The film was released in Italy on 11 October 2002 by Medusa Distribuzione and met with mixed reviews.[5] It received an English-language dub in the United States, released by Miramax Films in December 2002, which was critically panned. The film also underperformed at the box office, only grossing $41.3 million against a production budget of $40‒45 million. Although selected as the Italian entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 75th Academy Awards, it was not nominated.
Plot
A magical log falls off a wagon, stopping at Geppetto's door. The wood carver creates a puppet from the log and names it Pinocchio. Pinocchio comes to life and runs away in the streets, turning the town upside down. The carpenter is blamed and taken to prison by the carabinieri, while Pinocchio escapes.
Back home, a talking cricket scolds him for his behavior; this annoys Pinocchio, so he tries to hit him with a hammer. Tired and hungry, Pinocchio promises to his father that he will go to school and study. Geppetto returns home from prison and sold his only coat to buy schoolbooks for him. However, the naughty puppet goes on several adventures, dreading school.
Joining a puppet theater, Pinocchio is almost eaten by the giant puppet master Mangiafuoco. Lying to get out of the situation, he is given five gold coins. He then meets The Fox and the Cat, who trick him out of his money, telling him to plant it to grow a 'money tree' in the Miracle Meadow near the town of "Grab-A-Dimwit". A Blue Fairy encourages Pinocchio to give up his obnoxious ways and saves him from being hanged. After being examined by the Owl, the Crow, and the Talking Cricket, Pinocchio experiences the side effect of his lying. The Blue Fairy gives Pinocchio medicine; as he refuses it coffin-bearing rabbits appear, so he immediately takes it afterwards.
The Fox and Cat steal the gold coins Pinocchio buried. The Talking Cricket informs Pinocchio about it. Pinocchio tells the judges about the Fox and Cat's theft, but was sentenced to five years in jail for foolishness. While there, Pinocchio meets Lucignolo, a thief that stole 29 lollipops from a candy shop (though the judges are shown eating them) who is being released. Four months later, during the celebration of the King's son's birth, Pinocchio is set free. He stumbles across the grave of the Blue Fairy, who supposedly died of grief because of his antics.
A dove tells Pinocchio that his father was heading out to sea to look for him. Pinocchio arrives at the shore, finding Geppetto on his ship and been knocked out by the waves. Pinocchio nearly drowns trying to save his father, then washes up by a city where he meets the Blue Fairy again.
On his way to school, a kid throws a book at him; he ducks and the book hits Eugenio, who loses consciousness. Pinocchio is blamed for the crime. Upon nearing the Blue Fairy's house he escapes, ending up in a grape farmer's trap. Pinocchio is freed by Lucignolo and returns to the Blue Fairy's home.
The next day, Lucignolo convinces Pinocchio to join him on a trip to 'Fun Forever Land'. When there, the Cricket tries to warn them all they will turn into donkeys if they do not leave and continue being bad. Pinocchio soon becomes a donkey and is sold to a circus ringmaster.
During his performance, Pinocchio gets hurt and is thrown into the sea, where he instantly returns to normal and is swallowed by a giant shark which coincidentally has also swallowed Geppetto. They escape together.
Pinocchio takes Geppetto to a farm to help him recover by helping out a farmer to get his father better. Inside the farmer's paddock, he sees a sick donkey who he immediately recognizes as Lucignolo, but his friend tragically dies from working too hard.
Rewarding his efforts to strive for moral prudence, the Blue Fairy transforms him into a real boy. With his wish granted, he and his father see his old puppet body in the corner of the house, and he sets off his actual first day of school.
Cast
Roberto Benigni and his wife Nicoletta Braschi starred as Pinocchio and the Blue Fairy respectively. Aside from playing the title character, Benigni also served as the film's director and writer.
To promote the film's release, McDonald's sold Happy Meals containing toys that each resembled a character of the film.[6]
In the United States and Canada, Miramax released the film on Christmas Day with no advance screening. Miramax said that this is because they needed to do post-production looping to insert the English dub for its English-speaking release. Edward Guthmann, a film reviewer for the San Francisco Chronicle, thought that this was because Miramax knew the film would not be well-received, and sought to have it released before critics gave their opinions on the film.[7] The English version includes some differences, such as changed dialogue, various shortened scenes, and added narration by David Suchet. After the English dubbed version was poorly received, Miramax reissued the film in Italian with English subtitles on February 7, 2003.[8]
Reception
Box-office
In Italy and Europe, Pinocchio grossed over $7 million within the first three days of its release.[9] It went on to gross $3.67 million in the United States, and $37.7 million in other territories (of which €26 million was in Italy), for a worldwide total of $41.3 million, against a production budget of $40 million.[4]
Critical response
Original version
Pinocchio received mixed reviews.[5][10] David Rooney of Variety wrote: 'In Roberto Benigni's take on Carlo Collodi's classic fairy tale, Pinocchio, the spirit of the late Federico Fellini—with whom Benigni talked of doing the project together—surfaces repeatedly. But that spirit fails to enliven a film substantially lacking in personality, energy, magic and humor ... The union between the Tuscan fairy tale and the region's most talented contemporary offspring would seem like the perfect marriage. In fact, it comes off as artificially exuberant and a little precious.'[11] Roberto Nepoti of La Repubblica stated: "The film is a kind of linear translation of the book, illustrated by the splendid scenographies of Danilo Donati, played by good actors, accompanied by special effects of excellent levels but where, unfortunately, something is missing. What is missing is a visionary fantasy, a sense of excess, of the poetry that belongs to Benigni as an actor and author, but which Benigni as director has not yet acquired."[12]
The English dub of the movie was heavily criticized, including Breckin Meyer's performance as the title character.[13]
The English-dubbed recut version by Miramax was met with critical panning in the United States. On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 0% of 55 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 2.7/10. The website's consensus reads: "Roberto Benigni misfires wildly with this adaptation of Pinocchio, and the result is an unfunny, poorly-made, creepy vanity project."[14] It is rated the third-worst film of the 2000s decade behind Ballistic: Ecks vs. Sever and One Missed Call and ahead of Superbabies: Baby Geniuses 2.[15]Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 11 out of 100, based on 15 critics, indicating "overwhelming dislike".[16]Jonathan Rosenbaum stated on Chicago Reader that "the recut American version is truly awful, but a good 75% of the awfulness is attributable to Miramax".[15] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "D+" on an A+ to F scale.[17] Peter Howell of The Toronto Star wrote that "while there's no question that Benigni has the stamina and comic timing to play a mischievous child, even his considerable charisma cannot conceal the fact that he's a 50-year-old man in a red-and-white Harlequin suit, running around frantically pretending to be a boy. Braschi is utterly charmless as the Blue Fairy, despite making her entrance in a Cinderella carriage pulled by oversized white mice, one of the movies few visual feats."[18]
Amongst other issues, the English dub was heavily criticized, with many critics also finding that Breckin Meyer being chosen as Benigni's voice was inappropriate and that he was too young.[13] David Noh of Film Journal International referred to Meyer's performance as a "ridiculously inappropriate Valley Boy voice".[19] Elvis Mitchell of The New York Times stated that the voices "are so sloppy you might feel as if you're watching a 1978 Hong Kong action picture: the dubbed mouths of the Italian cast are probably still moving an hour after the film is over". Mitchell also called it "an oddity that will be avoided by millions of people" and criticized Benigni's decision to play the titular character, opining that his role as Pinocchio is 'as believable as Diana Ross playing Dorothy in The Wiz".[20] Howell remarked that "the distributor Miramax has compounded the problem by overdubbing all the Italian voices in the film with the voices of British and American actors, robbing Pinocchio of much of its European flavour. (Three theatres in the GTA [were, at the time] showing the original Italian version, with subtitles.) Particularly puzzling is the decision to overdub Benigni with the flat American tones of Breckin Meyer (Rat Race), instead of allowing Benigni's own fractured English to inject some badly needed levity. (The English voices include Monty Python's John Cleese and Eric Idle, adding to suspicions that these two will take any gig that comes with a paycheque.)"[18]
Ken Fox of TV Guide wrote: "there's no getting past the shockingly poorly dubbed voice work of the English-speaking cast; Meyer's voice is particularly shrill and grating", but praised Benigni's performance and make up effects, stating: "he's one Italian icon playing another, and physically, he's actually quite good" and "the art direction is often exquisite, and the anthropomorphic animal characters are beautifully realized through clever makeup design".[21]
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