Film / Pinocchio (2022, Disney)

"Ladies and gentlemen! I present to you the eighth wonder of the world: the one and only... Pinocchio!"

♫ Like a bolt out of the blue,
Fate steps in and sees you through.
When you wish upon a star,
Your dreams come true. ♫

— "When You Wish Upon a Star"

A Live-Action Adaptation of the classic Disney Animated Canon film Pinocchio. The film is directed by Robert Zemeckis, written by Zemeckis and Chris Weitz, and stars Benjamin Evan Ainsworth as Pinocchio, Tom Hanks as Geppetto, Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Jiminy Cricket, Cynthia Erivo as the Blue Fairy, Keegan-Michael Key as Honest John, Lorraine Bracco as Sofia, Giuseppe Battiston as Stromboli, and Luke Evans as the Coachman.

Simply put, It has the same plot as the original film, while also including new/altered elements and characters. The film was released as a Disney+ exclusive on Disney+ Day on September 8, 2022.

Previews: Teaser, Trailer 2.

Not to be confused with Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio, which came out the same year.

---

Pinocchio contains examples of:

• Abled in the Adaptation: In the original movie, Geppetto always wore glasses due to his old age. But in the remake, he doesn't need to wear glasses to see, he only wears his glasses when he works in his workshop.
• Abnormal Limb Rotation Range: Since he’s a puppet, Pinocchio can rotate his head with no ill effects.
• Actor Allusion: A Woody and Bullseye cuckoo clock appears in Geppetto's workshop (Tom Hanks, of course, voices the former in those films).
• Adaptation Personality Change: Like previous live-action remakes, the characters have a slight change in personality from their Disney animated counterparts:
  • Pinocchio in the original film enjoyed his time at Pleasure Island and had fun doing bad stuff. Here, the Pleasure Island portion of the story has more focus on peer pressure and how Pinocchio agrees to go there even if he doesn't really want to (in fact, he's scooped up in a net instead of going willingly). He likes it only at first, but very quickly becomes visibly uncomfortable due to the other kids' chaotic and callous behaviour, especially when he sees the contempt corner attraction and witnesses many of his father's clocks being destroyed at the clock stoppers attraction. It should be noted that Pinocchio is generally more distrustful of "real" people and becomes less gullible more quickly than the original version as a result of his bad experiences (as in this version even the school's headmaster treats him very poorly and (quite literally) kicks him out just for not being a human kid), at one point even believing he can only trust his father. Indeed, even if Fabiana turns out to be a good person, Pinocchio is more comfortable to talk to her if she interacts through her puppet, Sabina.
  • Geppetto is less of a bumbling father to a Papa Wolf when his own son goes missing.
  • Jiminy Cricket starts off as a lazy and irresponsible guy but his character develops the moment he is appointed as Pinocchio’s conscience.
  • The Coachman, while still sadistic and evil, takes it up to eleven where he goes as far as to turn even good children, who just want to have a good time, after succumbing to peer pressure into donkeys to be shipped into animal slavery. Being far younger here, he also puts on more of a charismatic Fagin-esque front rather than a kindly old grandfather act.
  • Lampwick starts off as a trustworthy friend to Pinocchio as shown when the pair go on a toboggan ride and boat together. However, Lampwick shows his true face when he starts to demolish Pleasure Island with a catapult, while a shocked Pinocchio looks on in horror in contrast to the original film where Lampwick was already revealed to be a trouble maker such as sling shooting the donkeys pulling the coach, willing to hit someone just for amusement and smashing a window while Pinocchio had no problem with it and even joins him doing these bad things.
• Adaptation Species Change: Monstro in the original film was a whale (ostensibly a sperm whale) but in this film he seems to be some kind of sea monster with mosasaur/pliosaur-like traits as he also has fins and tentacles.
• Adaptational Angst Upgrade: In this version, Geppetto is a widower who, for unknown reasons, lost his son as well. This is why he’s unwilling to sell his clocks (as they remind him of his late wife), and he created Pinocchio to cope with his son’s death.
• Adaptational Attractiveness: While still not a pretty picture to look at, the Coachman is no longer a Fat Bastard thanks to being played by Luke Evans.
• Adaptational Diversity: The Blue Fairy is now played by a black woman, while the "stupid little boys" who visit Pleasure Island are now joined by equally as many girls.
• Adaptational Intelligence: This version of Pinocchio is actually smarter compared to his 1940 animated counterpart, as he takes advantage of his Pinocchio Nose to reach the key and free himself from his cage with Jiminy's help, or immediately can tell that Pleasure Island is anything but "pleasure".
• Adaptational Karma: In the original movie, despite Pinocchio leaving, Stromboli gets away with all the money he made from Pinocchio's show (probably lost after the next spectacle without his "little wooden star"). Here, he is arrested by the carabinieri and put into jail for his cruelty towards his employees.
• Adaptational Villainy: The Coachman is even more evil in this version, as it's shown he's willing to not just lure, but outright steal kids off the road to be taken to Pleasure Island who may not necessarily be interested in the promises of food, fun, and no rules. Pinocchio apparently has a conversation with him on the way there where he explains his goal of wanting to become a real boy and the Coachman tricks him into thinking he may get his wish there. He's also implied to be a human working with demons rather than ambiguously demonic in nature himself, which means there's even less of a valid excuse for him to be so evil.
• Adapted Out:
  • While the Blue Fairy does appear in the film, Pinocchio lying to her is left out. Instead, it is Jiminy Cricket who takes her place in confronting Pinocchio, and a talking seagull named Sofia takes the role of Bearer of Bad News when Geppetto is lost at sea instead of a letter delivered by the Blue Fairy in the form of a dove.
  • Jiminy's fall-out with Pinocchio at Pleasure Island is cut as the cricket accidentally enters the Coachman's lair before he can even speak to Pinocchio.
  • The meeting between Honest John, Gideon, and the Coachman has been omitted. Now the Coachman is introduced when Pinocchio is scooped up to go to Pleasure Island.
  • The process of the Coachman testing if the donkeys can still talk to ensure they lost the ability to speak is cut alongside Alexander and the few donkeys that were locked in a separate pen due to still being able to talk.
  • The Tobacco Row scene with Native American Sioux chief statues throwing out free cigars featured in the original 1940 Disney Pinocchio has been removed in the remake.
  • The smoking including tobacco pipes, cigars and beer have been removed and replaced with root beer in the Pleasure Island scene.
• Advertised Extra: The Blue Fairy's iconic scene of bringing Pinocchio to life was featured heavily in advertising, but all of the her other scenes were Adapted Out.
• Age Lift: In the original movie, the Coachman was a fat old man, but in the remake, due to Adaptational Attractiveness, the Coachman is played by Luke Evans, a handsome young man.
• All Girls Want Bad Boys: The Coachman uses this as part of his attempt to persuade children to go to Pleasure Island, outright stating (and being backed up by the girls' chorus) "Real girls always want the real boys more."
• Ambiguous Situation:
  • Although the scene was not in the film, it is possible Honest John and Gideon like the original film helped the Coachman capture the children via bribery. However, in the original film, they collected only Pinocchio and showed to be very afraid of being caught and punished by the law for having any involvement and business with Pleasure Island.
  • It's also not clear whether Pinocchio becoming human is actually happening or metaphorical. The story ends abruptly with everyone walking towards a light in a cave and Jiminy says that no one really knows for sure, but emphasizes that no matter what, he's become a real boy in his heart.
• Anachronism Stew: Despite being supposedly set in the 19th century, Geppetto's clocks resemble Disney characters from movies not released until a century later.
• Bald Mystic: While not bald per se, the Blue Fairy is depicted as having a very short hairdo coated with fairy dust. Not surprising, as this is Cynthia Erivo's signature look.
• Beauty Inversion: Luke Evans looks rather unkept and with a prominent overbite in his role as the Coachman.
• Become a Real Boy: This is Pinocchio's goal after he's brought to life. However, this is left to interpretation at the end, as Pinocchio is seen becoming a real boy, but the transformation on-screen is not fully visible, happens in the distance, and may be metaphorical.
• Big Bad Ensemble: Much like the original movie, Stromboli, the Coachman and Monstro serve each as the main threats for a different part of the movie.
• Bittersweet Ending: Although Pinocchio manages to reunite with his father at the end, and he manages to transform into a real boy for his generous actions like saving Geppetto's life, the boys and girls who were kidnapped in Pleasure Island are still transformed into donkeys, they are sold to the salt mines and the Coachman is never punished for his bad deeds. Even though Pinocchio achieves his wish to become a real boy, the hundreds of parents from different towns and villages will be very sad and devastated to never see their children again. Plus, Geppetto sold all his clocks to buy the boat he tried to use to rescue Pinocchio from Pleasure Island, which was ultimately for naught, as Pinocchio escaped himself from the island and was already on his way back home when Geppetto sailed to his rescue.
• Body Horror: Once again we witness Lampwick turning into a donkey.
• Bowdlerize: The kids on Pleasure Island no longer smoke, and are seen drinking root beer instead of alcohol, though one of them does get visibly drunk.
• Brick Joke: When Jiminy discovers the donkeys being taken back into the ferry that transported them as kids to Pleasure Island one of the donkeys sets off a firework. Another firework was set off by a kid earlier on Pleasure Island hurting kid. This suggests the donkey was once the kid who set off the firework.
• British Teeth: The Coachman, now depicted with a "mysterious" and unkempt look, has quite the crooked smile.
• Canon Foreigner: The remake adds three new characters to the main cast.
  • Lorraine Bracco voices Sofia, a talking seagull who befriends Jiminy and later helps Pinocchio find Geppetto.
  • Kyanne Lamaya plays Fabiana, a young puppeteer (and aspiring ballerina) under Stromboli's employment. She is accompanied by her own puppet Sabina (voiced by Jaquita Ta'le).
• Chekhov's Skill: During Stromboli's show, Pinocchio burns his feet after dancing too quickly on the wooden stage. He uses this skill to create a fire and escape Monstro's body at the end of the film. In the animated film, he burns his finger on a candle minutes after being brought to life.
• Company Cross References:
  • The painted castle backdrop seen in Stromboli's puppet show looks an awful lot like Sleeping Beauty Castle.
  • Geppetto's cuckoo clock collection has turned into a Cameo Cluster of characters from various Disney films ranging from fairy tale classics like Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and Sleeping Beauty to more anachronistic picks like Dumbo, The Lion King, Toy Story and Who Framed Roger Rabbit.
  • While seeing the Coachman’s henchmen capturing the donkeys, Jiminy hides behind his umbrella like Wendy, John, and Michael do when the Lost Boys are approaching.
• Dark Reprise: Similar to the original movie, when Pinocchio discovers Geppetto unconscious and appears dead. Pinocchio is heard humming and singing the first lyrics to "When You Wish Upon A Star" as he sheds a tear which wakes up his father.
• Decomposite Character: The Blue Fairy from the original has essentially been split into three (or four) separate characters, those being the Blue Fairy, Sophia, and Fabiana/Sabina.
• Demoted to Extra: The Blue Fairy has far less screen time than she did in the original film. Other than singing the song "When You Wish Upon a Star" and bringing Pinocchio to life, her role is otherwise diminished. For example, Jiminy Cricket takes her place in confronting Pinocchio in Stromboli's caravan.
• Did Not Do the Bloody Research: At one point during Pinocchio’s escape from Pleasure Island, the coachman exclaims the word “Bollocks”. This word is considered significantly more offensive in the UK than in the USA (generally used as interchangeable with “Crap” in the USA, while more on par with “Bullshit” in the UK). A number of British news outlets proceeded to document the displeasure of parents hearing this word in a children's movie.
• Did Not Think This Through: The kids including Lampwick go and enjoy themselves on Pleasure Island with free food, free drink, free rides and free games as well as no rules. However they didn’t realise there was a price to pay, by being donkeys after making a literal jackass of themselves.
• Disney Death:
  • As in the animated version, this happens to one of the characters after the escape from Monstro, However, Geppetto is the victim rather than Pinocchio, with the fairy magic in Pinocchio's tears reviving him.
  • Slightly subverted with Pinocchio. When they escape from Monstro, we see Pinocchio's body momentarily floating in the water. The viewers might think that it's Pinocchio's dead body until he awakes and sees Geppetto's seemingly dead body. Don't worry, Geppetto gets better.
• Evil Laugh: As Monstro is gaining on Pinocchio and Geppetto, he lets out a sinister chuckle. In the animated film, he simply smiles maliciously when seeing a school of tuna swimming towards him.
• Exact Words: Pinocchio asks the Coachman if he'll become a real boy on Pleasure Island. The Coachman responds, "You won't be a puppet anymore, that's for sure". Not a puppet, yes... but definitely not a boy either.
• Extremely Short Timespan: All the adventures Pinocchio has gone through, from being kicked out from school to reuniting with Geppetto in open sea, happened in the span of a single day. Lampshaded by an incredulous Geppetto.
  Geppetto: My goodness. I haven’t done a fraction of that in my whole life.
• Fantastic Racism: The Headmaster of the school rejects Pinocchio just because he's a puppet.
• Fat Bastard: As in the original film, Stromboli is seen as this here, who looks incredibly rotund by human standards and then later throws Pinocchio into a cage.
• Foreshadowing:
  • A donkey is heard braying outside Stromboli's caravan, foreshadowing the fates of Lampwick and the other kids going to Pleasure Island.
  • The Coachman slyly tells Pinocchio on their way to Pleasure Island, he 'won't be a puppet any longer' foreshadowing the fate that lies in store for him, Lampwick and the other kids.
• Frothy Mugs of Water: The scenes of children smoking and drinking alcohol have been replaced with consuming too much candy and root beer, not specified if the latter is the alcoholic variant.
• Funny Background Event: While Pinocchio is talking with Honest John about him becoming an actor, Gideon is attempting to eat Pinoke's schoolbook.
• Have a Gay Old Time: "Hi-diddle-dee-da, an actor's life is gay," which made it into this version unaltered despite attempts to reduce such language throughout the movie.
• Hope Spot: Unlike the animated version, Jiminy Cricket manages to convince Pinocchio to head to school and he successfully get him there. Sadly, Pinocchio gets kicked out by the headmaster immediately, just for not being a real boy like everyone else and and he even has the nerve to tell him that puppets belong in a show, which convinces him to go with Honest John.
• I Want My Mommy!: The last thing Lampwick says before his complete transformation into a donkey is him crying out for his mama.
• Jerkass Has a Point: While Pinocchio was kicked out of school, Honest John was right that Pinocchio still did what his father asked him to do.
• Karma Houdini: While Stromboli does get a concrete defeat this time around and Monstro still presumably dies or gets injured, the same can't be said for Honest John, Gideon, or the Coachman, who apparently get off unscathed for their evil actions just like in the original film. The Coachman does bemoan about losing Pinocchio (since "wooden donkeys" apparently fetch a hefty price), but that's the closest he gets to a loss.
• Large Ham:
  • Stromboli is this big time, especially when he introduces Pinocchio during his show.
  • Honest John is as theatrical and flamboyant as ever, courtesy of Keegan-Michael Key.
  • Luke Evans really hams it up as the Coachman. It helps that the character now has his own Villain Song, allowing him to showcase even more of his dastardly nature.
• Lean and Mean: The Coachman, even though he is no longer a Fat Bastard in the remake. He still remains a sinister and malicious man, who has no good intentions towards Pinocchio and the other children.
• Level Ate: One of the attractions on Pleasure Island is a toboggan ride down a mountain made of sugary sweets.
• Logo Joke: While the logo plays normally, you will hear Jiminy singing the last part of "When You Wish Upon a Star", before he descends to the opening of the movie.
• Moment Killer: Geppetto and Pinocchio's reunion inside Monstro gets ruined when Geppetto throws out a piece of wood attached to a rope out to Pinocchio, which hits the puppet in the head and knocks him down into the water.
• Mythology Gag:
  • The film opens with Jiminy Cricket singing "When You Wish Upon a Star", which was how the original film opened too.
  • After Pinocchio is brought to life, he starts repeating what anyone else is saying, just like his 1996 incarnation.
  • At one point when Jiminy is trapped inside the jar, he laments "I thought I'd live to be 103!" - a reference to his "I'm No Fool" educational shorts from the 1950s.
• Nothing Is Scarier: Just before the pool hall scene we see a frantic donkey run by which was obviously one of the kids visiting Pleasure Island, implying the donkey who hasn’t been captured yet was a child literally seconds ago. God makes you wonder when all the other kids became donkeys. And the Coachman’s henchmen are smoke like monsters or demons giving them an unsettling ambiguous appearance.
• No Smoking: All smoking scenes from the original Pinocchio 1940 film have been removed in the Pinocchio 2022 remake including The Tobacco Row scene with Native American Sioux chief statues throwing out free cigars, Pinocchio trying out a cigar, Geppetto smoking his tobacco pipe has been removed in the remake due to the Disney's policy ban on no smoking in films.
• Not His Sled:
  • Geppetto is the one who suffers a Disney Death after the climax, not Pinocchio.
  • Pinocchio's transformation into a real boy is downplayed in the end. It's only shown momentarily and from behind as Pinocchio and Geppetto walk home. Meanwhile, Jiminy Cricket says in his narration that stories have been told of Pinocchio's becoming a real boy, but that Jiminy doesn't know if they're true or not. What matters is that Pinocchio has the heart of a real boy – brave, truthful, and unselfish – and that he's fully real to his loving, proud father Geppetto.
• Ooh, Me Accent's Slipping: Tom Hanks uses an Italian accent for Geppetto, but drops it several times throughout the film and speaks in his actual voice.
• Outliving One's Offspring: Geppetto once had a son, who died as a boy. He carved Pinocchio in his likeness.
• Politically Correct History: The amount of diverse extras, particularly a black woman having the task of guiding children to school in late 19th Century Italy is pretty improbable.
• Pun: Jiminy's response to Pinocchio's nose growing when he lies.
  Pinocchio: What's happening, Jiminy?
  Jiminy: Looks like some sort of fairy magic. Kinda on the nose, if you ask me.
• Race Lift: The Blue Fairy is played by Cynthia Erivo, a black woman.
• Road Apples: Pinocchio stops on his way to school to sniff and poke a pile of horse poop in the middle of the road while musing that he hopes to learn what it is in class.
• Replacement Goldfish: Implied to be this to Geppetto. When Geppetto discovers that Pinocchio was awakened by his wish, he is initially confused as he had "wished for something else" but his heart had been in conflict at the time. He seems to have wished for a son, or for the return of a son he once had.
• Running Gag: Jiminy breaking the fourth wall multiple times to speak directly to the audience.
• Sea Monster: Monstro has received a more monstrous makeover — having bulging eyes, squid-like tentacles, and scales on the underside of his jaw, resembling more of a pliosaur or mosasaur with cephalopod-like tentacles. Jiminy informs Pinocchio that according to legend, Monstro pretends to be an island to devour ships, and as in the original cartoon he's hollow on the inside.
• Secondary Adaptation: Uses many elements from the 1940 Disney animated film, which itself was very loosely based on Carlo Collodi's The Adventures of Pinocchio.
• Shadow Discretion Shot: As Lampwick turns into a donkey, one scene has his morphing, flailing shadow cast over a horrified Pinocchio.
• Shout-Out:
  • Honest John tries to think of a good stage name for Pinocchio; he comes up with "Slab Oakley", "Chad Log"... and "Chris Pine".
  • Pinocchio escapes from the cage by lying to use his Pinocchio Nose to allow Jiminy to reach the keys, much like the "Mission: Impossible" Cable Drop in Shrek 2.
• Swiss-Army Tears: At the end of the film, Pinocchio revives Geppetto this way with a magic tear as he cries with regret for failing to save him.
• Stop Copying Me: Once Pinocchio meets Jiminy for the first time after he's brought to life, he starts mimicking the cricket, much to his frustration. Thankfully, the Blue Fairy makes him stop after he starts mimicking her as well.
• Super Smoke: The Coachman's henchmen are revealed to be monsters made of living smoke, enabling them to materialize and disappear at-will.
• Talking Animal: Unlike the Disney Live-Action Remakes, where the talking animal characters have very minor roles or no voices at all like in Maleficent, Cinderella (2015), Dumbo (2019) and Mulan (2020), due to Human-Focused Adaptation and Adaptational Nonsapience. Here though, the remake features talking animals like Jiminy Cricket, Honest John and Gideon, and there's even a talking seagull named Sofia.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: In the original film, the Blue Fairy was only too happy to appoint Jiminy Cricket as Pinocchio's conscience. In this film though the Blue Fairy is strongly implied to be omnipotent as she confronts Jiminy Cricket for being an insect with a lost soul, hopping from home to another, having no direction, no job and no direction, implying Jiminy is simply a lazy and arrogant character.
• Three-Point Landing: Pinocchio does this when landing on Geppetto's raft inside Monstro.
• Villain Song: The Coachman gets one in this adaptation, named "The Coachman to Pleasure Island".
• Work Off the Debt: As in the original film the children are having a great time with free food, drink, rides and games as well as misbehaving but they are then turned to donkeys and forced to work in salt mines to pay for their fun.

---

"You will always be my real boy."

---