Disney is well-known for its animated movies. In recent years, Disney has begun to create live-action remakes of classic animated films with the help of Computer Generated Imagery (CGI). The most recent example is the September 8 release of Pinocchio, a remake of the 1940 animated film, which in itself is based on the tale originally formulated in 1883 by Carlo Collodi.

The 2022 film begins with the narrator, Jiminy Cricket, beginning to narrate the tale (Joseph Gordon-Levitt). He portrays Pinocchio’s “conscience,” and he acts as the comic relief. He was only a supporting character in the first film, but he became much more critical and involved in the storyline with the new adaptation. Jiminy Cricket was seen as the helping hand to Pinocchio (Benjamin Evan Ainsworth), a wooden puppet who turned into a living one.

As Jiminy begins the story, we start to see the figure of Geppetto (Tom Hanks), an old man who was a woodcarver, creating Pinocchio. Geppetto was a man who just wanted a child. He was lonely, but creating Pinocchio opened a door for him to have a son, even if he was made of wood. Geppetto so desperately wanted him to be real, so when he saw the Wishing Star, he wished for this to come true.

This led the Blue Fairy (Cynthia Erivo), to come to see Pinocchio and turn him into a living puppet, along with making Jiminy Cricket his conscience. Geppetto then awakens and finds what the Blue Fairy had done. Days later, Pinocchio is sent to school for the first time, and he comes across the Fox (Keegan-Michael Key). The Fox is a representation of the temptations Pinocchio will come across in his life, and of course, Pinocchio–believing the best in everyone–listened to the Fox. This led him to join a puppet show led by a man named Stromboli (Giuseppe Battiston).

Stromboli was the antagonist in this film and only used Pinocchio for personal benefit. Once Jiminy Cricket found out, he went to see Pinocchio and helped him to escape. After Jiminy’s plan succeeded, Pinocchio was caught in another trap onto a wagon headed to Pleasure Island, an island where children go but never come back.
Pinocchio does reunite with Gepetto at the end, but he faces so many obstacles along the way.

The general concept Disney followed when making the two movies was that Pinocchio was gullible and didn’t know how to get out of these situations. The film showed that Pinocchio was weak and vulnerable to begin with, but as his character developed, he had risen past these obstacles to find himself.

While the two variations are very similar, it was the tiny details that created the biggest differences. Although these movies have their differences, they were both geared towards all ages and are truly family movies. The adaptation had that heartfelt and fun dynamic for the kids, but also had jokes slipped in for the adults to get a laugh. The evolution of the characters was more thorough within the newest adaption, presenting character development and physical changes to show the maturity and growth of the characters.

In the end, the big question is: Does the live-action remake do the original animation justice? In all fairness, it does. Both films follow the same primary storyline with similar details. While the movies were connected to each other, there was one major difference between the two films. In the original, Pinocchio dies after he and Geppetto are swallowed by a whale. A scene later, he is revived by the Blue Fairy and becomes a real boy. However, in the 2022 adaptation, the roles reverse. Geppetto dies but proceeds to come back to life. As the movie comes to a close, Pinocchio realizes that he didn’t need to be real to know that he was as human as the next person. As Jiminy Cricket said, “…I do know one thing for sure, in his heart, Pinocchio is as real as any real boy could ever be”.

The 2022 Pinocchio adaptation truly serves the original, classic film justice, and it continues Disney’s saga of classic movie remakes.