) this time round, working in some hilarious 21st-Century psycho-babble references, plus a very funny, expertly-delivered line that Chris Pine would never work as a stage name for Pinocchio – wonderful! Interestingly, just as in Del Toro's movie, there is a poignant back-story here of how Geppetto once had a real son who died young. And the CGI animation is absolutely stunning throughout, as one would expect from any such Disney movie.
But overall, and despite being already familiar to viewers who have seen Pinocchio 1940, the plot as presented here in Pinocchio 2022 doesn't gel at all. This is due in particular to what I perceive to be two major flaws with it.
Firstly: Pinocchio is not being actively tempted by characters and events here, but is instead merely being passively, innocently, led on by them, through no active fault of his own. All of this jars fundamentally with the original Collodi novel's storyline, in which Pinocchio is unequivocally wilful, uncaring, and impetuous, and also with the admittedly more toned-down plot in Pinocchio 1940.
Secondly: at the very end of Pinocchio 2022, Pinocchio's turning into a real boy is not even readily seen to occur – it actually DOES occur, but only in the briefest of blink-and-you'll-miss-it moments – instead of being the immensely moving, joyful, inspirational, crowning scene of the entire movie that it was in Pinocchio 1940 and should have been in this film too. Consequently, instead of ending on a massively uplifting high, it closes with a thoroughly uninspiring, deflated anticlimax. As a result, it made me wonder what the purpose was of the Blue Fairy's loquacious litany at the movie's beginning about what it will take for Pinocchio to become a real boy, and, in turn, what the purpose was of this entire movie, for that matter, because the fundamental raison d'être of Collodi's Pinocchio story was how a wooden puppet boy could become a real flesh-and-blood boy.
But perhaps I'm being too hard on Pinocchio 2022. Perhaps its doom is that it is forever fated to be directly compared to its exceptionally illustrious Disney predecessor, and what animated feature, of any kind, by any studio, stands any chance of shining amid the radiant perfection of Pinocchio 1940? Perhaps Pinocchio 2022 might simply have been judged on its own standalone merits and demerits had it not been irrevocably linked to the infinitely superior Pinocchio 1940. Nevertheless, it IS linked, so I personally dread to think what Walt Disney would have made of Pinocchio 2022 – although if he'd been here, I feel sure that it wouldn't have been made. End of story. However, you may think differently, so why not click here and here in order to watch two different official trailers for this movie and make up your own mind concerning it?
To view a complete chronological listing of all of my Shuker In MovieLand blog's other film reviews and articles (each one instantly accessible via a direct clickable link), please click HERE, and please click HERE to view a complete fully-clickable alphabetical listing of them.
