La Ron S. Readus
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Disney’s Pinocchio Remake is GOOD, Actually! (VIDEO SCRIPT)
🕑 Added 2022-09-21 20:00:04 +0000 UTCReaders, apparently 2022 is the year of Pinocchio.
At least 3 movies involving the public domain wooden boy made of pine are slated to be released. From various creators.
And while I definitely plan on watching them all and and doing a video on which take on the story I prefer, I’d be lying if I wasn’t intrigued in seeing the announcement of the live-action version of the take that initially introduced me to ol’ Pinnoke, Disney’s live-action adaptation of their 1940 classic.
Yes, that mostly had to do with the trailer and the fact that Tom Hanks was playing Gepetto; a casting announcement that just made ALL the sense to me when I saw it
Then it came out exclusively on Disney Plus on the second annual Disney Plus Day, and apparently people HATED it
Like, I was expecting a BIT of push-back because Disney’s live-action remakes of their animated classics are usually hit-or-miss, but God DAMN...
So in response to all of this online feedback -- that it was terrible, it lacks the magic of the original, that it’s an INSULT to said original -- I did what I thought was the appropriate thing to do (pauses). I watched it for myself.
And while I will admit that there are in fact things about the film that are worthy of discussion and criticism -- especially after rewatching the 1940 original a bit after to refresh myself and to properly compare -- the 2022 version of Disney’s Pinocchio is...pretty alright.
Yes, there are things it lacks from the original, but it makes it up in ways that the original NEVER had, and probably never would’ve allowed considering WHEN it was made and who made it
And for today’s lesson, I wanna go over EXACTLY what it makes up that allowed it to stand out to me more in the first place. But in order for me to do this, that means I have to ruin the original for a lot of people.
Am I okay with this? Yes. Yes, I am. Let’s begin.
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Hey, Readers. La’Ron here. Offering you analysis and perspective on your favorite bits of geek and pop culture media
If it wasn’t obvious from the intro, this video will in fact contain spoilers for Disney’s 2022 live-action adaptation of Pinocchio. It’s currently available to watch exclusively on Disney Plus, so give it a watch before continuing here if you haven’t seen it yet and don’t want me to spoil pivotal points of it for you in this video.
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That’s the syllabus. Now onto the lesson.
So Let’s Compare Pinocchio’s
Now, considering that only zero-point-seven percent of my regular viewing audience are aged 50 and up, I think it’s safe to say that none of you who regularly watch my stuff were around when the original animated version of Disney’s Pinocchio was released in theaters.
More than likely, you were like me and were introduced to Pinocchio in the form of a “Released From The Disney Vault For a Limited Time Only” VHS or DVD before the days of streaming
I say this because while the 2022 live-action version of Pinocchio is definitely worthy of critique in some places, that doesn’t immediately mean that the original film from the 1940’s is without flaw and can’t be criticized just because it’s the second feature length animated film from Disney.
For example, I for the longest time wondered why Disney decided that the live-action adaptation of the second feature length animated film the studio produced would only be a Disney Plus exclusive
Then when I saw it, there were plenty of signs that pointed me in the direction that it was pretty much MADE for streaming
The first hint was how unlike the ones in the animated movie, every clock in Gepetto’s shop was a reference to another Disney and Pixar film
Despite the absolutely STELLAR animation work with the likes of Honest John, the scale, set design, other use of CGI and even the use of the live-action actors across the movie as a whole felt like it had the production budget of a Muppet holiday special in comparison to the other live-action adaptations of Disney classics we’ve recently received.
There’s also the factor of it being directed by Robert Zemeckis with the music done by his go-to composer Alan Silvestri. Who, thanks to the two’s history with producing works that have a very certain feel to them, makes it feel more like a family-oriented movie from 90’s era Universal Studios in some cases than a film from Walt Disney.
I don’t know about you, but these were pretty much the vibes that I gathered regarding why they decided to keep this strictly to Disney Plus, while Snow White for example is getting a theatrical release.
The combination of all these factors along with it lacking that certain polish told me that streaming would end up being best for this movie even if they initially intended to give it a theatrical release.
However, while all of these are very valid criticisms of the 2022 version, it’ll do you a HUGE service to go back and watch the original 1940 animated film, which I surprisingly discovered is unedited over on Disney Plus, and see not only just how alike the two are regarding story beats, but also how the live-action remake actually changed some of the problematic stuff that a lot of us forgot were in the original.
/Such as fueling the stereotype associating native americans with smoking, or referencing the Romani character Stromboli as a term that has since been labeled derogatory./
Yes, I know Stromboli is a villain, but that doesn’t really give you the right to still call someone a term that’s derogatory.
After all, just because Caitlyn Jenner is an evil asshole doesn’t mean you get to call her a gender she doesn’t associate as.
“But La’Ron, this movie was made in a different time” Yeah, well so was your grandma, bitch...
Like, yes. Feel free to address how Pinocchio’s eyes look like they’re painted on. Despite the fact that he’s a puppet whose eyes were painted on
Feel free to address how unnecessary one might have thought the stagecoachman’s song was on the way to Pleasure Island and his overall presence in the Pleasure Island segment in general. Not me, though; I personally thought it was unintentionally fucking HILARIOUS
And listen. I’m not in the business of invalidating anyone’s opinions about remakes and the likes if they’re not rooted in bigotry, queerphobia and racism
That means yes, I am 100% in the business of invalidating the feelings of a specific group of white folk mad about a black fucking mermaid
With that being said, I know how blinded people can be by nostalgia goggles when a new interpretation is presented to them. So when I have the opportunity, I properly take another look at the version I grew up with, see what holds up and what doesn’t, see what’s done better in the original in comparison to what’s been adjusted in the remake and go from there.
So while a lot of you are valid in your opinion that the 2022 version of Disney’s Pinocchio lacked the magic that Disney’s 1940s original had, I am also valid in my opinion after watching both back-to-back that the “magic” in the original Pinocchio was pretty mid.
/Jiminy becoming absolutely twitterpated by the Blue Fairy -- who in actuality is nothing but an average-looking blond haired white woman in a blue dress and fairy wings -- was something I COMPLETELY forgot happened and thought was unnecessary/
/Not to mention her intervening every opportunity she could made things very Deus Exh Machina-y despite saying she wouldn’t anymore after the famous nose growing with every lie scene.../
/Honest John ALSO being responsible for Pinocchio going to Pleasure Island after he learned his lesson with dealing with them when they sold him to Stromboli was something that even as a child watching I never understood./
/And while I do admit the donkey transformation wasn’t as impactful in the 2022 remake, I was never really traumatized by it growing up as a lot of my fellow millennial friends and peers say that they were when they saw the original. And that sentiment has definitely carried over in my rewatch as an adult./
Like during my childhood they were terrified by what they saw. Meanwhile I was like...
I mean, yeah; he shouldn’t have been a jackass...
Meanwhile, while not without its own flaws as I stated earlier, a lot of the things I originally saw in the 1940 version were adjusted that I thought helped both the flow and the overall story
Things like how smoother the Stromboli to Pleasure Island arc transitions went. Gepetto having an ACTUAL reason to sail out to the open sea to look for Pinocchio.
And Pinocchio having something that thanks to the simplicity and blandness of 1940’s media made for a predominately white family friendly lens, he never really had in the original that he finally has in the remake.
Character Development
One of the things that bothered me about Pinocchio -- even as a kid -- was that there was no instance in which he learned from his actions and thought for himself in order to get to where he needed to be to be a real boy.
/And while it made sense within the first act of the movie that he had this lack of discernment because he’s literally only been alive for a full day by the time Evelyn here cashed in his “Get out of Jail Free” card, every other instance Pinocchio experienced from that point onward should’ve helped developed a sense of agency for the character, despite Jiminy acting as his conscience./
/Especially since he was in fact capable of displaying discernment after being freed from Stromboli’s cage without Jiminy during his second encounter with Honest John and Gideon, who damn near abduct him in order to take him to the Coachman because of said discernment./
Disney’s original version of Pinocchio doesn’t allow him to ACTUALLY be brave, true or unselfish to show he’s worthy of becoming a real boy.
Sure he learns not to lie, but never implements knowing not to lie.
He also doesn’t REALLY have a proper avenue to learn not to be selfish outside of “this is what happens if you try to be like all these badass kids out here” but he CLEARLY doesn’t learn from it.
/Like, bro; you JUST freaked out over seeing Lampwick turn into a donkey and rightfully freaked out when you grew your own ears and tail. Why are you joking about it now when you KNOW what caused that to happen to you?/
And while he definitely showed bravery in going out to find Gepetto after learning he was swallowed by Monstro and getting Gepetto in the cave before getting rammed to death, that’s like the ONLY instance in which Pinocchio naturally and willingly showed one of the qualifiers of what it took to be a real boy
/And he made all of these decisions NATURALLY; without Jiminy. Showing that the discernment is actually there./
Now while it makes sense to say that these decisions were made to convey the level of child-like innocence that Disney wanted to take his character in, you also have to take into consideration that this movie was created and released 6 years before the American Baby Boom happened.
And 38 year old Walt Disney, as a white member of the Silent Generation that clearly had preconceived notions on his ethnicity versus others as this and FUTURE productions would prove, very much had teachings and beliefs instilled within him revolving around siding with conformity and the like.
That was definitely reflected in Pinocchio’s decision-making process and how he ended up in the misadventures he ended up in in the 1940 film, to the betterment of Silent parents raising their Boomer children.
Pinocchio basically became a Brothers Grimm-like warning-slash-lesson in obedience and non-conformity for the at-the-time new post-war Baby Boomer generation and acted as a way of reinforcing the mantra generations before them adapted back in the 1800’s; the infamous “Children should be seen and not heard" line.
And as a result, we have a lot of the problems I have with Disney’s original Pinocchio film that I previously mentioned
/As a learned black man who knows that Walt Disney was racist, pro-capitalist, anti-union, and wouldn’t mind screwing over people he admired when he was alive -- I highly recommend watching the video by fellow bi boy Kyle Kallgren to learn more about THAT particular incident by the way -- it doesn’t really surprise me to learn that this aspect of subliminal messaging regarding his upbringing and those who matched it that wrote the actual adaptation of Carlo Collodi’s story existed in this particular work./
However as a fiction writer, I can’t help but to weep at the lack of development Pinocchio as a character has in the 1940 version and find VAST improvements to his character and development in the 2022 one.
/Because the Blue Fairy’s role is simply reserved to granting Gepetto’s wish, letting Pinocchio know what it’ll take for him to become a human boy -- more on that later -- and anointing Jiminy as his TEMPORARY conscience until he develops his own, everything Pinocchio discovers moral and ethics-wise is done either by himself or with Jiminy simply guiding him to make said decisions by himself/
After all, it’s kinda hard for Pinocchio to “let his conscience be his guide” if the Blue Fairy doesn’t allow exactly that to happen.
Unlike the original that has Pinocchio lie to not let down the Blue Fairy, further highlighting off of the relationships between Silent parents and Boomer children...
/He instead lies to Jiminy -- someone he expressed earlier on in the movie that he trusts -- regarding the series of events that caused him to be caged up in Stromboli’s wagon in the first place, so that he wouldn’t be disappointed in the actions he decided to make. And it isn’t until Pinocchio apologizes and becomes truthful with Jiminy that his nose begins to revert back to normal and he actually learns through his own actions what it means to be truthful. But not before having a Scarecrow from The Wizard of Oz moment and realizing a way for him to use the fairy magic to his advantage to help Jiminy get him out of his current predicament./
We also see Pinocchio take what he learns from both Jiminy and his personal experiences in order to make solid decisions on his own.
And just as importantly, due to the relevancy of what he’s trying to achieve, we see Pinocchio take what he’s learned as the movie progresses and feel actual conflict when experienced with something that goes against what he’s established as his constantly growing values.
His interactions with Honest John and Gideon after getting kicked out of school -- more on that later -- are a good example of this.
/But an even BETTER one is when the sense of discernment he developed over the course of the Stromboli incident immediately clashes with the coachman and the other children on the way to Pleasure Island. And for the first time in Disney’s use of the character, he experiences actual peer pressure./
/Gone are the days of Pinocchio just tossing away the experiences he previously learned leading up to his arrival on Pleasure Island just for the sake of mirroring Lampwick in being a hoodlum as if to imply he doesn’t know any better/ (being bad sure is fun)
Not only does the live action movie take said experiences into account in order to deliver proper confliction in his decision-making...
/But we also see how Pinocchio feels when he’s confronted with the result of his decision-making while his recently developed morals and ethics remain in tact./
And because there’s a fairer distribution of lessons, morals, and ethics regarding Pinocchio’s journey of actions and consequences, we see how he goes about applying what he learns over the course of the entire story in ALL of his decision-making progress.
/So while he definitely learns from the mistakes he makes over the course of the first two acts, we even get a chance to see him apply his changed behavior into the fray as well. Something we NEVER got a chance to see in the original movie./
Like I said in my previous segment, Readers; there’s SO MUCH legit stuff in the 2022 Pinocchio movie that’s worthy of criticism. But looking at it from a narrative standpoint, there’s also a lot that it does better than the 1940 animated classic
And while the changes to Pinocchio’s development allow the goal for the character to properly hold up even in the 1940 version, another change I found myself enjoying more than Disney’s first go at this is how the 2022 version reconstitutionalizes...
What it Means to be “Real”
Not only does Pinocchio 2022 use the story as a way to validate and celebrate the self-worthiness of people with disabilities
But its story changes and new additions also provides a great way for children to understand the concept of self-worth and identity that can be interpreted in multiple ways
One of the ways it helps establish this fact is through the reworking of Gepetto and giving him a backstory of a widower.
Not only are all of his cameo-coated cuckoo clocks precious to him because he made them for what is assumed to be his late wife, but he created the marionette version of Pinocchio in memory of what is assumed to be his late son. As a matter of fact, it’s heavily implied that what he wished for on the wishing star was for Pinocchio to be his late son
This is also when we get hints at what Pinocchio’s overall goal is before setting off on his journey
/Because while everyone -- including the Blue Fairy -- acknowledges him as real and living already, Pinocchio, once capable of thinking for himself and speaking his own words instead of others, pretty much wants to stick to the traditional goal of 1940 Pinocchio for the sake of the fulfillment of someone else./ (So when do I become a real live LIVING boy? Because it sounds like that’s what will make my father happy!)
And here’s where the interpretation of identity kicks in with this version that the one from 1940 never really touches on before.
/Because as proven in the scene where we FINALLY see Pinocchio get to school, just because Pinocchio, Jiminy, the Blue Fairy and Gepetto to a certain extent see and acknowledge him as a real boy, doesn’t mean others do./
Man. If only there were a group of people that see everything Pinocchio is going through and dealing with in this adaptation and can easily relate to his struggle of acceptance and respecting his identity. Hmmm... (Trans flag fades in slowly)
So now along with making his father proud, because this is a version of Pinocchio that holds on to previous experiences, emotions and feelings in order to make certain judgment calls, the motive to become a real human being is stronger because there’s a sense of undeniable acceptance behind it.
/Thus Pinocchio making the conscious choice to go with Honest John and Gideon to Stromboli after being kicked out of school for not being human and starting him on these grand adventures, to Jiminy’s dismay./
But with Pinocchio doing so, he’s also learning that what he is -- what he currently has -- is plenty enough, regardless of what certain humans think.
And while my favorite new additions to this version of Disney’s Pinocchio -- Fabiana and her marionette Sabina -- help give Pinocchio that confirmation and confidence...
/Mostly in the form of Sabina being a mediator to help keep Pinocchio from being jaded toward humans, and establishing a sense of solidarity with Fabiana in how she refuses to allow her disability get in the way of dancing and doing what she loves/ (It’s a long story, but it gets better everyday)
It’s the affirmation over the course of the movie that Pinocchio properly receives from the positive forces he encounters regarding his state of being, and that who he is, AS he is, is enough.
/Even Gepetto comes to that conclusion when Pinocchio enacts his bravery in saving his family from Monstro/
This is such an important lesson for the children that this movie is initially aimed for to learn, and one that, considering who made it and when it was made, Walt Disney Pictures’ 1940 version of Pinocchio could never accomplish
Conclusion
It’s like I stated before, Readers. There’s so many things to rightfully criticize the 2022 version of Disney’s Pinocchio over
However, knowing the history behind the original and how it initially impacted me as a child, I personally can’t say that this Disney Plus exclusive is a trainwreck, or not worth watching.
Especially when I know that there are plenty of children that’ll watch this version of the story, be impacted by the way Pinocchio views both the world and himself, be just as enthralled and enamored with this journey of self-discovery and identity, and apply what HE learned in this version of his journey to THEIRS.
THAT’S what makes this movie worth watching, in my opinion. Not nostalgia-matching, not the CGI, but what the target demographic can take away from it and apply said lessons to themselves.
I’m not saying that those who claim the 2022 version of Disney’s Pinocchio lacks the “magic” that the 1940 one has.
/What I AM saying is that if you pay attention, you’ll see the magic is still there. It’s just not where you expected it. And that’s okay./
But, I digress, Readers. Your homework assignment for the day:
Write in the comment section below what you thought of Disney’s live-action version of Pinocchio if you’ve seen it.
Or, if you feel like sharing with the rest of the class, a remake of a film you’ve seen that others tend to dislike but you thought did a better job at conveying the initial story.
Whichever question you decide to answer, I’d love to know your thoughts.
/A HUGE shoutout to my Patrons both big and small for helping make this channel possible.
Make sure you check out the card at the end of the video to join, or click the link to it or any of my affiliates in the description box below.
But until then, this is Readus 101. Class dismissed./
