Ass Pull: When being chased by Monstro in the climax of the film, Pinocchio's legs suddenly act as a propeller in the water, giving him Super-Speed to outrun the monster whale in his natural element. Not only is it contrived but it completely ruins the tension of what was a terrifying sequence in the original film.
One of the points of the movie (and the original story) was Pinocchio's nose growing every time he told a lie, with the lesson that lying is bad. This film, however, ends up undermining that message when Pinocchio actually takes advantage of his growing nose to get the key to his cage and escape from Stromboli. The film also adds a loophole where Pinocchio can shrink his nose by apologizing, instead of him having to tell the truth. So instead of "lying is bad", the lesson is: it's okay to lie to get what you want, so long as you apologize after.
Most of the adaptational changes to the story seem to go out of their way to absolve Pinocchio from actually doing anything bad on purpose (he doesn't skip school and instead gets kicked out by a deranged headmaster and the laughing kids, gets kidnapped and peer-pressured into going to Pleasure Island and doesn't do anything particularly bad there, and so on)... but he still gets all the karmic punishment his other incarnations earned, rendering the old "be a good kid or else" message of every version of Pinocchio completely moot.
While it's understandable that the filmmakers didn't want to show children drinking and smoking, mellowing out Pleasure Island ends up changing the original aesop from: "if you act like an ass, you'll become one" to the very bleak: "kids should not have fun".
Common Knowledge: A common criticism from critics towards the film is that Pinocchio doesn't turn into a real boy at the end unlike in the original animated film, rendering Pinocchio's whole adventure moot and ruining the story. However, contrary to what critics say, the film never really says that is the case, as it is deliberately kept ambiguous on whether or not he does become a real boy. That said, his legs do turn from wooden to human in the final shot, implying that he does indeed become a real boy like in the original film.
Complete Monster: The Coachman is the mysterious owner of Pleasure Island, and manages to be even worse than his already-monstrous animated incarnation. Ensnaring boys and girls under the guise of having fun at his amusement park, the Coachman transforms them into donkeys and sell them off to work in salt mines. Snatching Pinocchio, the Coachman uses the other children to pressure the reluctant puppet into falling into his trap, hoping to fetch a larger fortune by selling a wooden donkey.
Do Not Do This Cool Thing: The Pleasure Island scenes, especially given the way it's been diluted. With smoking and drinking cut out, the behavior that dooms the children is simply going on rides, ingesting copious amounts of candy and root beer (which the film repeatedly identifies as root beer), and acting rowdy and destructive in places specifically designated for this. Hell, it's basically a slightly rougher Walt Disney World, which even had a Pleasure Island of its own for several years!note It was for adults, though, and it had no connection to Pinocchiooutside of the name.
Fandom Rivalry: It didn't take long for there to be a rivalry between those who were looking forward to this film and those looking forward to Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio, given they are both retellings of Pinocchio releasing in the same year, with very different approaches to the source material. Some Del Toro fans went as far as to accuse Disney of sabotaging his version by releasing their own remake beforehand. The fact that Del Toro's film also has Pinocchio giving Gepetto another shot at parenthood after losing his real son (and it should be noted this was announced long before this remake's release) doesn't help at all.
Gratuitous Special Effects: Some viewers have questioned why Figaro was portrayed through CGI as the movie could have simply had a real cat acting for the role. It's especially obvious during the several times in the film that Figaro is being held by Gepetto and is still CGI, when it would have likely taken far less time and money to simply give Tom Hanks a real kitten to hold.
Bizarrely enough, Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio has a similar scene in which the characters escape the Sea Monster thanks to Spazzatura the monkey using his own tail as a propeller.
One of the stage names Honest John considers for Pinocchio is "Chris Pine". The following year, Disney released their 100th anniversary movie, Wish, which served as an origin story for the wishing star as seen in Pinocchio and other movies in the Disney animated canon… and guess who voiced its main villain.
Ho Yay Shipping: Gideon's hammer bears his and Honest John's initials carved into it inside of a heart. Oddly enough, this is actually less homoerotic than the original, where their relationship was a lot more equitable, a lot more touchy-feely, and Honest John called him "Giddy".
It's the Same, Now It Sucks!: As per many of the previous Disney Live-Action Remakes, many viewers dislike the film for following the original 1940 animated version too closely. In particular, many didn't appreciate that the film still has The Coachman be a Karma Houdini, especially since not only did Stromboli get Adaptational Karma so it's confusing as to why the Coachman didn't, this version of the character is even eviler than his predecessor and the behavior the kids indulge in on Pleasure Island isn't nearly as bad as it was in that film, taking away from the original point of the Coachman remaining existant in the first place as a parable for badly behaved children.
The scene where Pinocchio sniffs a pile of horse dung has seen very frequent use in videos mocking the film.
Stromboli announcing Pinocchio's name as "Piiiiiiiiiiiiinocchio!"
Narm: Monstro makes an Evil Laugh when chasing Pinocchio and Gepetto, which comes off as more goofy than threatening. In stark contrast to how terrifyingly angry he was in the animated classic.
Think the original Pleasure Island was dark? This version has shadow smoke demons to round up the boys turned donkeys. And like the original, the Coachman is a Karma Houdini, who gets no comeuppance and presumably continues selling children into slavery, despite noticing Pinocchio's escape this time.
The sequence on Pleasure Island before the above occurs. It perfectly coveys the place's mood and how it changes for Pinocchio (and the audience) - starts out whimsical, awe-inspiring, and fun, with bright lights and colors, fireworks, and rides like Sugar Mountain that would be any child's wildest fantasy come true. But then we start seeing many, many more attractions specifically designed to encourage the worst behavior in the children (in some cases outright crimes like arson and possibly terrorism via fireworks), who are all rowdily creating total carnage at every turn. Even the Cherubic Choir going on in the background turns more and more ominous the more of the place we're shown.
Hell, the clock smashing scene was particularly creepy as the kids smashed the clocks in sync with the background music. What makes it even worse is the clocks are implied to be the ones Gepetto sold, and Pinocchio is watching his father's life's work be smashed to the beat like some sort of deranged rhythm game.
Monstro gets an Adaptational Species Change from a sperm whale, to some sort of Animalistic Abomination resembling a fusion of a pliosaur, a giant squid, and some sort of bony fish with webbed ray fins, resembling more like some kind of alien rather than simply a large and deadly, but mundane, sea creature.
Older Than They Think: Geppetto getting a Disney Death from escaping the whale and Pinocchio shedding Swiss-Army Tears at the beach is pretty similar to what happens in The Adventures of Pinocchio, a live-action film from 1996. Although in that version, Geppetto revives on his own, and Pinocchio's tear is a Tear of Joy that lands on his own heart and transforms him into a real boy.
Signature Scene: The scene where Pinocchio sniffs horse poop is often held up as a summation of everything wrong with the movie (not the least of which being Toilet Humor being shoved into a story that was originally devoid of such). As a result, it is frequently highlighted in reviews and used as a thumbnail in YouTube videos, often as a means to mock the film.
Many have found the CGI for Pinocchio, Figaro and other animated characters to look unconvincing when put into the live-action sets, not helped by the live-action actors not interacting with them too convincingly. It gets worse for Pinocchio during the daytime scenes when the lighting is overly bright making his textures look more glossy and plastic.
The waves and other water effects during sea scenes don't look very good, and it ends up looking worse when live-action actor Tom Hanks is poorly inserted in this animated environment: Geppetto's clothing doesn't get wet a lot of time when he touches the CGI water that barely reacts to him, and his hair isn't blown by the wind when Pinocchio pushes the raft at a very high speed. Even the intentionally synthetic-looking water in the del Toro film looks and acts more convincing than the water in this film.
Squick: Pinocchio stopping to sniff a pile of horse dung on his way to school.
The signature scene where Pinocchio lies to the Blue Fairy being replaced with Jiminy Cricket, as well as using those lies to help escape from his confinement, did NOT sit well with fans, with some of them feeling that it took away one of the most important aspects of the original story.
The decision to bowdlerise the Pleasure Island scenes to remove any references to smoking and alcohol was criticized by viewers, since it removes the anti-smoking and anti-drinking message of the original movie and makes the kids Unintentionally Sympathetic since it's less "juvenile delinquency" and more "typical child behavior".
The remake changing Pinocchio's personality to be less mischievous and more moral (such as not wanting to do the bad stuff on Pleasure Island, only doing so because of peer pressure) has been criticized by viewers and critics for making him too "flawless", missing the entire point behind Pinocchio's arc in the original film (where he made mistakes, received consequences for said mistakes, and learned from them, eventually growing a conscience).
The remake also removed Pinocchio's Disney Death from the original, instead giving one to Geppetto, who is brought back via Swiss-Army Tears. This is arguably the most egregious change as Pinocchio's Heroic Sacrifice was the most important part of the original movie (i.e., Pinocchio's arc in the original movie was that he needs to prove that he was worthy of becoming a real boy, but because of his naivety he makes several bad choices and only by sacrificing his own life to save his father is he redeemed and brought back as a real boy).
Many fans are baffled by the decision to change Monstro from a giant sperm whale resembling a Liviyatan melvillei to some strange, Sharktopus-looking creature resembling a mosasaur with Combat Tentacles added.
They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot: A point of minor contention with the original film was that the four actual villains of the story (i.e., Coachman, Stromboli, Honest John, and Gideon) get off unscathed (not counting Honest John's "mallet incident") while Lampwick, who is more of a brat and a bad influence then a villain, is subject to a Fate Worse than Death. While Stromboli is legally punished this time around (although for cruelty and mistreatment towards real people working for him) and not just losing his star and thus losing money in the process off-screen, Coachman, Honest John, and Gideon all remain Karma Houdini, which is seen as a waste by many. This is especially questionable in the case of Coachman as, since the behaviour of the children on Pleasure Island has been toned down considerably, he comes off as even more evil in this version. It's also worth noting that Honest John and Gideon would have been punished in the original, but it was cut for pacing reasons, and it wasn't restored in this version despite already being 17 minutes longer.
Took the Bad Film Seriously: Even detractors seem to agree that Keegan-Michael Key is one of the very few good parts in the movie, as he's able to capture Honest John's theatrical personality incredibly well.
Unintentionally Sympathetic: The kids on Pleasure Island who get turned into donkeys. Instead of drinking, smoking, and acting like juvenile delinquents, they're just doing normal kid things. Like drinking root beer, going on rides, and breaking things that they've been given permission to break. The worst thing any of them does is kick a cricket.
Unlike past Disney remakes, the designs in this film are Truer to the Text to the designs from the original Disney film. However, because the designs are attempting to combine the original cartoony Disney designs with the more realistic look of previous Disney remakes, they tend to fall into this territory as a result. This is especially the case with Jiminy Cricket, who has a more realistic design, but is still presented as anthropomorphic funny animal, which makes him come across as unintentionally creepy looking and out of place compared to the more realistically designed animal characters.
The same is evident for Honest John. His body is very cartoony and animated (complete with countless grand, thespian gestures) and Keegan-Michael Key gives a very lively performance, but at the same time, he has a photorealistic face, and pretty much every expression he makes looks like a cornered fox snarling and baring its teeth.
If you look closely at the end as Pinocchio walks off with Geppetto in the final shot, you can see his wooden parts slowly turning human, making him resemble a realistic human with the proportions of a cartoon child, which looks horribly unsettling and wrong.
Vanilla Protagonist: One of the biggest criticisms towards the film is that Pinocchio seems to already have a conscience and can differentiate between right and wrong. He doesn't at first go along with Honest John and Gideon to Stromboli after hearing out Jiminy and actually goes to school where he gets kicked out for being a puppet, which easier places the blame on the world instead of on himself when he does agree to go with Stromboli. And when the Pleasure Island arc starts, he doesn't get conned by Honest John a second time, he is instead picked up by The Coachman and only goes along because of peer pressure from the other children. While on Pleasure Island, he doesn't join the other kids in making jackasses of themselves. He doesn't destroy stuff or even drinks root beer, meaning that he shouldn't be turning into a donkey even though he does in the movie. This heavily goes against the movie because of how closely it follows the animated original's story, which is that Pinocchio is supposed to make mistakes on his own accord and prove himself so he earns his transformation into a real boy by the end of the movie, which is probably why it was left ambiguous as to if he even does by the end of this movie.
Visual Effects of Awesome: One of the few elements of the film to receive any praise is Honest John, who has a lush, photorealistic design.
long before this remake's release) doesn't help at all.