Why Pinocchio Isn’t In The Live-Action Trailer (& Why It’s A Mistake)
Disney has revealed a first look at the upcoming Pinocchio live-action film, and yet Pinocchio isn’t in the trailer. Pinocchio continues Disney’s recent push for live-action versions of animated classics, with Aladdin, Mulan, and The Lion King being recent examples. Given the variety of techniques that have been used to translate the magical worlds of those animated films to live-action, such as Will Smith’s painted blue body in Aladdin and The Lion King‘s photorealistic CGI, it was hard to anticipate how exactly Pinocchio would pull off its main character – and the Pinocchio trailer chose not to bring an answer.,Disney’s live-action Pinocchio is being directed by Robert Zemeckis, and it stars Tom Hanks as Geppetto. Pinocchio will mark yet another collaboration between Zemeckis and Hanks, as they worked together in Forrest Gump, Cast Away, and The Polar Express. Benjamin Evan Ainsworth was chosen as the voice of Pinocchio, Cynthia Erivo will play The Blue Fairy, and Joseph Gordon-Levitt will be the voice of Jiminy Cricket. Other names include Luke Evans, who played Gaston in 2017’s Beauty and the Beast, Lorraine Bracco, and Keegan-Michael Key.,,Considering how there is not much that can be added to a classic story like Pinocchio, something that The Lion King, Aladdin, and all other Disney live-action remakes struggled with, the visuals and the characters’ looks are often the most anticipated part of the live-action versions. Even so, Disney decided that the first Pinocchio trailer would feature neither the wooden marionette nor the human version of Pinocchio. Instead, the marketing for Pinocchio seems to be focusing on the star power of Tom Hanks – an actor big enough to draw audiences’ attention to a film. While betting on Hanks to sell the movie makes sense from a commercial standpoint, leaving Pinocchio out of the first trailer for the Pinocchio movie is a strange decision. There could be an element of trying to keep the mystery for a magical reveal later on, but, given that the first look at Pinocchio has already been revealed in the film’s first official pictures, the decision does not make much sense.,The Grand Inquisitor in Obi-Wan Kenobi is the newest example of how creating new versions of famous animated characters through either CG or practical makeup is always risky. More recently, there has been a level of concern by the audiences that a beloved animated character could fall into an uncanny valley territory in the molds of Sonic The Hedgehog‘s original look. The Pinocchio character suffered from a similar problem in the 2019 Pinocchio film – in which the look of the wooden figure was too artificial to resemble a face and yet too human to resemble a marionette. 2019’s Pinocchio visuals became a source of criticism even before the movie premiered, and yet another live-action Pinocchio happening only two years later could draw similar concerns.,The official images for Disney’s Robert Zemeckis Pinocchio should ease those concerns, as Pinocchio actually looks like the 1940s animated version. However, by not having Pinocchio appearing in the official trailer – by far the most important piece of the early stages of promotional material – Disney is inspiring unnecessary fear in those who have not seen the first images. Not only that, but even with the poster showing how good Pinocchio looks, the character’s absence in the trailer could suggest the CG itself does not look as good at the moment, which could cast doubts on the film that comes in September 2022. Robert Zemeckis has a great record of exploring different animation techniques in movies like A Christmas Carol, The Polar Express, and Welcome to Marwen – and not focusing the marketing for Pinocchio on that from the start may be a mistake.,Selling the Pinocchio film not only with Tom Hank’s star power but also with Pinocchio’s looks could be even more important considering that the Disney production will be one of three Pinocchio films in 2022. Lionsgate released the uninspired Pinocchio: A True Story in March 2022, and Guillermo Del Toro is releasing a stop-motion Pinocchio film on Netflix in December 2022. Comparisons between Disney’s and Del Toro’s versions will be inevitable, and the latter has already revealed the first look at Pinocchio in motion. Despite criticisms for the lack of originality, Disney’s live-action retellings of classic animated films are all made with a high production value and cutting edge filmmaking techniques – something that could already have been displayed in the Pinocchio trailer had it actually featured Pinocchio.,,