Disney Reboots Pinocchio

Heaven Woldai, Entertainment Writer

Much like the 1940 film, the story begins with a woodcarver, Geppetto, creating a wooden boy, Pinocchio. On a wishing star Geppetto wished for Pinocchio to be a real boy, and a blue fairy granted it. When the blue fairy granted his wish, Pinocchio came to life but whenever he lied his nose grew as he needed to be honest. The movie explains Pinocchio’s journey, his journey regarding being “brave, truthful, and unselfish”, as said in the movie. Pinocchio is by Jiminy cricket, a cricket placed as Pinocchio’s conscience. The new Disney live action, Pinocchio, does not capture the magical essence of the original Pinocchio (1940).

Tom Hanks who played Geppetto could’ve done a much better job. He played his role soullessly in comparison to his role in Elvis. It also was

Despite Geppetto’s character, Pinocchio was well voiced by Benjamin Evan Ainsworth. He sounded very similar to the original Pinocchio and also conveyed a good amount of emotion.

Keegan Michael Key plays as one of the Foxes who disrupts Pinocchio’s journey in becoming brave, truthful, and unselfish. Keegan’s voice was very convincing because his tone played well with his deceptiveness, while being highly defensive he sounded as if he truly cared about Pinocchio.

Although Jiminy Cricket, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, didn’t sound the same as the original it was done really well because his voice still gave a nostalgic feeling to the original.

The plot is similar to the original but with a few changes, and a change in point. The movie disregards the point of Pinocchio learning to be truthful when he basically was throughout the movie. In the original, Pinocchio was sent off to school and was deceived by the Fox and Cat, in this movie he still went to school and only was deceived by the Fox after being kicked out.

We can see the change in point when Pinocchio went to a place named “Pleasure Island ”, an Island where children don’t have rules. He realizes soon that he shouldn’t have been there, as well as the realization his father would disapprove of him being on the island. In the original he partakes in the actions the kids of pleasure island were doing, drugs, drinking, smashing things but in this movie he hadn’t and still turned into a donkey as “punishment” for his actions.

Another change was the added character of a woman who was on the trombelli show along with Pinocchio. She was a puppeteer who allowed Pinocchio to trust other adults, this change did not harm the movie but really helped strengthen the plot. Another strengthened piece of the movie was the set design. The set design was done so realistically. The design was mesmerizing, especially the scenes shown in Pleasure island.

Overall, the movie did not convey the original with all of its changes. It didn’t really bring the feeling of scary when Pinocchio and his friend turned into donkeys or use any explicit words or show explicit actions which can be seen in the original, really justifying its PG rating. The Pinocchio remake is unrecommended.