Disney’s live-action remake of Pinocchio arrived on Disney+ today, and already the film’s producer has been addressing the possibility of a sequel. While many of Disney’s greatest animated classics managed to do fine for decades without the hint of additional movies throughout the 1990s and 2000s, Disney started churning out follow-ups to the likes of The Lion King, Aladdin, and even classics like Cinderella and Bambi. Although Pinocchio was among those to receive a belated sequel, the live-action version could continue the story beyond the initial movie.
Directed by Robert Zemeckis and starring Tom Hanks, Pinocchio tells the story of Geppetto, a wood-carver who one night wishes he had a son, only to find his little wooden puppet Pinocchio has been magically brought to life to answer his prayers. The story then focuses on Pinocchio’s attempts to avoid getting into trouble and eventually become a real boy. Although the tale seems to come to a definite conclusion, producer Jacqueline Levine has hinted that there could be more to come from the little wooden boy’s world in an interview with Variety. She said:
Pinocchio debuted on Disney+ today and immediately saw its approval rating drop to a lowly 31% on Rotten Tomatoes, with many of the usual complaints about the live-action remake lacking the heart of the original animated movie. While it is early days for reviews, there is little doubt that the film will still gain a lot of viewing minutes over the coming days.
“Hard to know, I guess we have to see how this one does. Hopefully people love it was much as we do, and that’s the start of other instalments. There’s definitely a place for this story to go, so I guess we’ll see.”
Robert Zemeckis Found It Difficult To Bring Pinocchio To Life
Disney+
Despite being the creative force behind many classic movies such as Who Framed Roger Rabbit? and Back to The Future, Robert Zemeckis recently laid out how hard it can be to adapt an animated movie into a live-action setting. He said:
CGI animation is at a much more advanced level than when Walt Disney released Pinocchio in 1940 as his second full-length feature film, but as many discovered with The Lion King, while live-action movies can be visually spectacular, it is not always easy to put such expressive features on “real” animals as cartoon ones and that is what leads many to lose the emotional connection that the original movies delivered.
“Walt Disney was really clever. He always looked for stories to make movies of that were pretty much impossible to do as live-action movies. They could be done very wonderfully as animation because he was able to do animated stories about talking animals and puppets, fairies and dwarves, and things that would be impossible to do in live-action.”
Although it is clear that Disney has no intention of holding back on their live-action remakes, with several more already in various stages of production, it seems that they will have to go some way to deliver any that capture the same magic as their predecessors.
