The Adventures of Pinocchio Movie Review 1996

Live-action version of Carlo Collodi's story about woodcarver Gepetto (Landau) who carves himself a puppet son (Thomas) who longs to be a real boy. Story differs from the Disney cartoon version in that it's a little darker and the cat, the fox, and the cricket have larger roles. Jim Henson's Creature Shop provided the animatronic magic to bring Pinocchio to life. His head alone was jammed with wiring and 18 tiny motors to give the "boy" a full range of facial expressions. It took as many as five puppeteers at a time to animate the character. So lifelike was the puppet that some of the crew actually spoke to it as they did the human actors.

Distribution

New Line Home Video, 116 N. Robertson Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90048, Phone: (310)854-5811, Fax: (310)854-1824, URL: http://www.newline.com, Remarks: Does not handle retail queries from consumers; contact your local video distributor.

Available on VHS, DVD
Running time 88 minutes.

Cast and Crew

Genres

Fantasy, Puppets, Adapted from a Fairy Tale, Dads, Whales

Screenplay

Steven Barron, Tom Benedek, Sherry Mills

Cast

Martin Landau, Jonathan Taylor Thomas, Rob Schneider, Bebe Neuwirth, Udo Kier

Cinematography

Juan Ruiz-Anchia

Director

Steven Barron

Music

Rachel Portman

Producer

Jeffrey M. Sneller, Raju Patel, Savoy Pictures, New Line Cinema