Disney has remade a live-action version of the cult classic “Pinocchio,” which was once adored by fans when first released in 1942. The original movie earned Disney 164 million dollars in the box office. How even the new live-action film is only available on Disney+, so it’s only revenue source is through Disney+ subscriptions. The new movie features Tom Hanks as Geppetto and Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Jiminy Cricket, along with other talented actors.

The story follows the same adventure that Pinocchio takes in the 1940 rendition of the film and barely changes anything about it from the original. Geppetto, who is an elderly woodcarver, makes a puppet named Pinocchio and makes a wish to have him be a real boy. Pinocchio later turns into a real boy because of Geppetto’s wish, later surprising him. The then two share fun experiences together, exactly like the original film.

This word for word recreation can lead to less people watching the new “Pinocchio.” With the original being such a classic, many have seen it or at least know the storyline. The audience would only watch to see the differences in the two films or if they somehow have never seen it. “Pinocchio” is one of Disney’s most popular animated films and almost everyone knows the story of the wooden boy that tells lies.

A shocker to some fans is that Disney changed the ending to make the new movie more kid friendly. This can lead to fans hating this film because it can be Disney dumbing down the movie to hide what actually happened in the story. But this also the polar opposite of that and fans could see it as a different perspective of the film made better for kids. This can have more people see the film to see exactly what Disney did different.

The film also looks very different from the original, mainly because of it being live-action. The original film was made using a rostrum camera, a special camera used in filmmaking and animation, having the characters painted and overlaid on top of backgrounds. This uses the real world and animated characters to portray the story in a new light.

 They also changed how some characters look in the new film, like the Fairy. In the original film, she was a white woman with blonde hair. The new version of the film has a black woman with black hair as the fairy. It’s good to have diversity in a film and to make it different from the original. They also introduced a new character, a seagull named Sofia. She helps Cricket and Geppetto find Pinocchio in the film.

This rendition of “Pinocchio” is live-action with CGI elements incorporated into it, but the CGI in it is horrendous. All of the animals are CGI which adds an interesting look to the movie, and it’s the only way to incorporate some of the characters like Pinocchio and the Fox. However, some of the characters didn’t need to be animated, like Geppetto’s cat and fish, yet they decided to animate them to make it easier to film. 

Disney’s new “Pinocchio” is a film that can be admired for what it did right and wrong. It was once a fan favorite animated film from the 1940’s and is now a live-action that ruins the original media and can’t capture the same cartoony feeling that the first “Pinocchio” movie caught with fans. Disney is planning on making more remakes of films like “The Little Mermaid” and it’s already receiving negative reviews from fans. Based on what “Pinocchio” did, it will be an exact copy of the original movie, slightly altered to 2022 standards.

Contact Ryder Richardson at [email protected]