Pinocchio is the latest live action remake of a classic film in the Disney lore. It marks the 18th live action Disney reboot, following Cruella, which was released in 2021. The film suffers the same fate as a considerable amount of Disney’s live action remakes do; it lacks any type of magic that the animated classics had.

The film has a star studded cast, with the likes of Tom Hanks, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Keegan-Michael Key, Lorraine Bracco, and Luke Evans. The biggest highlight will have to go to Key, who does a formidable job voicing “Honest” John the Fox, along with Gordon-Levitt, who did a surprisingly great job as the voice of Jiminy Cricket. The biggest disappointment has to go to Tom Hanks. For a two time Oscar winner, he usually brings his best when it comes to certain films. In Pinocchio however, it seems that he really did not want to be in this film, and it showed between his acting and when it comes to his voice during certain lines.

While certain set designs looked magnificent, the animated effect on Pinocchio looked clunky in certain shots, and it just feels uncomfortable to look at him at times. The same can go with certain other characters. One other issue is the daytime scenes in the movie where the lighting effect looked overexposed, which can be an eyesore to look at.

The film’s script also struggled, where a good portion of scenes and life lessons that are taught in the original movie were edited to be more politically correct. The issue with this route is that certain scenes make the life lesson a contradiction where the moral is still incorrect. The scene where Pinocchio’s lesson about lying was instead used so he can escape out of a cage, which makes the moral seem like you shouldn’t lie unless lying is helpful for you to get out of a bad situation. 

Pinocchio, like many of its previous live action predecessors, feels like a rushed project, between the script, certain effects, and the acting. It seems that Disney has more of an agenda to rush movies and shows to air on Disney Plus in order to keep the streaming service fresh, and it’s becoming an alarming issue. If you are a fan of Pinocchio, the 1940 classic is still the best route to stay in.