Pinocchio (2022) Dir: Robert Zemeckis
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Having only watched the original animated version of this story recently, it was pretty fresh in my mind for watching the latest live action attempt from Disney.
The original felt so magic and quintessentially Disney that I think I had already mentally lowered my expectations for this one. And unfortunately, the reservations I had turned out to be more justified than not. T
he animation styles used in the film clashed a little too much for my liking - there seemed to be 2 or 3 different styles used for different characters. The narrative was at least mostly faithful to the 1940 original, although they changed some features in ways that felt bizarrely unnecessary.
The soundtrack was somewhat mediocre; Alan Silvestri's score was solid enough, but the musical numbers left much to be desired in my opinion. I can't help but be disappointed by this Robert Zemeckis directed remake, it is just so painfully mediocre.
The film's big name casting of the legendary Tom Hanks had potential, but his performance epitomises why this film failed. His accent is inconsistent and generally poor, his singing was apathetic at best and his performance as a whole was pretty forgettable.
On the other hand, the young Benjamin Evan Ainsworth did a wonderful job as Pinocchio. He did really well to emulate the voice of the original character.
Joseph Gordon-Levitt has a relatively substantial role here, although, I'll be honest, I couldn't tell it was him. His performance is reasonable enough, nothing overly special but not bad.
My personal favourite supporting actor was easily Keegan-Michael Key, whose energy and charisma was superb. He stole each and every scene he was in.
Luke Evans, who some will know from 'The Hobbit', gives a surprising but enjoyable performance, which even included a much better than expected musical number.
To finish, I'll mention Cynthia Erivo, whose own musical number was legitimately breathtaking. However, beyond that, she was seemingly absolutely shafted for screentime. Her character only appearing on-screen once in the whole film.
Overall, this film pretty perfectly encapsulated why I simply do not care about any of the live action remakes going on at Disney these days.
It feels so unnecessary and half-hearted that I really cannot see the justification being anything other than money.
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