Disney's Pinocchio (Live-Action)

[Ben]

…"Two bits!"

Well that doesn’t look horrible, do it?

[Daniel]

Still think he looks cute and I much prefer that over a hyper realistic approach.

[Ben]

But he has horrible Bob Z eyes, those dead eyes…

I know it’s probably supposed to look painted, but they’re too flat to suggest inner life.

[Daniel]

The texture in general looks off. Kinda looks more plastic instead of wooden. Here he is in motion and a snippet of Tom Hanks:

[Farerb]

[Dacey]

This looks like it cost more to make than Batgirl...

[Daniel]

Jiminy's new voice actor, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, nailed it! Incredible likeness to Cliff Edwards. There's a difference but it's still really good. Cleo looks cute. Monstro looks a little weird, probably the scales. The Blue Fairy looks a little less jarring, we see some hair and or sparkles. Cynthia Erivo sounds lovely! Pleasure Island looks amazing. Looks like they're giving Pinoque a love interest. Reminds me of Pinocchio's Christmas. I like that. Looks promising!

[ShyViolet]

I was determined to hate this, but I couldn’t help but be a bit enchanted.

[Evergreen]

I don't think it's too odd they kept Pinocchio's design the same considering he isn't a human character anyway, he's supposed to be some cutesy creation to be sold. Personally, I'm excited for this one. Pinocchio has always been in my top 10 Disney films anyway, and I'm glad to see it's staying pretty faithful. Honest John looks great.

[EricJ]

Pleasure Island looks amazing.

Pleasure Island in the original movie looked like the Amusement Park From Hell (complete with temptations); in the remake, it looks SUSPICIOUSLY like the night theme-park lighting for Main St., USA. Or Boardwalk Resort, at least.

And some of the trailer scenes confirm my suspicions that yes, this is the Bob Zemeckis who never quite knows what he's remaking, and loonily doubles-down on the wrong things, as he did in A Christmas Carol, and we now have YouTube confirmation he almost did in Yellow Submarine.
Still, it's nice to see he gave some of that unexplained extra attention to creating a lifelike Cleo.

[Ben]

…we now have YouTube confirmation he almost did in Yellow Submarine.

What does this mean? Genuinely, I’m askin'…

[EricJ]

What does this mean? Genuinely, I’m askin'…

If you caught the smuggled test-storyboard clips on YT (the original's been taken down, but other vloggers have used it in their own review posts), Zemeckis's attempt to parse that Yellow Submarine remake in his own mind would have been even loonier, and more cluelessly words-of-one-syllable interpreted than any of the dopey fever-dreams we got of his trying to interpret Dickens in ACC. (I got past "Ringo's water spirit", and checked out halfway through Bob's interpretation of "Eleanor Rigby"...The guy's either that dumb, or just plain loopy.)

And now Bob wants to interpret pre-war Walt-era Disney?
I'm scared, because I KNOW what to expect, and yet somehow never do...

[Daniel]

Comparison:



Always interesting to see what's changed. I like how we see Pinocchio walking behind the kids, in the original you can see their shadows as they pass by. They kept the bee cuckoo clock but changed the numbers to roman numeral. Some scenes are little too dark, though.

[EricJ]

Some of the scenes, like Pinocchio's nose growing, or Pleasure Island now having its own wild Polar Express-like boat ride, not only have the distinct smell of Zemeckis, um, improvements , but that he also may have went in thinking it was going to be a 3D movie in theaters.

Either it got a last-minute downgrade by the studio, or Z is now psychologically trapped in the 00's for life.

[Randall]

Interesting! It just goes to show, though, how pointless these remakes are. So much life in the original Pinocchio is lost in the remake. But of course I'll have to watch it. I still find it a fascinating exercise.