What is Pinocchio worth in live action with Tom Hanks?

Actors, real shots and synthetic images: Pinocchio reborn some 80 years after Disney first adapted Carlo Collodi’s tale. The opportunity was too good to Robert Zemeckisan expert in the field, to continue his exploration of the multiple visual innovations that he has experimented with in his films, like Back to the Future, Who Framed Roger Rabbit?, Death Suits You So Well Where The Polar Express (2004), first feature film entirely made in motion capture in which Tom Hanks lent himself to the game to embody the controller of a mysterious train en route to the land of Santa Claus…

sweet madness

The actor thus finds here the stage director who also directed him also in Forrest Gump and Alone in the world. A link, another, to the character of Gepetto, an old man with a sweet madness that we find isolated, reclusive for a long time in his studio, between his cat, his goldfish and his dear collection of cuckoo clocks. An old man between laughter and tears who dreams of seeing his puppet come to life and give him back the family he lost. Her wish will come true by the grace of the Blue Fairy (Cynthia Erevo – Aretha Franklin in genius), trying to instill in the little human in the making the notion of good and evil, with the help of his conscience, Jiminy Cricket (the voice of Joseph Gordon-Levitt – Looper – in original version). Soon Pinocchio will want to join the benches of the school and he will live the terrible misadventures that we know…

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Because the story of this Pinocchio, written by Chris Weitz, screenwriter of For a boy, follows in the footsteps of its predecessor. The sordid theater of Stromboli, the pretty dancing puppet, the island of pleasures, the episode of the whale… Everything is there. With house nods – the little characters in the clocks are recent Disney heroes, Toy Story and co -, the great attraction of the park (with passages that evoke Charlie and the chocolate factory) is called Sugar Mountain… Politically correct: the Blue Fairy is embodied by an actress of Nigerian origin, the dancer becomes emancipated… A mix of original songs and new ones. An initiatory journey, finally, which emphasizes the importance of honesty and the opportunity to have a second chance.

A touch of nostalgia for the original work

The cartoon was one of Disney’s darkest. Bringing it a supplement of authenticity further accentuates the uneasiness. The first part, a long and slow 30-minute closed session in Gepetto’s lair, generates a dull sadness in the face of the old man’s deep loneliness. And realism doesn’t sit well with “magical” objects from the Disney universe – we had already noticed this in the new version of The beauty and the Beast -, as with small animals – the texture of Jiminy Cricket’s skin is almost too well rendered, the Grand-Coquin fox and the Gédéon cat turn out to be unappealing… As a result, we no longer really know what audience the film is aimed at ‘address. The youngest will no doubt lack humor and rhythm, even if the end gains in dynamism. And adults are not necessarily tempted to dive back into history, while keeping a touch of nostalgia for the original work.