This boring live-action ‘Pinocchio’ that even Tom Hanks can’t save

In Disney nearly a decade of continuous “classic works of live action”, ‘Pinocchio’ may only be considered one of the victims of this step-by-step plan a.

Despite the reputation of its 1940 classic animation, there have been countless remakes and interpretations, and even this year, there will be a stop-motion animation of Gyro ‘Pinocchio’ coming out soon.

But it is clear that Disney’s ‘Pinocchio’ has not received enough attention from the very beginning of the project. Compared to the more topical ‘The Little Mermaid’ and ‘Snow White’, ‘Pinocchio’ has received very little publicity.

The fact that the film is now live may also prove that, despite the price tag of the production (rumored to be $150 million), its quality is still not commensurate with the big screen.

As the non-CG character with the most appearances in this film, Tom Hanks has also underperformed this year. In ‘Elvis’ a few months ago, he played a rambunctious old man.

In ‘Pinocchio’, he even made a room with Disney Easter eggs and clocks, and couldn’t add a hint of the new age to Geppetto’s character.

From the characters to the plot, this movie is like a marionette of 1940 animation.

The film tries to restore it on the one hand, but on the other hand, it tries to make a breakthrough. Unfortunately, this effort is destined to be in vain. Let’s see how the film compares. What made the biggest difference in the 1940 animation.

Songs Few and Far Between, a storyline of a coffee-colored disabled independent female puppeteer and a black Smurf ……

Perhaps the biggest feature of this version of the live-action Pinocchio is the lack of features.

With a variety of previous animated live-action success stories, ‘Pinocchio’ naturally reluctant 1:1 remake of the classics, but look at Disney’s previous success story of a successful or a successful modern interpretation of the original script, such as ‘Maleficent’.

Otherwise it is through ‘The Lion King’, ‘Beauty and the Beast’, ‘Aladdin’ and other excellent dance, song and special effects to complete the spectacle building and emotional mobilization.

And the mediocre ones, such as ‘Dumbo’, ‘The Nutcracker And The Four Realms’ or ‘Mulan’, ended up being unsatisfactory at the box office and in terms of word-of-mouth.

Obviously, just relying on the famous ip and the script that children can remember well does not attract the goodwill of the audience.

‘Pinocchio’ on the one hand reduces the length of the songs in the film and adds a new spinoff of a disabled puppet girl.

On the other hand, the strategy of streaming screening at the beginning also limited the delicacy of its special effects. Various cg creation confidence is not high, Tom Hanks outside after the green screen keying both visual and strong.

At the story level, the 1940 version of ‘Pinocchio’ tells the story of a child growing up, facing temptation, and learning virtues such as honesty and courage. the 2022 version presents the theme as it is, with few changes.

In the same way, the old content of 80 years ago, although there are flashes of breaking through the times, the original plot is not old, but can not bring more surprises to people. Didn’t I say that a disabled female puppeteer was added to this movie?

This seems to be the message the movie is trying to convey, wanting to get out of bondage and pursue a career you love. But the girl makes little progress in Pinocchio’s adventure and fails to help him get the key to open the cage (which ends up being a nose + small cricket), then suddenly appears in front of Pinocchio looking for his father, like a horizontally inserted copy.

This episode has its significance, but it doesn’t fit organically into the main story. When all is said and done, Miss Puppet is about to perform with Pinocchio.

At the end of the film, Pinocchio turns into a real child. Child labor?

Disney likes all kinds of things they consider politically correct these days, but a bit off the beaten track. Of course it’s not just Disney, in last year’s British version of ‘Cinderella’, the fairy godmother has multiple buffs like black, gay, and transgender people.

In this movie, the 1940 version of the fairy becomes black.

Although I knew about this change a long time ago, it still sent a huge shock to my no-longer-young mind when I read this passage.

At first glance, the fairy looks like a bald head, but on closer inspection, the head is covered with blingbling sequins. This shape is simply incredible.

I looked online and the mainstream reviews were boasting that the Black Fairy was the highlight of the movie. I suspect it may be my aesthetic problem. Children may really look forward to such fairies descending to earth.

In previous live-action works, we usually think of this as a “real” world, in this real world there are some talking animals or good and evil magic, but in ‘Pinocchio’, in addition to one or two real scenes, almost all the scenery is created by CG, the main character is also a fake CG character.

This gives me the illusion that we have entered a world of cg effects, while a few real people like Tom Hanks are misplaced in the world of puppets.

So in this world of mixed authenticity, the seagulls, John the fox who claims to be honest, Figaro the fake cat, and even Pinocchio himself, all fail to give the audience a real sense of presence.

Tom Hanks struggles to find some element of authenticity in this unreal world, but unfortunately all these efforts for authenticity are in vain in the water when he sells a clock house and replaces only a boat in a fake pool when Pinocchio pulls a seagull and an oar.

And has been chasing to become a real little boy Pinocchio, I think in the classic animation and live-action films can not find a suitable place.

The original creativity of 2D animation is not sublimated by 3D effects, but brings a strange sense of alienation. The story of the old Japanese environment is not reborn in the new era, which is why there are such cockamamie works like ‘Pinocchio’.

The film’s charm is based almost entirely on the old plot line. tom hanks’ diligent performance seems to be limited.

If the so-called classic remakes are really just secondary to tertiary, black and white to color, silent to sound, coarse to delicate, then perhaps the directors and producers of remakes of these works should really think about it.

Do kids really need these “sophisticated” remakes?

Perhaps, lying on the success of the past to sleep peacefully, not to cook 80-year-old cold rice, but to conceive some touching stories belonging to the new era, is what these manufacturers need to consider.

Related Post: ‘Pinocchio’ Review: A live-action film with no flavor, a perfunctory remake with no soul.