Criticism ‘Pinocchio’, the live action of Disney + is still a wooden doll

Since a few years, Disney seems hell-bent on upgrade your library of great animation classics to live actiontrying to loop the loop with the difficult task of improving or expanding the original story on which they are based for new audiences. The fortunes of these projects have been very uneven.with colossal box office successes like the lion king by Jon Favreau Beauty and the Beast by Bill Condon or Aladdin by Guy Ritchie and other lesser category projects that have fallen on the streaming networks or have been forgotten among the avalanche of content that reaches the video on demand portals or the billboards of half the planet. Now celebrating the call Disney+Daywhich enhances the increasingly important digital platform, arrives Pinocchio of Robert Zemeckis. Worth? In Vandal We have been able to see it in advance and we tell you what to expect from this update of the cartoon classic in a review without spoilers.

Pinocchio: The most important Disney film goes from animation to live action

Talk about Pinocchio is to do it in the key of absolute terms. The animated film Ben Sharpsteen and Hamilton Luskepremiered in 1940turned into a whole phenomenon at the box office in its subsequent re-releases and distributions after the Second World War and in a recurring film among critics when trying to trace which were the films that led Disney to its current hegemony. We are talking about the second Walt Disney feature film after Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs -whose remake with real actors and actresses is also in production-, a whole before and after in the film industry, which freely and fancifully adapted the classic book by Carlo Collodi to a new generation. With an unparalleled audiovisual section, it has an even superior soundtrack, awarded by the Hollywood Academy and whose When You Wish Upon a Star, in the end, would end up becoming the anthem that precedes each and every one of the Mouse House movies. Its importance is such that it is one of the films preserved in the United States Library of Congress for its importance historical, cultural and social. Almost nothing.

So when the version of this timeless classic was announced, many wondered if it would be up to the task of his legacy. Being honest, we will say that yes, that try to resemble the original work -sometimes with almost religious fidelity- but that, like the good old Pinocchio in this story about the morality and integrity of the human being in his passage to maturity, he does not finish hitting the nail on the head whenever he proposes it. Robert Zemeckis, Academy Award winner and one of the filmmakers with the most sensitivity from all over Hollywood, directs this live-action version of the endearing and enduring story of a wooden puppet who embarks on an exciting adventure to become a real boy. If you are familiar with the original Disney version you will soon find the similaritieswith similar artistic designs and carefully traced sequences and a certain prowess in directing.

In this adaptation with flesh and blood actors and a hefty budget, Tom Hanks plays Geppettothe carpenter who builds and treats Pinocchio (Benjamin Evan Ainsworth) as if it were his own son. For his part, a chameleon Joseph Gordon-Levitt voices Jiminy Cricketthe little animal that guides Pinocchio in addition to representing his “awareness” in the fable. Cynthia Erivoalso nominated for an Academy Award, is the Blue fairy, the magical entity that gives life to this pinewood doll. Also noteworthy are the voices of Lorraine Bracowho embodies Sofia the Seagulla new character designed for the occasion -and who has some remarkable moment-, and the always efficient and charismatic Luke Evansthat after shining in Beauty and the Beast and the trilogy of The Hobbit by Peter Jackson, here he focuses on putting on the robes of The Coachman.

Updating the classic: a rare mix of high-quality pine and chipboard

Pinocchioin the middle of 2022 and despite its thematic and aesthetic similarities, is a somewhat different film from its 1940 reference. It has its logic, many decades have passed between one and the other, and the spectators, the tastes and the ways of narrating stories in the cinema are very different. How do you approach such an anachronistic concept as Pleasure Island – the producers of this remake recognized that it was a challenge- in a live action What does it pretend to be current? How do you replace alcohol and cigarettes in a modern age full of digital addictions? Yes, Zemeckis and his crew have tried to follow the Pinocchio of cartoons as a kind of master template, and in much of the plot or the narration we will not find too many differences with its counterpart of the forties, maintaining the spirit, tone, and theme of the original work. A laudable feat, if you ask us. Nevertheless, the rhythm is radically differentwith an unjustifiable obsession with action sequences bombastic and brazenly contrived who seek to show off some of the new visual and technical additions to the ensemble. What is the point of seeing Jiminy Cricket jumping between cuckoo clocks on more than one occasion in the opening bars of the footage? What does the constant brilliance of a computer-generated creature bring?

It is perhaps the biggest mistake of this Pinocchio: Sometimes you don’t know what you want to be as a movie or entertainment product. He tries to be a carbon copy of the original as much as possible, adapting his story to new audiences when necessary, but we believe that he does not manage to find the necessary balance and the tape ends up getting tangled up in the strings of the puppets parading across the screen with bro. But not everything is bad or debatable in Pinocchio. Zemeckis, a pioneer in telling stories in the cinema using new technologieswith movies like Who framed Roger Rabbit? -which has a script in the film, by the way- or Polar Expressis a filmmaker with great sensitivity, able to get all the quality possible out of Tom Hanks when he is on screentaking advantage of the actor’s veteran to give substance to a work that sometimes gives the impression of being hollow.

The couple, who have worked in the aforementioned Polar Expressin the award-winning Forrest Gump and in the also award-winning castaway, is one of those that will go down in the history of the Seventh Art. When they are in tune they are capable of anything, and although Geppetto is not present here for much of the story, the obvious cannot be denied: Hanks remains one of the best actors in Hollywood and his mere presence in Pinocchio help raise the bar -and never better said-. Also worthy of mention is the work of Benjamin Evan Ainsworth, an actor who gives voice to the main character and who, moreover, was acting on the filming set at the direction of Zemeckis himself, who always advocated that he interact with the actors, the locations and the others involved in the filming -such as the equally efficient Levitt-.

in this wrapper premiumin this varnish that wraps all the intricate cabinetmaking work of Disney, highlights the use of the soundtrack by Alan Silvestri, as well as new versions of songs composed by Leigh Harline and Ned Washington –When You Wish Upon a Star, Ive Got No Strings and Hi-Diddle-Dee-Dee (An Actors Life for Me)– and other pieces designed for the occasion, that although they have it very difficult to match the musical accompaniment of the 1940 film -which won two Oscars-, the truth is that we especially liked them -yes, Chanel does a great version in Spanish-.

Pinocchio has that problem that we have seen repeated over and over again in other live action Similar: Has an excellent base to stand on but doesn’t quite stand up properly. We can enter the sterile debate of the need for these remakes by Disney, but if we accept the proposal and understand the idea of ​​the major in order to update its classic tales to new audiences, we must say that this Pinocchio is among the best attempts. able to follow the Pinocchio original of the forties as if they were the holy scriptures when it touches, Zemeckis’ film manages to be entertaining thanks to a successful casting and a good invoice. However, below if we happen to hit the shiny and shiny wood that seems to contain everything as a container, soon we will realize that it is a piece that is too hollow.

We have seen Pinocchio thanks to early access through Debut and courtesy of the Way to Blue agency and Disney Spain.