Pinocchio

It's hard for me to believe this movie had received such a low rating when it deserves wonderful reviews. Adventures of Pinocchio is a true gem, so perfect, so unique, that it can only be defined as a work of art. You don't have to believe me, just rent it today. I have watched this movie several times and is one of my favorite movies of all times.

This is a lavish, sumptuously-mounted version of the classic story. Great costumes and location work, with Prague as 18th-century Italy. Top-notch FX: Pinocchio himself; Pepe (not Jiminy) Cricket; a hUge, whale-like sea monster; boys morphing into jackasses.

Good cast: Martin Landau (fresh from his Oscar-winning portrayal of Lugosi in "Ed Wood") as Gepetto; Genevieve Bujold, whom I hadn't seen in ages (and who is aging very nicely), as his long-term love interest; Udo Kier as the heavy; plus an assortment of other character actors mostly unknown to me.

Altogether well-done, its only drawbacks being a couple of lame songs, plus occasional slapstick for the kiddies. And it must be admitted, the Diz cartoon is a tough act to follow.

There's no fairy in this movie which makes the magical aspects seem rather random at times, but Pinocchio himself is likeable, and sometimes funny. Gepetto is disappointing but the actor is fine, it's just this interpretation that didn't do it for me. Lorenzini is a good villain, all though the twist with him at the end was a bit weird unless your open minded about it.

I feel like the Cricket and Pinocchio relationship in this film was shafted, since there wasn't much of an internal conflict between Pinocchio's choices, and the cricket's wisdom. The film was just Pinocchio getting into debacles, but it wasn't really his fault, except in the beginning.

The Disney and newest version handled this aspect better, where Pinocchio kept making bad choices and therefore you felt the same sadness and betrayal that those characters felt. I didn't feel much of that here.

This is certainly a well done movie, with an all-star cast. However, the intended target audience of this film is unclear. While little kids, who know of Pinocchio from story books and the Disney Animated Classic, are sure to enjoy the outstanding animation of the puppet, will most likely be frightened by many of the other scenes. Older kids, teenagers, and many adults often consider themselves too old for the story of Pinocchio; with a few exceptions.

There's also a couple other scenes in the film which make it objectionable for younger children. One scene makes repeated use of the word "jack-a**"; while referring to donkeys, as in the original story, the word seems a little over used for a film that has a "G" rating in Canada (not sure of the US rating). Another objectionable scene is at the end when "real boy" Pinocchio, tells a lie to two of the films villains, knowing that his nose won't grow anymore. To me this counter-acts the lesson to be learned by having his nose grow when he lies in the first place.

Over all the film is still really well done, and very touching (provoking tear-ducts in places). The acting is excellent and the direction seems good. The script on the whole seems good, apart from the few objectionable scenes, which make me wonder what the film's target audience is meant to be; as opposed the recent Disney musical version, titled "Geppetto", which was definitely family-oriented.

Another film watched in preparation for the "How Did This Get Made Podcast". Whilst it's certainly not great, or even good, it's a little better than most of the other films I've watched for them.

Lonely Geppetto (Martin Landau) fills his time making puppets, in the Italian town he lives in. One day he carves a new marionette out of a magical piece of wood and that night it comes to life. This puppet, Pinocchio (Voiced by Jonathan Taylor Thomas), struggles with his naivety and his trusting nature and soon his misfortune is exploited by Lorenzini (Udo Kier) who makes him the star of his puppet show.

So first, I have to say that I struggled enormously with the version of this film that's on UK Amazon Prime. I don't think it was my internet connection, as both immediately before and afterwards streaming was working fine, but whilst viewing this film I was plagued with freezes, blank screens and framerate issues. It very nearly rendered it unwatchable and I kept having to stop and restart the film in order to make it bearable.

From what I could make out then, visually the film was pretty strong. There's a lot of excellent work done in set design and background effects. The Czech Republic doubles for Italy nicely at whatever year the story was supposed to be set in (Mid 1800s?). The visual effects towards the end are pretty solid too. It's odd, but interesting, to see so many UK comedy actors flown out for very little. Dawn French has two scenes, John Sessions one and Griff Rhys Jones has about one line. Big fan of Bebe Neuworth in anything, even if here she and Rob Schneider are pretty tiresome in this.

The puppet of Pinocchio, though really well made, is a bit creepy. There are general issues with the film stock used and the quality of the dialogue recording (even allowing for the issues I was having streaming it). It looks like it could have been made twenty years earlier than 1996, but what's very 1996 is the CGI cricket that fulfils the conscience role. It's both terrible to look at and the script given to veteran vocal performer David Doyle is full of modern idioms and the worst self-referential puns you could imagine.

Whilst I admire the effort that's gone into it, "The Adventure of Pinocchio" has aged like a fine yoghurt and unfortunately wasn't that good to begin with.