Pinocchio – Film Review

In an Italian village, the wooden puppet Pinocchio is brought to life by the Blue Fairy and seeks the life of adventure while striving to be a real boy.

Do you remember the time when the name Robert Zemeckis used to bring excitement to millions of moviegoers all around the world? I certainly do. After all, the man did helm iconic films such as Back to the Future and Forrest Gump, which are still to this day considered two of the best films ever made.

However, in recent years, Zemeckis’ name has left a sour taste in countless audience members’ mouths, namely because he has unfortunately been helming some fairly terrible projects as of late. A lot of people hated Welcome to Marwen and The Witches and now, with his extremely bland and pointless live-action adaptation of Pinocchio, Zemeckis is slowly cementing himself as a force of the past.

This isn’t necessarily a terrible movie, but it is definitely one that feels totally pointless without any real sense of style which is baffling since, as mentioned before, this is written and directed by the same guy behind Back to the Future, which is an absolute masterpiece.

Perhaps it’s because Zemeckis is quite old now, but his direction has been lacking in the past few years. Sadly, Pinocchio is not a course correction for him whatosever. This is a film that feels like any director could’ve done it which is not good. It’s also just a relatively bland retelling of a classic story.

The performances across the board are all sublime, fortunately. Benjamin Evan Ainsworth does a fantastic job as the voice of the titular character, as does the always terrific Joseph Gordon-Levitt who provides the voice of Jiminy Cricket. Then, of course, there’s Tom Hanks in the role of Gepetto. It’s Tom Hanks, how could you not love what he delivers to every project?

Also, nearly all of the musical numbers are extremely cheerful and they’re extremely easy to get swept up by. Quite a bit of the technical elements on display in this movie are remarkable, but as a whole, the movie just doesn’t feel necessary whatsoever. It’s the exact definition of a pointless cash grab because Disney knows all too well that people will stream this. You shouldn’t.

Pinocchio is a remarkably bland and pointless cash grab that shows just how far from grace filmmaker Robert Zemeckis has fallen.