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Disney is enchanting audiences everywhere with their classic, Pinocchio, which is directed by Robert Zemeckis. The cast includes his bests Tom Hanks and many other well known stars. This full-length, animated film is by far one of the most popular Disney titles. While the original film had stunning graphics, it is unfortunate that this film failed to do so. It was devoid of joy and felt cheap and more like a cash grab instead. It is quite clear that the movie relied heavily on CGI. which was not well executed and paired with Hanks’ voice, who attempted to put on another poor accent, leaves a bad taste in my mouth.
For those who have not watched the animated movie, the plot follows Geppetto, a wood sculptor played by Tom Hanks, He makes himself a wooden son and wishes to not be lonely. A blue fairy portrayed by Cynthia Erivo grants his wish and sets his toy and wooden son, Pinocchio, Benjamin Evan Ainsworth, on an adventure. Pinocchio wakes up and sets on a mission to discover the world, go to school, and become a good boy leading to him turning into a real human. Jiminy Cricket who is voiced by Joseph Gordon-Levitt serves as Pinocchio’s conscience and guides him while they both try to steer clear from the multitude of threats that exist outside the picture-perfect Italian village.
Indeed, one can be hypercritical of this film to an extent because it attempts to recreate the charm of the original, but it misses out on getting the elements of the animated film that made it a classic. The songs have received the ‘TikTok treatment’, for lack of a better term – mutilated and suffocated within an inch of their life. In addition, other songs that add no novel value are placed within. Each set piece, whether it is Pleasure Island, Stromboli’s circus, or Monstro, miss evoking the sense of awe and danger that the previous film has successfully captured. This may be due to the changes, starting from the gender neutral Pleasure Island to Monstro’s flapping tentacles, which makes him look like he came from the utterly horrendous movie Monster Trucks. And finally, Tom Hanks’ accent. I would not have believed we could sink further after Elvis, and yet, here we are. It seems as though all the members of the civilization have come together to work on this production of Pinocchio, and none of the economies have been allocated for acting, only the visuals.
The visuals are so incredibly beautiful that one can almost forgive other aspects of the terribly executed film. For one, Pinocchio is an awesome achievement in animation for how he is blended with the real world. The way the Blue Fairy stuns with her blue shimmers in the night scene is pure golden (and Elivro’s performance is nothing selectacular!). It’s also a high point of the film when Keegan Michael Key makes the voice of Honest John for the singer. This serves as a much-needed high point of the film where Roger Rabbit-style antics are performed. The short interaction of all three characters and attempting to get Pinocchio to Stromboli is a nice short scene showcasing the brilliant animation of characters in realistic settings. A new character Sofia the Seagull (Lorraine Bracco), doesn’t really offer much to validate her exaggeration in the film. She is a friend of Jiminy and helps the duo reunite with Gepetto. Sadly, this isn’t nearly enough to recommend this movie.
I don’t suppose anyone will remember any of the new songs from this new batch fifty years from now, In fact the songs try their best to justify their existence. Furthermore, classic songs like When You Wish Upon A Star is an easily recognized 30 second tic tok tribute which, while beautifully performed, fails its purpose. Luke Evan, in the role of The Coachmen, who is the owner and driver for Pleasure Island has a good voice and make up looks stunning, but The Coachman to Pleasure Island is yet another miss. It does nothing for the overall narrative, sadly.
Robert Zemeckis wanted to build and extend from this because he could have nailed it. The story was like a walking corpse of the original… updated with a few ideas thrown in. Zemeckis however, only provided focus on the visuals, and perhaps that is one of the reasons for the divider in attention. Hopefully, the care and detail put into the song writing and script is up to par for the updated version. Add to the ongoing list of lacklustre remakes that have taken hold of the studio in the last few years.
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