Pinocchio
Pinocchio
| 25 December 2002 (USA)
Pinocchio Trailers

Roberto Benigni adapts the classic children's tale by Carlo Collodi for the big-budget family-oriented comedy Pinocchio.

Reviews
ada the leading man is my tpye
ScoobyWell Great visuals, story delivers no surprises
Numerootno A story that's too fascinating to pass by...
Bluebell Alcock Ok... Let's be honest. It cannot be the best movie but is quite enjoyable. The movie has the potential to develop a great plot for future movies
mrturk182 Pinocchio is one of the most iconic fairy tale characters of all time. He debuted in the 1883 children's novel, The Adventures of Pinocchio, written by Italian writer Carlo Collodi. The Adventures of Pinocchio has been adapted many times over the past 132 years. One of the most beloved adaptations came from Disney's 1940 animated classic, Pinocchio. It is a timeless movie that has been passed down to every generation. There was no need for anyone to top that adaptation in film.Unfortunately, in the source material's country of origin, one filmmaker wanted to make a movie on Pinocchio from an Italian's perspective. To do a remake of a movie that was made in America, but was based on a story from your country, is okay to do. Just keep it in your country. Roberto Benigni's Pinocchio didn't. Released in 2002, Pinocchio was the most disastrous adaptation to ever come to the United States. It got slaughtered by everyone, it only made $3 million in the box office, and it received 6 Razzie nominations. Where do I begin explaining this atrocity?Let's start with the director himself, Roberto Benigni, who also plays the title character. Roberto Benigni grew up on the talents of Charles Chaplin, Buster Keaton, and Peter Sellers, and he became recognized as an improvisational actor who eventually developed a career in directing. Now, he was never a bad talent. He was in great Jim Jarmusch movies like Down by Law and Night on Earth, and his turn at acting/directing/writing in the Oscar-winning 1997 movie, Life Is Beautiful, showed he was capable of doing a movie right. In Pinocchio, Roberto does everything wrong. Not just the movie, but also the representation of the source material.Here, we have a FIFTY-YEAR OLD Roberto Benigni playing a boy character! The thought of it doesn't even work. As he tries to take on this iconic character, he forgets that his age difference isn't going to make anyone take this performance seriously. Sure, some adults have gotten away with playing younger fairy tale characters. But Pinocchio is a BOY, and a BOY is in the range of 2 to 12 years old! Even worse, he isn't even made to look like a wooden puppet. He's already looking like someone in human form. It's like having a cat play Lassie or the Tin Man dressed up in rubber. This kind of costume and makeup design is something you can only get away with in middle school plays. Even worse, his acting here is way too childish and clownish. It resembles some of Robin Williams, Dana Carvey, Mike Myers, and Adam Sandler's worst performances ever. Sure, it's a children's movie, but for an Oscar-winner in the Best Actor category, Roberto should've known better.But Pinocchio isn't the only character this movie got wrong. The talking characters in the story, like the Fox, the Cat, and the Talking Cricket, don't even look like a Fox, a Cat, or a Cricket. The actors are all in human form! There was no attempt to give them any costumes to make them look like animals. They could've done CGI characters, but they didn't. Even the hideous, squeaking mice in the opening scene were CGI. It's not that hard.Now, the production and story are no better off. One of the film's first scenes has a log bouncing around the village and causing chaos in the style of unfunny slapstick. The cops even take action and try to arrest the log. IT'S A LOG! YOU CAN'T ARREST A LOG! The next thing I'm going to point out is when Pinocchio ditches school, he goes to a play and joins in with other performing "wooden puppets". They get trapped by puppet master Mangiafuoco after the play, and he's huge. Like Gulliver's Travels huge. Pinocchio is seen around the village in normal size and height like the other villagers, but he only appears small in front of Mangiafuoco. That's another disadvantage of having an adult play Pinocchio. The sizes of the puppets are so inconsistent, that you can tell when they're using a green screen effect.And if you listen closely and observe the screen, the dialogue doesn't match up with the actors' lip movement. That brings us to the movie's biggest problem: it was filmed in Italian, but here, it's all dubbed in English! You do not do that for a foreign movie playing in American cinemas! BUT THEY DO IT EVEN WORSE ON PINOCCHIO! Seriously, this is the worst dubbing ever done for a movie. The movie's US distributor, Miramax, admitted that they needed to do post- production looping to insert the English dub for the US release. Why? Did they know that just the sight of an adult playing Pinocchio was going to fail? This only adds onto the problem. You a FIFTY-YEAR OLD Roberto Benigni playing Pinocchio and SOUNDING LIKE THE STONER FROM CLUELESS! You have a Talking Cricket not looking like a cricket and SOUNDING LIKE A MEMBER OF MONTY PYTHON! You have the Fox and the Cat not looking like a Fox or a Cat and SOUNDING LIKE COMEDIANS OF OTHER ETHNICITIES!I wish I could elaborate more on every other problem, but I made my point clear. This is the worst adaptation of The Adventures of Pinocchio or any other children's fairy tale book in general. I'm sure Italy was looking to do a remake of a movie based on a story from their country. Heck, I come from an Italian heritage, but I never would've trusted the actor that killed the Pink Panther franchise with a wooden project that deserves to be turned into paper.Score: 0/100Recommendation: None. I'd even recommend Jonathan Taylor Thomas's performance in 1996's The Adventures of Pinocchio before this movie.
elcartero-343-310101 Woddy Allen mark his style in each film Benigni makes it also, trying to locate Pinocchio outside that context, is perhaps the reason for their poor perception, it is a film with the special stamp of Benigni in his fantastic comedy that us reflects the child that we all carry within. I cried, I laughed a million times with this film. Benigni has been able to fill the theater public street Italian today with the assistance of millions people, proving to be one of or directors more creative in Europe. One of the best films that will be remembered in the future as a work of art. and It is time of dust off the bad reviews for this film and locate it as a true Futurist work of high moral content.
Luis Guillermo Cardona Most of the public did not like the "Pinocchio" by Roberto Benigni is perfectly understandable: the new paradigm are the special effects film. The bulk of people love the movies where a machine, a car, a robot... are the protagonists. They left in second to put the feelings in the first instance to objects. It is the reason why the majority is willing to give, instead of becoming loving, being. But there are still some weirdos that we are recognizing the value of the simple, natural, the spiritual. And these are the ones we loved a movie like "Pinocchio," a film where tenderness is the protagonist and where actors sweeten your soul to deliver true feelings, and a message of overcoming the millions of children who roam the world without encouragement or recognition.Roberto Benigni, the great master of "Life is beautiful", wanted to be faithful to the original story that his compatriot, Carlo Collodi, published in installments in an Italian newspaper between 1882 and 1883, and as he makes his open denunciation of vice and laziness, while extolling faith, patience and understanding with a beautiful fairy (surrogate) strives to save the boy from perdition. Benigni's Pinocchio is representing charming, mischievous, funny and he welcomes without objection that the original was a child. This is a big boy, and beside the point, because many of those who are still missing. Whoever can do without the extravagances for effect, enjoy the best with this tender film. Benigni knows hearts. That no one can deny.
dbborroughs Roberto Benigni's film adaption is not the disaster that many have said it is, if you watch it in Italian. I can only imagine what sort of horror show the English dub is since much of the charm is based upon the right voices with the right faces, in particular Benigni, who can get away with murder simply because he's so charming. The film is technically brilliant with the pieces better than the whole, this is a film that has shots you'll want to hang on the wall, I love to just look at the film.The problem is the film is very quirky. I am a fan of Benigni, but not his films. He is very idiosyncratic and the films he directs tend to be extensions of his personality which is somewhere off center. I think this is the reason he hasn't really crossed over here in the US, he makes such odd films. Life is Beautiful is almost a normal film for him. The comedy is funny but rather odd, Gepetto's concern about his wig and the scene where the boys are trying to be nonchalant about the donkey ears are funny but out of another film.If you want to see a well made but slightly off center film I recommend the film, but in Italian.
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