Pinocchio (2022) Review

 

Pinocchio is a musical fantasy film and a remake of the 1940 film of the same name. Both of which are based on the 1883 novel The Adventures of Pinocchio. The movie is produced by Walt Disney Pictures, Depth of Field Studios, and ImageMovers and distributed by Disney+. Pinocchio (2022) is written by Robert Zemeckis and Chris Weitz and directed by Robert Zemeckis.

The story is at first, Pinocchio was just your ordinary typical puppet. Then one night, his creator named Geppetto wishes upon a star wanting Pinocchio to come to life. After the wish works, Pinocchio begins his new life as a living boy. But afterwards he soon learns they are some bad people out there, and also learns he needs to find his way home.

Initial Reaction

Now you all know I'm more than willing to give any film it's own fair shake if it peaks my interest. Which yes, this movie did, but I also wanted to see simply because of Robert Zemeckis. Not only did he bring us the Back to the Future films, but also other hits as well.

Cons

One really bad thing about this film was the pacing. This movie only clocks in at 1 hour and 51 minutes, but it felt longer than that. There came a point where it felt like it just kept going and going and going. There was barely a moment where it felt like the pacing was really picking up and moving forward. It was all really slow. Then there's the CGI and green screen....oh boy. How is it, that Disney is this billion dollar company, and for quite a few years now, a lot of their movies that have CGI and/or green screen just haven't looked good? It's especially bad when we get to Pleasure Island. Both the child and adult actors looked like they were in a video game...from the early 2000s. There may have been one maybe two shots that didn't look too bad, but that can't make up for the rest of the film.

Middle Ground

One thing that was fine was the emotional stuff. You still do feel something in the film, you're not gonna be in your seat or couch not feeling anything. But the filmmakers could've just put just a bit more effort in there, as suppose to what we got. Now while the movie is very well directed, I didn't get the feeling this was directed by Robert Zemeckis. This really did feel like anyone could've directed this, as suppose to the guy who brought us Used Cars, Romancing the Stone, the previously mentioned Back to the Future trilogy, Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Forrest Gump, and so on and so forth. Like I said before, it's directed nicely enough, but doesn't feel like Zemeckis.

Pros

The real saving grace came from Tom Hanks, Benjamin Evans Ainsworth, and Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Geppetto, Pinocchio, and Jiminy Cricket. They really did bring some charm to the film. Tom really brings out Geppetto's worry and happiness regarding Pinocchio, and Benjamin really surprised me because not only did he bring Pinocchio's innocence through his voice, but I felt like their were moments where he almost sounded like Dickie Jones. And Joseph Gordon-Levitt just completely disappears when playing Jiminy. I mean it, I had no idea that was him until I started doing research for this review.

Overall, I'm not too disappointed in this. Sure I wish it was better, but I can't say with 100% certainty that I hated it. It's got really good performances from Hanks, Ainsworth, and Levitt. It's still nicely directed, even though I still have a slight issue with it, and while it wasn't completely devoid of emotion, it still could've been better. The biggest problems were the dreadful pacing and the CGI/green screen.

My final rating is Okay.

So yeah, unless you're a hardcore Pinocchio fan (I don't know if such a thing exist, but still), you really don't need to bother rushing to see this. Anyhow, come back on Monday, Sept 12th for part seven of my segment Looking Back at the Films of 2021. Until then, enjoy the rest of your day.