Pinocchio is a 2019 Italian film directed by Matteo Garrone. It is an adaptation of Carlo Collodi's The Adventures of Pinocchio.
The old woodcarver Geppetto's wooden puppet creation, Pinocchio, magically comes to life with dreams of becoming a real boy. Easily led astray, Pinocchio tumbles from one misadventure to another as he is tricked, kidnapped and chased by bandits.
The film stars Roberto Benigni (who had previously made his own adaptation in 2002 and played the role of Pinocchio) as Geppetto, and Federico Ielapi as Pinocchio.
Tropes:
- Adaptational Mundanity: Medoro's carriage is pulled by a white horse, instead of a miriad of mice.
- Adapted Out:
- Geppetto getting arrested when Pinocchio first escapes, he's instead absent looking for him not knowing he already went back home.
- The snake with the smoking tail is omitted.
- Pinocchio taking the place of a deceased guard dog as punishment for trying to steal grapes and stopping the weasels that used to bribe the dog.
- The dolphin Pinocchio meets at the beach who establishes the presence of the Terrible Dogfish.
- The fight with the school children which would lead into the Green Fisherman encounter is cut out, when Pinocchio skips school he just goes off to slouch with Lampwick.
- The Blue Fairy's Secret Test of Character and Prank Punishments are cut out.
- Pinocchio witnessing Lampwick dying as an overworked donkey, leaving his fate an Uncertain Doom.
- Pinocchio and Geppetto's little hut turning into a cozy house after Pinocchio's transformation, making the ending a bit more bittersweet because it shows how even with his real boy happy ending, Pinocchio and his papa's struggles with poverty won't be over anytime soon.
- Bad Boss: The circus director can't swim into the sea to catch Pinocchio, so he starts chasing the shortest of his men into doing it despite the latter's claims that he too doesn't know how to swim.
- Become a Real Boy: Like in the original novel, Pinocchio decides he wants to be real so that he can grow up into an adult just like the Blue Fairy.
- Composite Character:
- In the novel, a parrot revealed to Pinocchio that he has been fooled and robbed by the Fox and the Cat telling him to plant his money, here the Cricket does it.
- The Repulsive Ringmaster himself intends drowning Pinocchio as a donkey after he breaks a leg to make a drum out of his skin, filling the role of the drum maker he sold Pinocchio to in the original novel.
- Compressed Adaptation: It does its best to be Truer to the Text with the vignettes from the book it adapts, but others are left out or shortened to make for a well paced film. For example, at the Kangaroo Court scene, Pinocchio manages to get released shortly after being sentenced, instead of spending some time in prison.
- Curtain Clothing: A variation. Geppetto uses his blanket to create Pinocchio's outfit.
- Dream Sequence: Pinocchio dreams of a tree loaded with golden coins while sleeping at the Red Lobster Inn.
- Funny Animal: With the exception of the donkeys, all the Talking Animal characters adapted from the original text are depicted here as anthropomorphic animals through actors wearing makeup effects. Downplayed with the Fox and the Cat, who look like a pair of humans with tails, claws, whiskers and pointy ears.
- Gentle Giant: One such individual works for the Repulsive Ringmaster. While he does assist throwing Pinocchio into the sea, he doesn't seem sadistic like his boss and innocently waves Pinocchio goodbye when he swims away after returning normal.
- Good Is Not Nice: While her Prank Punishments are omitted, the Fairy does leave Pinocchio outside a whole night for spending his day being a lazy rascal with Lampwick instead of attending school. It doesn't rain and he isn't given fake food like in the novel, but still.
- Grows on Trees: The Fox and the Cat steal from Pinocchio after convincing him that he can grow a tree of money by planting his coins.
- Ignorant About Fire: Pinocchio falls asleep resting his feet on a fireplace ending up with burnt feet.
- Laser-Guided Karma: Towards the ending, Pinocchio sees the Fox and the Cat in a miserable and pathetic state, with the Cat having become blind and the Fox being crippled with a missing leg, and ignores their pleas after everything they subjected him to.
- Motor Mouth: The Blue Fairy amuses Pinocchio by showing a magic trick that causes the snail maid to read faster in command.
- Mythology Gag: Geppetto being inspired to build himself his own puppet after seeing Mangiafuoco's puppet theater arriving is a direct Shout-Out to the Luigi Comencini TV miniseries doing the same.
- No-Sell: The Sadist Teacher tries to whip Pinocchio's hand when he talks in class, but it doesn't hurt him in the slightest due to him being made of wood and all.
- Non-Malicious Monster: Truer to the book, the Terrible Dogfish is just a huge predatory animal with no ill-intent when feeding itself in its natural habitat, and being forced to sleep on the surface with its mouth open due to its asthma, which Pinocchio, Geppetto and the Tuna Fish take advantage of to escape.
- Pinocchio Nose: As per tradition, Pinocchio has a nose that grows when he lies to the Blue Fairy. She summons a multitude of woodpeckers to trim it down to its regular size.
- Strangely, though, it doesn't grow when Pinocchio lies to the Judge about committing thefts to avoid getting imprisoned. Unless the nose knew the court of Catch-Fools is unfair and allowed Pinocchio to lie just this once to avoid getting arrested unjustly.
- Repulsive Ringmaster: The one that buys Pinocchio after he's become a donkey, and decides to put him down and make a drum out of his skin when he breaks a leg. When Pinocchio returns in his puppet form, the ringmaster muses the idea of catching him and making him an attraction for being a Living Toy, but is unable to do so because he and his workers can't swim.
- Running Gag: People slipping when they walk over the trail of mucus left behind by the Blue Fairy's snail maid.
- Sadist Teacher: At the school Pinocchio attends, there's one with a Creepy High-Pitched Voice who enjoys giving Corporal Punishments to the children that don't respond to his math questions correctly. It's no wonder boys like Lampwick would rather rebel than respect such individual.
- Scars Are Forever: Lampwick has a few scars he gained after receiving some Corporal Punishments in his life, and still has them as a donkey, causing the ringmaster to pick Pinocchio over him.
- Scenery Porn: Nicolaj Brüel's cinematography offers some very pretty wide shots of the Italian countryside.
- Sea Monster: The Terrible Dogfish, faithfully depicted as a gigantic Fiendish Fish creature with a design directly inspired by the Carlo Chiostri illustrations.
- Skipping School: Pinocchio does so by following Lampwick to go Filching Food for Fun and lazily sit on rooftops.
- Spared by the Adaptation: The Cricket doesn't die when Pinocchio throws a mallet at him, he just gets really hurt and retires crying like a Manchild.
- Sweet Sheep: Near the end of the film, Pinocchio is shown working for Gigangio in order to earn coins to get a gallon of milk to help Geppetto get stronger and healthier. One of his jobs is to help Gigangio herd his flock of sheep. When Pinocchio finishes his job taking care of a group of lambs, he gets tired and is seen taking a nap near haystacks where The Blue Fairy finally turns him into a real boy. Before he wakes up and learns he is now a real boy, a group of lambs are seen watching Pinocchio turn from a puppet into a human.
- Transformation Horror: Pinocchio and Lampwick are scared out of their wits as they helplessly mutate into donkeys.
- Truer to the Text: Even with the things it cuts out or compresses from the book for the sake of pacing, this adaptation is very faithful to the things it does take and put on screen.
- Truly Single Parent: Geppetto creating Pinocchio qualifies, and he really hammers this when he runs outside announcing the whole neighborhood that he's become a father upon realizing that the still unfinished Pinocchio is alive and being called "babbo" after carving his mouth.
- Would Hurt a Child:
- The Fox and the Cat try to hang Pinocchio when they attack him under their "assassins" guise.
- The slimy Little Man that takes naughty children to his Pleasure Island grounds to sell them after having them turn into donkeys.
