When you wish upon a star, your dreams are supposed to come true. However “Pinocchio” (2022) is more of a nightmare than a dream come true. 

Geppetto (Tom Hanks) is a clockmaker and a wood carver who lives alone after the death of his wife and son. One night a lonely cricket, Jiminy Cricket (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), enters Geppetto’s home to seek shelter for the night only to find Geppetto building a wooden boy he names Pinocchio (Benjamin Evan Ainsworth). Geppetto wishes on a star and later the Blue Fairy (Cynthia Erivo) appears and brings Pinocchio to life. The Blue Fairy tasks Jiminy with being his conscience as Pinocchio must learn to be brave, truthful and unselfish in order to be a real boy. However, that proves much harder for Pinocchio than one might think. 

Director, Robert Zemeckis, creates a visually stunning film, but that is the only thing Zemeckis did well. The movie is a train wreck when it comes to actual storytelling. Zemeckis jumps from point A to point B of the plot without care of a story in between the highlights. Jumping from school to the circus to Pleasure Island to Monstro to the end as if it was a checklist instead of a unique story. 

The morals of the story are very vague on being brave, truthful and unselfish. In fact Pinocchio only escapes one predicament because he tells lies. It sends the message that lying can be helpful which is counterintuitive to Pinocchio’s goal to become a real boy.

The best part of the movie was Hanks’ acting abilities. Every second he was on the screen was fantastic, but unfortunately, Hanks can only carry a movie so far when his acting partners are a CGI puppet, CGI cat, CGI fish and CGI bird. 

Erivo does a fantastic job at playing the Blue Fairy. Her voice when singing “When You Wish Upon A Star” was enchanting. I do feel her acting ability got rendered by a poorly written script as she is an amazing actress in other projects I have seen but nonetheless she was amazing.

The voice acting by Ainsworth was well done. He did a good job at voicing Pinocchio and trying to bring a wooden boy to life. He had a pretty good singing voice as well which worked well for “I’ve Got No Strings”.

Composer, Alan Silvestri, brought “Pinocchio” to life with an enchanting score. His work elevated the story to help keep the audience entertained.

Disney takes a classic film from its past and puts a live-action filter on it which results in a very lackluster film. I was really excited about this film because Hanks is one of the greatest actors of all time and Zemeckis does amazing work but overall it was a major disappointment. The movie was only an hour and 45 minutes but it felt like an eternity. The two strongest points of the movie were Hanks and Erivo’s rendition of “When You Wish Upon a Star”. Those are the only reasons the film gets a 2 out of 5 film reels instead of a .5 out of 5 film reels. “Pinocchio” is available to stream now exclusively on Disney+.

Image 1: (L-R): Cynthia Erivo as the Blue Fairy, Pinocchio (voiced by Benjamin Evan Ainsworth), and Jiminy Cricket (voiced by Joseph Gordon-Levitt in Disney’s live-action PINOCCHIO, exclusively on Disney+. Photo courtesy of Disney Enterprises, Inc. © 2022 Disney Enterprises, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Image 2: Jiminy Cricket (voiced by Joseph Gordon-Levitt) in Disney’s live-action PINOCCHIO, exclusively on Disney+. Photo courtesy of Disney Enterprises, Inc. © 2022 Disney Enterprises, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Image 3: (L-R): Pinocchio (voiced by Benjamin Evan Ainsworth) and Jiminy Cricket (voiced by Joseph Gordon-Levitt) in Disney’s live-action PINOCCHIO, exclusively on Disney+. Photo courtesy of Disney Enterprises, Inc. © 2022 Disney Enterprises, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Image 4: Pinocchio (voiced by Benjamin Evan Ainsworth) in Disney’s live-action PINOCCHIO, exclusively on Disney+. Photo courtesy of Disney Enterprises, Inc. © 2022 Disney Enterprises, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Image 5: Pinocchio (voiced by Benjamin Evan Ainsworth) in Disney’s live-action PINOCCHIO, exclusively on Disney+. Photo courtesy of Disney Enterprises, Inc. © 2022 Disney Enterprises, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Image 6: (L-R): Figaro and Pinocchio (voiced by Benjamin Evan Ainsworth) in Disney’s live-action PINOCCHIO, exclusively on Disney+. Photo courtesy of Disney Enterprises, Inc. © 2022 Disney Enterprises, Inc. All Rights Reserved.