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Decades before his name became instantly associated with macabre wonder, Guillermo del Toro conjured up accomplished special effects makeup for Mexican productions. Now, with an esteemed body of work as a director, it's still the tangible handcraft that distinguishes his monstrous brainchildren from those conceived solely as digital confections. 

Del Toro 's creatures exist as entities in this plane of reality—often in the body of Doug Jones as in " Pan's Labyrinth " and " The Shape of Water ." They take up space, react to light, have complex textures, and interact with actors in human roles. But as sophisticated as their configuration seems, they obey cinema's longstanding tradition of engendering fanciful worlds in front of the camera with practical ingenuity. 

Del Toro's lifelong commitment to turning the figments of his imagination into physical realities makes his decision to opt for stop-motion for his first animated feature an obvious and perfectly suitable one. Glorious in its tactile fabrication, his "Pinocchio" epitomizes the melding of tale and technique into a cohesive philosophical unit. For a story about imperfect fathers and sons, this method capitalizes on the irreplicable quality of the human touch one frame at a time. 

Decidedly more mature in tone than previous animated iterations of Carlo Collodi's 19th-century fable, though no less stirring or disarming, this version penned by del Toro and co-screenwriter Patrick McHale (creator of the miniseries "Over the Garden Wall") transports the characters first just a few years into the future to the early 1900s, as the Great War ravages Europe. The peaceful countryside is home to chipper woodworker Geppetto ( David Bradley ), to the townspeople, "a model Italian citizen," and to his 10-year-old son Carlo ( Gregory Mann ), an obedient boy who fulfills all of his father's expectations. 

But like a cruel stunt from the heavens, a bomb, not unlike the one that falls on the orphanage in " The Devil's Backbone ," takes Carlo from Geppetto, destroying his once idyllic outlook. A fabulously cast Ewan McGregor voices Sebastian J. Cricket, a pompous insect initially only interested in recounting his feats, who narrates the tragedy. Grief-stricken still years later, with Mussolini now in power, Geppetto carves a puppet from the pine tree near Carlo's tombstone in a drunken stupor that plays out with the uncanniness of a "Frankenstein" movie. 

Pinocchio (also Mann) gains consciousness by the hand of the Wood Sprite (the always alluring Tilda Swinton ), a new take on the Blue Fairy that resembles an angel as described in the Old Testament—think Angel of Death in " Hellboy II: The Golden Army ." This winged figure, and the beguiling chimera that represents Death later in the story (also Swinton), illustrate del Toro's interest in the otherworldly forces that affect mortals' paths on earth, as well as a singular vision of the afterlife, just not those prescribed by modern Christianity. 

"In this world, you get what you give," the fantastical do-gooder tells Sebastian, tasking him with Pinocchio's moral guidance in exchange for a wish. The cricket replies, "I try my best, and that's the best anyone can do." Del Toro and McHale feature multiple pithy refrains like these, which avoid repeating fairytale platitudes based on impossible rectitude. Instead, they advocate for the wisdom found in forgiving oneself for the mistakes of the past because it's in between failures and triumphs that our lives are written. Precisely how the illusion of stop-motion animation occurs in between the frames that remind us of what we are witnessing is painstakingly executed cinematic puppetry. 

Unlike the face replacement technology that some studios such as Laika employ to achieve nuance in the performances of the stop-motion puppets, del Toro and co-director Mark Gustafson , who honed his skills with Claymation master Will Vinton, utilized figures with mechanical visages that require delicate manipulation from the animators for a slightly less immaculate result in movement, but one that makes the hand of the artists known. 

One can't help but marvel at the superb craftsmanship in every detail of the characters that inhabit this darkly whimsical realm. Every hair strand on Geppetto's head, the wrinkles in his weathered artisan hands, or the material of his garments are individual, minuscule strokes of genius. The design of Pinocchio himself feels elemental, with the organic blemishes of real wood, without clothing, and sporting a mischievously adorable face and an explosive hairstyle. This might be the most truthful on-screen depiction of the character ever. In the breathtaking dedication of those in charge of the production design, the costumes, and the constructions of the sets, large and miniature, the film finds its soul.

Yet as innocent as Pinocchio is—early on, he sings about every object he encounters as an incredible discovery—there's an abrasive side to his personality that resonates honestly with the less flattering aspects of children's behavior. Not only is Geppetto not immediately accepting of his new offspring, given that the Catholic churchgoers believe it to be sorcery, but he hopes to mold him into who Carlo was.  

But Pinocchio, born without the inhabitations of the human condition, only conforms to the norms to gain his father's validation. Del Toro is nothing if not a gentle champion of the misunderstood to those whose appearance, origin, or worldview isolate them from the homogeneity of the masses. And in this wooden boy, he finds a walking and talking symbol for the indomitable power of nature, of chance, of the unpredictable factors that can enrich our days even if they weren't precisely what we had hoped for. 

Fascism, a dangerous ideology that demands submission while it derides uniqueness, is explored via personal relationships. In failing to accept their sons for who they are and not who they wish them to be, all the fathers in "Pinocchio" partake in its perverse dynamic of control: Podesta ( Ron Perlman ), a government official raising his kid, Candlewick ( Finn Wolfhard ), with strict discipline; the villainous puppeteer Count Volpe ( Christoph Waltz ) and his mistreatment of his baboon sidekick Spazzatura ( Cate Blanchett ); and even a cleverly ridiculed Mussolini ( Tom Kenny ), as a father figure for an entire nation. 

Organized religion seeks similar servitude, holding one's missteps against us as a reminder of our unworthiness and why we should listen to the teachings of its ancient practice. A wooden Jesus on the cross, the image of a faultless god, looks down on its sinful flock. 

Its critique of Catholicism notwithstanding, del Toro and Gustafson's "Pinocchio" remains a striking spiritual experience. Its emphasis on the material, in what we can see and feel, in the here and now—defects all—speaks to the notion that our brief time alive isn't measured in faultless accomplishments but also in the precious glimpses of the divine we carve from the rubble left behind by personal and collective catastrophes. Despite the sorrow that comes with our flesh-and-blood constraints, we replenish our will to go on. 

At some point, the expertly plotted narrative veers its sights to teach Pinocchio, who is unable to die for a while, a lesson on why mortality is both a curse and a gift. That Carlo and Pinocchio are both voiced by Mann, while Swinton enlivens both the Wood Sprite and Death, denotes a marked duality at play about what was but no longer is and what wasn't but now exists. Two sides of the same coin remind us that loving is a burden worth carrying, life is an ordeal worth dying for, and that in the crevices of all which we consider that make us misfits, we can find pockets of happiness with others like us. 

With the screenplay's unassumingly poetic final line, Sebastian casts a lovingly life-affirming spell, a phrase that applies to the entirety of the piece, noting that even the artists behind this production will someday also die; only their stories will endure. 

A wondrously affecting work, "Pinocchio" becomes a magnum opus for del Toro that channels his interests and beliefs long present in his oeuvre but spun with a luminous new gravitas. It may go against its ethos to deem del Toro's "Pinocchio" an impeccable masterpiece, even if that's an adequate description, but know that if the art of making movies resembles magic, this is one of its greatest incantations. 

In limited release now and available on Netflix on Friday, December 9th.

Carlos Aguilar

Originally from Mexico City, Carlos Aguilar was chosen as one of 6 young film critics to partake in the first Roger Ebert Fellowship organized by RogerEbert.com, the Sundance Institute and Indiewire in 2014. 

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Film credits.

Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio (2022)

Rated PG for dark thematic material, violence, peril, some rude humor and brief smoking.

117 minutes

Ewan McGregor as Sebastian J. Cricket (voice)

David Bradley as Gepetto (voice)

Gregory Mann as Pinocchio (voice)

Christoph Waltz as Count Volpe (voice)

Tilda Swinton as Wood Sprite / Death (voice)

Ron Perlman as The Podestà (voice)

Finn Wolfhard as Candlewick (voice)

Cate Blanchett as Spazzatura the Monkey (voice)

Tim Blake Nelson as The Black Rabbits (voice)

John Turturro as Il Dottore (voice)

Burn Gorman as Priest (voice)

Tom Kenny as Mussolini / Right Hand Man / Sea Captain (voice)

Alfie Tempest as Carlo (voice)

• Guillermo Del Toro
• Mark Gustafson

Writer (novel)

• Carlo Collodi
• Patrick McHale

Cinematographer

• Frank Passingham
• Ken Schretzmann
• Holly Klein
• Alexandre Desplat

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Pinocchio Reviews

The pacing is hopelessly unwieldly, with unnecessary deviations from the original film, added characters who don’t really have purpose and do not propel the plot, and new songs that are not up to Disney standards.

Full Review | Oct 26, 2023

Robert Zemeckis’ live-action film has gorgeous, seamless animation and revels in its seductive timelessness.

Full Review | Oct 4, 2023

Pinocchio boasts a more thematically impactful ending than the original but fails to deliver a new version of the famous childhood tale with the same magic and allure of the past.

Full Review | Original Score: C | Jul 25, 2023

The movie doesn’t spark much magic like the original film does & just is very basic..

Full Review | Jul 25, 2023

For a film about a wooden boy who wants to become real and learn about what it means to be a person, Pinocchio (2022) is lifeless. Even Hanks, who has spent a good portion of his career playing charming, loveable characters, is bland in this adaptation.

Full Review | Jul 24, 2023

Go build your own wooden doll. Even that will be more productive than watching this Robert Zemeckis directorial.

Full Review | Original Score: 1/5 | Jul 20, 2023

The faithfulness of this film sees it play justified homage to its inspiration, although often at the expense of offering anything particularly worthy of the whole remake.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | May 9, 2023

A sparkling reimagining of the indelible 1940 Disney classic that manages to pay homage to the original — and to the 1883 Carlos Collodi story that inspired it — while also weaving new layers of magic into the proceedings.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Feb 15, 2023

No strings attached

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Jan 18, 2023

Pinocchio will surely be a hit with families and will primarily be enjoyed by parents and children...However, audiences outside the target demographic will likely find this to be very surface-level and predictably average.

Full Review | Original Score: 7/10 | Jan 4, 2023

They allow for some good emotional moments with a story that we've known before. Tom Hands does a good job as Geppetto & leads to the human connection to this story. Some times it feels like to much of a direct copy & doesn't boast for much rewatchability

Full Review | Original Score: B | Jan 1, 2023

It might not be “Lion King” levels of bad, but it’s certainly “Mulan” levels of hollow and forgettable.

Full Review | Dec 30, 2022

All in all, Pinocchio ends up as a frustrating experience. It never feels like the characters had arcs, even if that’s what the film wants you to believe.

Full Review | Original Score: 5/10 | Nov 30, 2022

...manages enough charm, inventiveness, and technical innovation to be worth the effort.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/4 | Nov 11, 2022

unlikely to be remembered as the definitive version – just think of how quickly most other Disney remakes have disappeared from public consciousness. However, it is a sincere and polished attempt to walk in the footsteps of a masterpiece.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Oct 18, 2022

For a story about a wooden puppet wanting to become a real boy, Zemeckis’ woeful approach with not-so-deep-fake animation visually destroys the narrative.

Full Review | Oct 3, 2022

"I'm a real boy!" ... and a piece of **** movie.

Full Review | Oct 2, 2022

Pinocchio is bad, but it’s not inventively bad like Cats. It’s boringly bad, neither bold nor unique enough to be bad in a fun way.

Full Review | Oct 1, 2022

This dull recreation of the animated film doesn’t strive for anything more than what was contained in the original version of this film and actually delivers less.

Full Review | Original Score: C | Sep 26, 2022

Disney’s remake of its 1940 animated classic Pinocchio is just as bad as you’ve heard.

Full Review | Sep 24, 2022

Pinocchio (2022) Review

08 Sep 2022

Pinocchio (2022)

Once upon a time, Walt Disney Pictures began producing so-called live-action remakes of their animated classics. Beauty And The Beast , The Lion King , The Jungle Book , Aladdin … on it goes, until we forget there was ever such a thing as hand-drawn animation. They’ve been so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn’t stop to think if they should.

Today’s CGI offers the chance for animated characters to look real . Yet it’s all a little mind-scrambling. Italian director Matteo Garrone’s gorgeous, inventive 2019 take on Carlo Collodi’s 1883 book cast a, well, real boy as Pinocchio, with gobsmacking prosthetics that made him genuinely look like he was made of wood. Robert Zemeckis ’ film makes him genuinely look like he’s made of CGI.

Is this a facetious reading? Maybe. Here, Pinocchio is a puppet-sized puppet, just as the original was — a cute, wide-eyed, tiny little thing. And he looks magnificent. It’s incredible work, absolutely the film’s selling point: that iconic wooden boy come to life. Yet it’s not a persuasive enough reason for the film to exist.

The original 1940 film is a quaint, twee affair. Tonally, Zemeckis honours that, with sporadically charming results. His screenplay, written with Chris Weitz (who also worked on Kenneth Branagh’s Cinderella ), gently contemporises it here and there, and attempts to add some emotional heft. Tom Hanks ’ Geppetto, while reliably cuddly, is now imbued with some sadness, constructing the puppet not just because he wants a boy, but because he lost one. It’s a sweet, touching idea that alas is never fully explored after that, presumably because Zemeckis can’t properly smuggle a story about a dead kid into his all-singing, all-dancing Pinocchio remake.

Ultimately, it's all a bit flat, and feels like an exercise. It exists because it can.

It all swings back and forth between old and new ideas. Joseph Gordon-Levitt does a fun retread of the original Jiminy Cricket; Keegan-Michael Key is a lively version of the old Honest John; Cynthia Erivo is great but underused as the Blue Fairy. Lorraine Bracco plays a seagull called Sofia, only really here, it seems, to ferry Jiminy around. Luke Evans is a rambunctious version of Pleasure Island’s coachman, with a big new song to sing, Evans giving his lungs a substantial workout.

All of this is… fine. And a bit all over the shop, with an eclectic aesthetic — a Tom Hanks who is real, a CGI puppet that looks real, a CGI cat that doesn’t. Cameos from the likes of Sheila Atim and Jamie Demetriou are so perplexingly brief, you wonder where they’ve gone. But the biggest problem is with the story, which is hard to get right in any case. Collodi’s original was episodic, written and published in instalments, made up as he went along, and every adaptation lurches about pretty erratically. The 1940 film streamlined some things while removing others, leaving unresolved threads, which remains the case here. And it’s hard to invest much in Geppetto and Pinocchio’s relationship when they spend barely any time together.

Ultimately, it’s all a bit flat, and feels like an exercise. It exists because it can. Guillermo del Toro’s darker, political take for Netflix is up next and, however that turns out, it’s been in the works for years and years and is very much a passion project. You’d be hard-pushed to make that claim here.

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Pinocchio keeps Disney’s live-action-remake curse rolling along

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Though some of Disney’s big-budget live-action remakes of its hand-drawn animated classics have performed well financially, they’ve almost uniformly struggled creatively. David Lowery is the only director who’s cracked the code: His tender 2016 remake of Pete’s Dragon makes an old film feel fresh and new by telling a story that actually is fresh and new. Unfortunately, remakes of Aladdin , The Lion King , Beauty and the Beast , and others had less room to stretch. If people pay to see a remake of a beloved Disney favorite, they expect to see the greatest hits on repeat, from the songs to the signature moments. So audiences can only expect so much new material. And it often comes in small interstitial moments, like the bit in the 2019 Lion King where the adult Simba kicks up a tuft of leaves that float through the breeze and eventually land in front of the wizened old mandrill Rafiki — after a pit stop in a ball of giraffe dung.

Regretfully and inexplicably, animal excrement also prominently features in Disney’s latest bit of self-cannibalization, Robert Zemeckis’ remake of the 1940 classic Pinocchio . Like the animated version, the straight-to-Disney Plus live-action remake tells the story of a wooden marionette (a CG creation voiced by Benjamin Evan Ainsworth) brought to life by a magical Blue Fairy (Cynthia Erivo), who sends him on a journey to become fully human by exemplifying the traits of bravery, truthfulness, and selflessness.

As in the original movie (and the Carlo Collodi children’s book it adapts), Pinocchio encounters anthropomorphized animals like Jiminy Cricket (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) and Honest John the fox (Keegan-Michael Key). There’s a cruel, mustachioed impresario named Stromboli (Giuseppe Battiston), the hallucinatory Pleasure Island theme park, and other recognizable elements from the classic. Zemeckis has more than enough experience in blending live actors and digital technology with past films such as The Polar Express and Who Framed Roger Rabbit . But the new Pinocchio lacks soul, no matter how hard Zemeckis and his co-writer, Chris Weitz, try to will it into being through leaden dialogue where characters talk about what truly makes someone real.

Nü- Pinocchio gets off to a shaky start by skipping past “When You Wish Upon a Star,” which may be the most quintessential Disney song of all time. Where Jiminy Cricket performs it as a quiet, telling moment in the original film, the 2022 Pinocchio truncates it and gives the shorter version to the Blue Fairy. Erivo has a genuinely phenomenal voice, as evidenced in her Tony-winning role in the Broadway version of The Color Purple . Her rendition of the abbreviated classic is lovely. But handing the song to her makes Jiminy a less interesting character, far less present and passionate — which is a problem, since he’s meant to illustrate humanity to Pinocchio, even though neither of them are human.

The changes mount up. Unlike in the animated film, Geppetto (Tom Hanks, whose questionable Italian accent does not deserve a future in memes à la his Elvis performance ) offers a clunky explanation of the reasons a kindly old woodcarver like him would create a boyish marionette. He also explains why he refuses to sell off his dead wife’s treasured cuckoo clocks — which feature characters like Rafiki and Simba, Roger Rabbit, and Sheriff Woody, which may go down as one of the most painful bits of corporate synergy in film history.

These are answers to questions best left unasked — many of the small touches in the original Pinocchio are haunting because they defy explanation. By studiously spelling out each emotion, Zemeckis and Weitz remove any potential for enigmatic complexity. And while the computer technology bringing Pinocchio to life is nowhere near as creepy as anything in Zemeckis’ Polar Express , that’s mitigated by how obviously fake he is anytime there’s a shot with a human actor “touching” or “holding” the little wooden boy.

The story’s outline will still be extremely recognizable to anyone with a passing familiarity with the animated film or Collodi’s The Adventures of Pinocchio . Because this is a modern film, though, apparently someone felt the film needed to scoff a bit at its own flights of fancy. When Pinocchio, stuck in a cage by the evil Stromboli, begins to tell a lie and his wooden nose grows, Jiminy says, “A bit on the nose, I’d say.” When Pinocchio rattles off his various adventures late in the film, a bemused character asks, “You did all that in one day ?” Simultaneously copycatting a classic and smugly mocking it comes across as crass, as if Zemeckis and company are afraid of real emotion, and determined to safeguard audiences against any sense of authenticity or sincerity.

This Pinocchio isn’t quite a shot-for-shot remake of the 1940 film, though its scant few additions are so baffling in part because they feel so insubstantial. Songs such as “Give a Little Whistle” and “Little Wooden Head” have been jettisoned in favor of four lifeless new songs by Alan Silvestri and Glen Ballard. Each one stops the story’s pacing in its tracks. Hanks is tasked with two new numbers in the early going, where he speak-sings his way through painful lyrics that rhyme “Pinocchio” with “Holy smokey-o.”

The way Pinocchio is ensnared by the Coachman (Luke Evans, doing his best impression of Disney’s animated Captain Hook) and needled by other kids into going to Pleasure Island hints at one of this remake’s most unavoidable problems: Zemeckis and company don’t want it to be as complex as its forebear. Though the 1940 version of Pinocchio isn’t as aggressive and rowdy as his fellow boys on Pleasure Island, he’s perfectly willing to dive into bad behavior, aping his cigar-smoking pal Lampwick.

But his naive, childish selfishness only makes his eventual heroism that much more redemptive. In Zemeckis’ version, Pinocchio is initially led astray by some uncouth characters, but he’s essentially a good little boy from start to finish, whereas many of the other characters — especially some new human characters, like a loutish headmaster and a kindly performer in Stromboli’s traveling show, who both throw around the term “real” like a buzzword — are as hollow as the wood that comprises the title character.

Pinocchio isn’t the first Disney remake to be shunted straight to Disney Plus. ( Mulan debuted on the service’s premium tier.) Nor is it the first Robert Zemeckis film to skip theaters for streaming. (Coincidentally, his The Witches remake for HBO Max is the only other serious contender against Pinocchio for his worst film.) When Disney Plus first kicked off in 2019, one of its opening-day original films was the Lady and the Tramp remake , which is predictable, lifeless, and entirely unmemorable.

The 2022 Pinocchio does have its unforgettable moments, but they stand out for all the wrong reasons. It will be difficult to forget the image of Pinocchio staring at a pile of horse manure and touching it out of curiosity. It’s a gross image in a film that otherwise doesn’t add in scatalogical humor, a gag that isn’t in the original and has no purpose in the remake, and a weirdly unnecessary cost in a film that struggles to merge CG and live-action elements. But maybe all that tracks. Pinocchio ’22 is a top-to-bottom embarrassment with no good reason to exist, so it might as well feature images with an equal lack of creative logic.

Pinocchio debuts on Disney Plus on Sept. 8.

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Pinocchio review – Zemeckis and Hanks reunite for well-made yet cold remake

A live-action take on the classic animation has effective visual moments and an impactful turn from Tom Hanks but never quite justifies its existence

P inocchio has long been a misfit within the classic Disney canon – the early animated films which solidified Walt Disney’s reputation as a master storyteller and formed the bedrock layer of American cinematic fairytales. You’re hard-pressed to find someone who claims the 1940 original, the second animated feature ever made by Disney, as their favorite. Many found it to be frightening and unsettling , myself included. It’s a weird story, this tale of a sentient wooden puppet who dreams of being a real boy and, among other things, witnesses rogue children transform into donkeys and gets swallowed by a whale.

So it makes sense that the inevitable (for business reasons) live-action remake of Pinocchio will bypass theaters and head straight to Disney+. It is an odd fit, less hyped than its live-action cousins, neither quite a children’s movie nor a children’s movie for adults. There’s a strangeness to the whole proceeding – an unbeloved classic, sanded down from the original 1883 novel by Italian author Carlo Collodi, updated into a 1 hour, 40-minute visually stimulating but emotionally dull mishmash.

Disney’s live-action churn through the catalog has resulted in, at best, faithful adaptations that struggle to capture the magic of animation (The Lion King, Aladdin) and at worst, unsolicited cash grabs reaching deep into the uncanny valley (Dumbo, Lady and the Tramp). Pinocchio, directed by Robert Zemeckis from a screenplay by Zemeckis and Chris Weitz, leans more toward the former, though it’s hampered by the fact that it’s just never not weird, on a visual level, to watch a CGI wooden puppet interact with real humans.

The film’s central draw is the reunion of Zemeckis with Tom Hanks , as lonely woodshop owner Geppetto, and Pinocchio does offer hints of the sentimental kryptonite that carried their previous collaborations – Forrest Gump, Cast Away, The Polar Express. Hanks is the platonic ideal of a pathos figure for children, and you cannot help but root for him acting valiantly amid the CGI, trying and occasionally succeeding to anchor this story of a talking puppet to real human emotion. The film is most effective when Hanks fully throws himself into the role of a lonely man who has lost his child – a real boy, once, and now a wooden one – and desperately wants to be a father again.

That wish, from “the depths of his heart”, comes true through the magic of The Blue Fairy (Cynthia Erivo), shrouded in misty CGI glitter and, again, an odd visual fit between naturalistic Geppetto and animatronic Pinocchio. (Erivo does remind, beautifully, that When You Wish Upon a Star, the signature song of Walt Disney productions, originated from the 1940 film.) The fairy tasks the boy puppet (Benjamin Evan Ainsworth) with developing a conscience, and assigns wizened Jiminy Cricket (Joseph Gordon-Levitt, voice pitched upwards) with handling moral duties until then. Jiminy, who I must note looks, disconcertingly, more alien than insect, also serves as the narrator and thus the main interlocutor between modern dialogue and the 19th-century setting – for kids and for parents (“well of course there are other ways to make a real boy, but I don’t think Geppetto gets out much,” he tells the Blue Fairy).

Other moments gesture to the present day, and particularly the conscience-shredding specter of fame. “To be famous is to be real,” the two-bit, fox-headed scammer Honest John (Keegan-Michael Key) tells Pinocchio, luring the boy with fame and the chance to “be an influencer”. A scene in which Pinocchio flails onstage to uproarious laughter in a puppet show run by the monstrous Stromboli (Giuseppe Battiston) suggests a meta-commentary on exploitative spectacle. You can see echoes of a Twitter pile-on in the “contempt corner” of the Coachman’s (a devilish Luke Evans) deceptive Pleasure Island for destructive, conscience-free children.

None of these are offensive or off-key, more awkward and ineffective, particularly for a story whose central character lacks much characterization or charm; until the final act, poor Pinocchio is mostly buffeted by the machinations of others. (I spent a lot of this movie feeling bad for Pinocchio, gullible and perpetually confused.) This is mostly a Pinocchio story problem, and Zemeckis’s film makes up for it somewhat in craft – the spectacle of Pleasure Island is visually dazzling, same for Pinocchio and Geppetto’s escape from the whale. Geppetto’s CGI cat, Figaro, grows from distractingly false to endearing, same for a helpful seagull named Sofia (Lorraine Bracco). Most of all, Kyanne Lamaya stands out as Fabiana, an invented character who befriends Pinocchio at Stromboli’s show; her communication with him via actual marionette is by far the most convincing and moving puppet-human interaction in the film.

Often, it’s hard to know what to blame when the Disney live-action remakes fizzle. Is it that animation allows for a suspension of belief that human actors can’t sustain? An issue with the source material? An air of corporate strategy to the whole thing? In the case of Pinocchio, it’s a combination of all three. Either way, something is off – the film is competently crafted, dutifully acted, clearly labored over with soul, and yet, like its star, lacks a beating heart.

Pinocchio is now available on Disney+

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'Pinocchio' Review: Disney CG Reboot Makes a Bizarre Fairy Tale Even Weirder

No lie: Tom Hanks carves a strange new version of the classic cartoon, on Disney Plus now.

When you wish upon a star, you get Tom Hanks acting alongside a wooden boy.

I don't know how long it's been since you saw Pinocchio, but it is  super  weird. A brand new remake of the classic Disney animation sanitizes the aging cartoon's more dubious elements, but still manages to be bizarre as all get-out -- and in fact, this awkward mishmash of digital effects and live action adds new levels of weird.

Reuniting the Forrest Gump team of Tom Hanks and director Robert Zemeckis, the 2022 Pinocchio is streaming on Disney Plus today, Sept. 8. It isn't showing in theaters, and the suits at Disney have rather strangely chosen to drop the film when summer vacation is already over, but they have managed to release their version before Guillermo del Toro's stop-motion Pinocchio tells the same story (in theaters Nov. 25 and on Netflix Dec. 9).

Disney's version specifically remakes the House of Mouse's 1940 film. Uncle Walt's second animated feature after Snow White, Pinocchio was the first animated film to win an Oscar, and remains a visual treat. You can watch the original on Disney Plus, but while it smoothed over the nastiness of Carlo Collodi's original 1880s novel it still included a few quirks that will leave modern audiences wincing . So Pinocchio is the latest Disney classic to be remade for modern sensibilities and effects, following The Jungle Book , Beauty and the Beast , The Lion King , Tim Burton's  Dumbo and more (with a new Little Mermaid on the way).

Hanks plays Geppetto, a shambling woodcarver in a bustling Italian village who wishes on a star and gets more than he bargained for when his newest puppet comes to life. There are no strings on this marionette in the shape of a little boy, but naive Pinocchio is soon pulled in all directions as he's seduced into various unsavory adventures.

The film opens with an animated cricket narrating the story (in Joseph Gordon-Levitt's ripe accent), only to get into a meta argument with himself about being a narrator. It just gets stranger from there. The main story about a talking puppet makes sense in a fairy tale-logic sort of way -- a wish is made, it comes true, any kid can understand that -- and a subtly suggested new backstory about Geppetto's grief for his lost family actually adds a new dimension of poignancy to his yearning wish. But the world into which Pinocchio emerges makes zero sense.

Not only does Pinoke hang out with a talking grasshopper, but also a singing fox and, for some reason, a sexy goldfish. If it's a world in which sentient creatures are commonplace, that surely takes away from Pinocchio's uniqueness. In fact, the new film lurches into this awkward space where it isn't clear if Pinocchio is unusual at all. Geppetto is surprised to see his creation walking and talking, and the puppet is billed as a remarkable sensation when he's pushed on stage at a traveling theater, but various other people interact with him like he's entirely unremarkable. And unlike in the original film, we never see villainous talking fox Honest John interact with any humans, so it isn't clear whether animals can even talk to people. 

I'm probably overthinking it.

But if you haven't overthought Frozen after watching it three times in a week, are you even a parent ?

Don't get me wrong, the randomness and surrealness of this weird storybook world is one of the best things about any version of Pinocchio. It feels unmoored from the all-too-familiar conventions of Western storytelling (y'know, the hero's journey and Save the Cat and all those narrative conventions that rob most movies of their power to surprise). Compared to mainstream films like, for instance, that other film in which Tom Hanks builds a surrogate son , Pinocchio offers a frisson of demented imagination and a heady whiff of the unexpected that you're usually more likely to find in a film from Japanese animators Studio Ghibli, like Ponyo or My Neighbor Totoro , than a Disney film.

It has to be said that the new version, directed by Robert Zemeckis, plays some things safe. Gone are the original's eyebrow-raising puppet burlesque show, underage cigar smoking and dubious ethnic stereotypes. Fair enough. Although the new version also disinfects the original film's characters, who were far from perfect: the cartoon Pinocchio was endearingly happy to be led astray, embracing sensual pleasures with gusto; while Jiminy Cricket bailed on Pinoke more than once. But in the new version, Pinocchio is disquieted by other juveniles' delinquency, while Jiminy is only torn from his do-gooding task when he's attacked by the film's antagonists. It's all a bit patronizing, and takes away from the misguided marionette's flawed relatability.

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This modern version updates some of the songs and jokes (including Keegan-Michael Key enjoyably blustering some pointed commentary on what it means to chase fame in 2022) and adds a smattering of new characters. There's a lot of potential in the character of Fabiana (Kyanne Lamaya), whose physical disability doesn't prevent her expressing herself through her ballerina puppet. But she and the other additions largely fall flat; for example, in the original, Pinocchio didn't make it to school, but this time he gets there only to be kicked out because of… puppet racism? This new stuff is chucked in and then just as quickly forgotten, rather than being carried through to play a part in the film's conclusion.

Other eccentric choices made by Zemeckis and chums include ripe Italian accents (and the decision to keep the sexy goldfish). It's also afflicted by that all too common blockbuster problem of being too dark -- literally. Pinocchio 2022 is bafflingly murky during several key sequences. When Luke Evans dances along the backs of a team of horses, it should be the sort of memorable showstopper you used to get from Dick Van Dyke in classic Disney fantasies. Instead, you can barely see what's going on.

Ultimately, even if you embrace the fairy tale oddness of this enjoyably bizarre world, the weirdest thing about this new film is how it looks. The recent crop of Disney reboots are often billed as "live action" remakes, but that's a misnomer: they're more accurately described as "photorealistic," because aside from a couple of human actors the visuals are almost entirely computer-generated. 

Technically very clever, but in this case it's harder to buy into the bizarre fairy tale world. Disbelief is easily suspended about animals and humans interacting when they're all of them are animated, but the presence of real human actors may have you questioning why some animals can walk and talk. Most importantly, while I hate to be down on what is probably a mindboggling technical achievement by talented, hardworking and probably underpaid visual effects artists, I just found the smoothly CG-animated Pinocchio puppet less alive than the lively '40s cartoon version.

There's a definite irony here that a movie which makes such a fuss about what it means to be "real" so frequently looks like nothing on the screen is real. Still, the 2022 Disney Pinocchio is amusingly bonkers. And if you or your kids aren't into it, you only have to string them along until Guillermo del Toro's version comes to life.

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Pinocchio (2022) Review

A real movie.

The 1940 Disney rendition of Pinocchio is a tough nut to crack. Many historians have acknowledged the beauty of the animation, especially for the time, but some are torn on its enduring quality over the last eight decades. As far as live action remakes go, it’s definitely high on the list for Disney because of how synonymous it is with the company name, but this rendition could have used more time in the oven.

For the most part, this is the same story of Pinocchio being wished into existence as a puppet, and starting his quest to be a real boy. We immediately get a dialogue-driven Jiminy Cricket (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) framing device, who drops in with a fourth wall breaking monologue that speaks to his younger self (amid some meta jokes and modern references from several other characters). It’s an odd film out of the gate.

We not only have the familiar Tom Hanks in the role of Geppetto (who plays it extremely hammy, and wanders around aimlessly for most of the movie, just like the Disney original ), but Robert Zemeckis in the director’s chair. Zemeckis hasn’t had a bona fide success since 2012’s Flight —and even then that’s debatable—and it’s hard to really say he adds anything of value in the new 2022 rendition of Pinocchio. Accounting for some of the film’s cheap effects, it feels like it could have been made anytime in the last 30 years.

Disney fans will likely enjoy a few cameos (in the form of Geppetto’s clocks), and there are a few nuanced changes to the story, but it follows mostly the same beats as the original Disney narrative. It really brings the whole live action adaptation debate back to the forefront; on how filmmakers should proceed with these sorts of projects.

“Driven by Robert Zemeckis’ career path, Pinocchio (2022) drowns in the same excess highlighted in Pleasure Island.”

Is it worth completely remaking them from the ground up like Cruella ? Or should creators painstakingly re-tell them like The Lion King ? While there isn’t a right answer (if one aims to account for box office returns and overall film quality), Pinocchio , a Disney+ exclusive, probably isn’t going to add anything meaningful to that discussion.

Pinocchio is cute, and Benjamin Evan Ainsworth gives us a likeable performance, but the film lacks the tension and dark nature of the original Disney production. Pinocchio’s captivity with Stromboli and the Coachman were genuinely terrifying prospects at times in the cartoon, but the live action remake attempts to alleviate some of these scenes with droplets of hope and action, often spurred on by new creations.

The Pleasure Island sequence is especially on the nose, and far less effective as a way to showcase how inherently uncomfortable Pinocchio is with mischief and mayhem. Interestingly enough, Pinocchio feels like a miniseries crammed into a film.

A lot of the cast simply exists to move our hero from place to place, and while the live action version attempts to give them time to shine, they’re often quickly shuffled off-screen, sometimes never to be seen again (I would have liked to have seen more from Keegan-Michael Key’s Honest John).

Driven by Robert Zemeckis’ career path, Pinocchio (2022) drowns in the same excess highlighted in Pleasure Island.

Final Thoughts

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Why I was utterly disappointed by the “Pinocchio” 2022 live action film

“pinocchio” hit disney+ on thursday, you could watch it with your family, but here’s why it might not be worth your time.

By Hanna Seariac

The live-action “Pinocchio” premiered on Disney+ on Thursday. I nestled into my couch with my piping hot bowl of vegetable soup to watch the classic. I recently watched the original “Pinocchio” in preparation and honestly, I was disappointed with the remake.

I’ve loved other live-action movies by Disney, especially “Cinderella” and “Beauty and the Beast,” but “Pinocchio” didn’t strike me as a film on par with either one of them. The mix of animated and live-action doesn’t serve this film well. The titular character clearly looked fake and the film suffers massively in the aesthetic department because of the inharmonious blending of these elements.

Review of “Pinocchio” on Disney+

Sadly, Figaro, Gepetto’s beloved cat, looks suspiciously like a CGI creation, too. The mix of animation and human characters did very little to bring it to life. Even another cat in the film named Gideon isn’t really real.

The plot itself is basic. The lonely, childless Gepetto, played by Tom Hanks, wood carves a puppet named Pinocchio, voiced by Ben Ainsworth. Since Gepetto has lost his own son, he makes a wish upon a star that Pinocchio will come to life. The Blue Fairy, Cynthia Ervio in this adaptation, grants this wish on the condition of Pinocchio’s good character. This coming-of-age film traces Pinocchio’s development as he receives help from characters like Jiminy Cricket, played by Joseph Gordon-Levitt.

Cynthia Ervio gave the best performance in the film. Tom Hanks was not exactly the right choice for Gepetto in my opinion.

The nostalgia!! 🥹 Disney's reimagined #Pinocchio is now streaming on #DisneyPlusDay only on @Disneyplus . 🌟🌟🌟 pic.twitter.com/bzFcVNXcNm — DisneyPinocchio (@DisneyPinocchio) September 8, 2022

While there are a couple new characters and a couple twists, especially towards the end, this remake does not stray very far from the original Pinocchio. Having just rewatched the original Pinocchio, I thought the two films were much too close. This adaption does not really adapt much and isn’t visually interesting enough to compensate for that fact.

Take for example, the live-action “Beauty and the Beast.” Even though the plot is very similar, the dialogue is different and beyond that, Disney created an absolutely beautiful film. The music is passable and even great at times, but not particularly special. What made that remake magical was the way that it brought the setting to life.

I can’t say the same for the setting of Pinocchio. The would-be charming Italian town that Gepetto lives in loses its charm because of the mediocre CGI. While certain settings like the workshop are real, most of the buildings and settings seem to be CGI. It doesn’t blend seamlessly with the real people who act in the film.

I was also disappointed by the music.

It would be hard to redo “When You Wish Upon a Star” in any capacity that matched the prowess of the original, but this version missed the mark too much.

Can I watch “Pinocchio” with my family?

Yes, you can. The film is rated PG and is minimally different than the first Pinocchio, but I’m unsure if watching this movie is worth your time. I thought the original was significantly better and that the new movie was overall mediocre. If I were to give it a grade while feeling generous, it would be a C-.

PINOCCHIO (2022)

"marred by woke post-modernism".

What You Need To Know:

Miscellaneous Immorality: Title character is sometimes fooled by dishonesty, tall tales and fame, but he starts to grow a conscience that helps him to do the right thing, plus the Blue Fairy breaks her promise to Pinocchio and a school teacher says Pinocchio can’t attend school because he’s not a “real boy,” which seems to be another politically correct, transgender message, this time against conservatives and parents who don’t want government teachers to teach transgender politics to schoolchildren.

More Detail:

PINOCCHIO is a live-action remake of Disney’s classic 1940 animated cartoon musical about a living puppet who must prove himself morally worthy to be a real boy. Streaming on Disney+, this new live action PINOCCHIO is well produced and entertaining, with a nice performance by Tom Hanks as the puppet-maker, Geppetto, but it lacks the charm, humor and power of the original and dilutes the original movie’s redemptive ending and other parts of the story to conform to today’s woke, post-modern, politically correct sensibilities.

The live action version opens similarly to the original cartoon, with Jiminy Cricket narrating the story. Years ago, Jiminy Cricket was a vagabond who traveled from home to home trying to find shelter.

One cold night, he arrives in a small Italian village. No one is around and the only light is a light coming from the local, widowed clock maker, Geppetto. The fire inside is warm and inviting. So, Jiminy Cricket slips under the door, where he finds Geppetto putting the finishing touches on a wooden puppet of a little boy. The puppet matches a portrait of Geppetto’s dead son.

Before going to bed, Geppetto opens the bedroom window and sees the wishing star high in the sky. He wishes upon the star that Pinocchio would become a real, live boy.

After Geppetto, his cat Figaro and his goldfish Cleo fall asleep, the Blue Fairy flies into the house and sings, “When You Wish Upon a Star.” She then uses her magic wand to make Pinocchio a talking, living puppet. She also appoints Jiminy Cricket to be Pinocchio’s conscience and promises Pinocchio he will become a real boy if he is truthful, brave and unselfish.

However, when Pinocchio tries to go to school, he’s waylaid by a crafty red fox named Honest John. Honest John convinces Pinocchio to achieve success and fame by becoming an actor instead of going to school like his father told him to do.

This leads to all sorts of bad situations for Pinocchio. Meanwhile, Geppetto goes looking for him.

Disney’s original animated comedy fantasy, PINOCCHIO, contains wishful thinking and mentions of Fate guiding one’s life and wishing upon a star. This problem is rescued by the movie’s morally uplifting discussions of doing the right thing, learning to tell the difference between right and wrong, love, honesty, bravery, and acting unselfishly. It’s also rescued by the movie’s striking, emotionally powerful redemptive climax, which contains a theme of death, resurrection, reward, and transformation.

This live-action remake contains the parts about Fate and wishing upon a star. It also stresses truth, honesty, bravery, caring for others, being unselfish, and doing the right thing. However, it changes and thus weakens the story’s redemptive ending. Sadly, because of this, Disney’s live action PINOCCHIO has no theme of death, resurrection and reward, though it does have a theme of transformation. The transformation here, however, is weakened and lacks the wonderful power of the original movie’s ending.

That said, this live action PINOCCHIO movie is well produced and entertaining, up to a point. It has some comedy, adventure and jeopardy. However, the story and plot itself lack the charm, details, humor, and power of the original animated movie. For example, the detailed bits of comedy in the first half hour of remake pale in comparison to the wonderfully edited bits of comedy in the original. Also, the songs in the remake seem over-produced and not as enjoyable. Finally, the remake has an unnecessary, distasteful joke about horse dung.

Ultimately, this PINOCCHIO diminishes the original story by inserting woke, post-modern, politically correct, deceitful, leftist, transgender sensibilities and a broken promise. For example, the Blue Fairy breaks her promise to turn Pinocchio into a real boy. Also, the ending strongly implies that a child can just declare themselves to be a real boy, even if the facts prove otherwise. By eliminating a real death, resurrection and transformation, this PINOCCHIO just wastes the viewer’s time.

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Pinocchio (2022).

• Parents say (17)
• Kids say (14)

Based on 17 parent reviews

Pinocchio sadly disappointed.

This title has:

• Too much violence

Report this review

Refreshing new take on the classic film.

• Great messages
• Great role models

Certificate PG or 12 for UK (because of swear word).........I wasn't at all impressed of this movie in general.

• Too much swearing
• Too much sex
• Too much drinking/drugs/smoking

Rated PG (mild threat, scary scenes, infrequent mild language).

Toteporetermerter56 elia shllaku tgycvyvtvtv54vv..

• Educational value
• Too much consumerism

Unoriginal to the actual original 1940 Disney classic!!!

Violence=classified horror film, how can anyone not like this movie.

Screen Rant

Pinocchio: unstrung - confirmation, story & everything we know.

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Pinocchio: unstrung latest news, pinocchio: unstrung is confirmed, pinocchio: unstrung production status, pinocchio: unstrung story details.

• Pinocchio: Unstrung - Further News & Info
• Pinocchio: Unstrung joins Twisted Childhood Universe as a horrifying horror version of the classic puppet.
• The film is set to premiere in January 2025 after going into production in September 2024.
• Jagged Edge Productions is expanding the horror universe with characters like Bambi and Peter Pan.

The Twisted Childhood Universe is set to expand with the announcement of a brand-new public domain terror from Jagged Edge Productions called Pinocchio: Unstrung . The beloved marionette who dreams of being a real boy debuted back in 1883 in Carlo Collodi's novel, but the latest interpretation of the character recasts him as a horrifying villain. The basic premise of Jagged Edge Production's Twisted Childhood Universe is rather simple, and it takes popular children's characters from the public domain and morphs them into nightmarish horror mascots that hack and slash their way through unsuspecting victims.

The project started with the surprise box-office success of 2023's Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey , which was made cheap to capitalize on A.A. Milne's Winnie-the-Pooh entering the public domain. Soon, a wave of public domain horror movies were rushed into production with characters like Mickey Mouse and Peter Pan becoming dark alternates of their most kind and cuddly forms. Though few have earned any praise from critics, the chance to make a quick buck has spurred Jagged Edge Productions to follow up on the smash-hit success of Blood and Honey , and create a new horror universe.

Pinocchio's New Horror Movie Was Already Done 28 Years Ago (Will This Be Any Better?)

Rhys Frake-Waterfield is creating a horror movie about Pinocchio, but the puppet first received the horror treatment in another movie 28 years ago.

A Release Window Is Revealed

Though Jagged Edge Productions has pumped out their Twisted Childhood Universe movies quickly, the latest news confirms the release window for Pinocchio: Unstrung . With little detail revealed about the upcoming horror opus, it has now been announced that the public domain horror is slated to premiere in January 2025 after going into production in September 2024. The short turn-around time allows for Jagged Edge to make the movies on a tight schedule, but no exact release date has been provided yet.

Jagged Edge Announced The Movie In Early 2024

Hot on the heels of other Twisted Childhood Universe movies announced by the low-budget horror production company, Pinocchio: Unstrung was added to the roster in early 2024. No director is currently attached to the project , and Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey director Rhys Frake-Waterfield will produce the movie alongside Scott Jeffrey. Like the behind-the-scenes crew, no cast members have been added to the public domain horror movie either.

The Evil Puppet Arrives In January 2025

With so many movies in the works, the small production company could be overreaching.

Though it seemed as if plans were in place to have Pinocchio: Unstrung release around the same time as Jagged Edge's Bambi: The Reckoning in late 2024, those plans have since changed. Now, it has been revealed that the puppet horror will go into production in September 2024 and is aiming for a January 2025 release date . That quick turnaround in indicative of a Jagged Edge production, and its following in the footsteps of the aforementioned Bambi movie which was shot in less than a month.

The other Twisted Childhood Universe movies include:

Besides Pinocchio: Unstrung and Bambi: The Reckoning , Jagged Edge is also producing Peter Pan's Neverland Nightmare and another Blood and Honey sequel. Pinocchio: Unstrung 's 2025 plan should bring it closer to the release of the planned "Poohniverse" movie that will unite all of Jagged Edge's mascots. However, like any low-budget project, Pinocchio: Unstrung is at risk of changing plans should something happen between now and the planned premiere month. With so many movies in the works, the small production company could be overreaching.

Jagged Edge Productions also has several other public domain projects in the works such as Alice in Wonderland and Sleeping Beauty , but they are still in the early stages of development.

A Blood-Soaked Revenge Horror Movie Is Expected

Plot details about Pinocchio: Unstrung are surprisingly scant, but Jagged Edge's movies usually always follow a similar format . Taking details from Carlo Collodi's original novel, Unstrung will likely see the marionette who dreams of being a real boy out for blood on some sort of revenge quest. Though it isn't confirmed, Pinocchio will likely leave a trail of bodies in his wake as he seeks to get even with humanity for some slight . A full plot synopsis for Pinocchio: Unstrung is expected soon.

Pinocchio: Unstrung

From the studio behind public domain horror films such as Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey comes Pinocchio: Unstrung. This horror-thriller film is expected to arrive in 2024 and will be a new, terrifying take on the original puppet trying to become a real boy.

Pinocchio: Unstrung - Further News & Info

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The Best Films of 2024, So Far

Our critics pick nine films that they think are worth your time on this long holiday weekend.

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By The New York Times

Looking for a good movie to pass the time this Memorial Day weekend? The New York Times’s chief film critic, Manohla Dargis, and movie critic, Alissa Wilkinson, have you covered. Here are their top picks for the year so far. All are in theaters or available on demand.

In theaters; June 7 on Netflix .

The story: Glen Powell is a philosophy professor who moonlights for the police in New Orleans when he finds himself undercover posing as a hit man in this Richard Linklater movie. An encounter with Madison (Adria Arjona), a housewife looking to hire him, raises the stakes, comedically and romantically.

Alissa Wilkinson’s take: “If I see a movie more delightful than “Hit Man” this year, I’ll be surprised. It’s the kind of romp people are talking about when they say that “they don’t make them like they used to”: It’s romantic, sexy, hilarious, satisfying and a genuine star-clinching turn for Glen Powell, who’s been having a moment for about two years now.” Read the review.

‘Civil War’

In theaters.

The story: Set in the near future, “Civil War” depicts a United States that has devolved into conflict between the Western Forces of California and Texas (yeah, yeah, we know) and the federal government. As photojournalists played by Kirsten Dunst, Wagner Moura and Cailee Spaeny make their way to Washington, D.C., they encounter dangerous and unsettling scenes, painting a disturbing portrait of America in this Alex Garland drama.

Manohla Dargis’s take: “Hollywood’s longstanding, deeply American imperative for happy endings maintains an iron grip on movies, even in ostensibly independent productions. There’s no such possibility for that in ‘Civil War.’ The very premise of Garland’s movie means that … a happy ending is impossible, which makes this very tough going. Rarely have I seen a movie that made me so acutely uncomfortable or watched an actor’s face that, like Dunst’s, expressed a nation’s soul-sickness so vividly that it felt like an X-ray.” Read the review.

‘Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes’

The story: Picking up generations after the last trilogy ended, Wes Ball’s action-adventure follows Noa (Owen Teague) after his clan has been attacked. On his own now, he meets up with Raka, a disciple of Caesar, the leader in the earlier movies, as well as a mute human (Freya Allen).

Alissa Wilkinson’s take: “‘Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes’ is set in the future, but like a lot of science fiction … there’s a knowing sense that all this has happened before, and all this will happen again. That’s what makes ‘Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes’ powerful, in the end. It probes how the act of co-opting idealisms and converting them to dogmas has occurred many times over.” Read the review.

‘Do Not Expect Too Much From the End of the World’

Stream it on Mubi ; rent or buy it on most major platforms .

The story: In Radu Jude’s scathing comedy, a foulmouthed production assistant named Angela (Ilinca Manolache) drives around Bucharest, Romania, looking for injured workers to interview for a workplace safety video.

Manohla Dargis’s take: “As she changes gears, and the movie switches between black-and-white film and color video, Angela flips off other drivers, acidly critiques all that she encounters, creates TikTok videos and effectively maps the geopolitical landscape of contemporary Romania.” Read the review.

‘Late Night With the Devil’

Stream it on Shudder ; also rent or buy it on most major platforms .

The story: In this horror show from the brothers Cameron and Colin Cairnes, David Dastmalchian is a Johnny Carson-like late-night host desperate for ratings and awards. The film purports to be the footage of the episode that “shocked a nation.”

Alissa Wilkinson’s take: People watch late-night TV “to laugh, to be entertained and to feel some kind of companionship when the rest of the world goes to bed. ‘Late Night With the Devil’ twists that camaraderie around on itself, layering in familiar 1970s horror tropes about demonic possession, Satanism and the occult. The result is a nasty and delicious, unapologetic pastiche with a flair for menace. I had a blast.” Read the review.

‘Evil Does Not Exist’

The story: In a rural hamlet outside Tokyo, a developer tries to sell skeptical locals on the benefits of a glamping resort. As the residents push back against the prospect of tourism upending their quiet rhythms, the developer’s representatives come to see their point of view in Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s deceptive drama.

Manohla Dargis’s take: “I have watched ‘Evil Does Not Exist’ twice, and each time the stealthy power of Hamaguchi’s filmmaking has startled me anew. Some of my reaction has to do with how he uses fragments from everyday life to build a world that is so intimate and recognizable — filled with faces, homes and lives as familiar as your own — that the movie’s artistry almost comes as a shock.” Read the review.

‘Ryuichi Sakamoto: Opus’

The story: In this documentary from Neo Sora, the influential Japanese musician Ryuichi Sakamoto plays his entire final concert. It was filmed in a studio with only the crew watching.

Alissa Wilkinson’s take: “Even for the viewer without much knowledge of Sakamoto’s work, ‘Opus’ holds its own as the rare cinematic space for contemplation. There’s no context given, no attempt to create a narrative. Instead, the visual space is carefully filmed and the lighting manipulated to subtly shift the mood.” Read the review.

‘Io Capitano’

Rent or buy it on most major platforms .

The story: Matteo Garrone’s drama tracks Seydou and Moussa, two Senegalese cousins (Seydou Sarr and Moustapha Fall), as they try to reach the West on a journey that takes them through the Sahara to a brutal stay in Libya, and then eventually to the edge of the Mediterranean.

Manohla Dargis’s take: “Garrone doesn’t spare you much, but if the movie never turns into an exercise in art-house sadism, it’s because his focus remains unwaveringly fixed on his characters who, from the start, are fully rounded people, not props, symbols or object lessons. … His great strength here is the tenderness of his touch.” Read the review.

‘La Chimera’

Rent on most major platforms .

The story: In Alice Rohrwacher’s 1980s-set tale, Josh O’Connor is Arthur, a tomb raider in rural Italy who pines for his missing lover. Through her mother, Flora (Isabella Rossellini), he meets a music student, Italia (Carol Duarte).

Manohla Dargis’s take: “‘La Chimera’ sneaks up on you. Rohrwacher is a discreet virtuoso with a visual style that is appealing and demonstrably unshowy. She likes to crowd the frame, yet does so coherently, and while she uses different film formats throughout to indicate distinct moments and spaces, she doesn’t make a fuss about it. She reveals beauty rather than pummels you with it.” Read the review.

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• Cast & crew

Mufasa: The Lion King

Simba, having become king of the Pride Lands, is determined for his cub to follow in his paw prints while the origins of his late father Mufasa are explored. Simba, having become king of the Pride Lands, is determined for his cub to follow in his paw prints while the origins of his late father Mufasa are explored. Simba, having become king of the Pride Lands, is determined for his cub to follow in his paw prints while the origins of his late father Mufasa are explored.

• Barry Jenkins
• Linda Woolverton
• Irene Mecchi
• Jonathan Roberts
• Aaron Pierre
• Kelvin Harrison Jr.
• 2 Critic reviews
• 1 nomination

• Young Mufasa
• All cast & crew
• Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

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Did you know

• Trivia Keith David previously appeared alongside Matthew Broderick (voice of Simba in the 1994 original) in episodes of Adventure Time (2010) and Rick and Morty (2013) on separate occasions, the former of which also stars Donald Glover (voice of Simba in live action iterations of the character).

Rafiki : [from trailer] This story begins far beyond the mountains and the shadows. On the other side of the light, a lion was born without a drop of nobility in his blood. A lion who change our lives forever. The earth will shake, destiny awaits you.

• Connections Featured in AniMat's Crazy Cartoon Cast: The Sequel of Life (2020)
• When will Mufasa: The Lion King be released? Powered by Alexa
• December 20, 2024 (United States)
• United States
• Vua Sư Tử: Mufasa
• South Africa
• The Walt Disney Company
• Walt Disney Pictures
• Walt Disney Studios
• See more company credits at IMDbPro

Technical specs

• Dolby Atmos
• Dolby Surround 7.1
• IMAX 6-Track
• D-Cinema 96kHz 7.1
• 12-Track Digital Sound
• Dolby Digital
• D-Cinema 96kHz Dolby Surround 7.1

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