Pinocchio Reviews
December 31, 2020
Get our your handkerchiefs for this gorgeous, live-action take from Italy on the Disney animated classic, starring Oscar winner Roberto Benigni as Geppetto, the woodcutter who builds a puppet to replace the son he never had.
December 31, 2020
It has the makings of a stealth classic.
Full Review
| Original Score: 3/4
December 30, 2020
Fairy tales have always held the threat of darkness as punishment for misbehavior, and this "Pinocchio" is no exception.
Full Review
| Original Score: 2.5/4
December 28, 2020
Garrone's take is darker than Uncle Walt's, but like Disney, he imbues his take with a reliable sense of wonder. As a result, Pinocchio's path away from being a literal blockhead is delightful.
Full Review
| Original Score: 83/100
December 26, 2020
This new cinematic imagining of Carlo Collodi's classic fantasy tale is alternately enchanting and befuddling.
December 25, 2020
The visuals are inventive, though not as spectacularly scary as Disney's depiction of the fish as Monstro the whale.
Full Review
| Original Score: 3/4
December 23, 2020
Those accustomed to the softness of previous takes might be overwhelmed by this picture, which is imaginatively made with amazing technical achievements, but not an endeavor that touches the heart.
Full Review
| Original Score: B-
December 23, 2020
Matteo Garrone's wonderfully bizarre and visually stunning take on the classic tale is a genuine movie treat.
Full Review
| Original Score: 4/5
December 21, 2020
Matteo Garrone's adaptation of Carlo Collodi's story trembles with corporeal strangeness and unpredictability.
Full Review
| Original Score: 3/4
December 2, 2020
Crammed with fantastic creatures and characters, Pinocchio has here its most eccentric version in the hand of Rome-born director Matteo Garrone...
Full Review
| Original Score: 4/5
November 16, 2020
Garrone's version, though a touch on the lengthy side, is a handsome, inventive and extremely satisfying version of the famous story.
Full Review
| Original Score: 4/5
October 20, 2020
A fantasy film that respects children's intelligence. [Full Review in Spanish]
Full Review
| Original Score: 3.5/5
September 17, 2020
The film manages to deliver an endearing retelling of a timeless classic.
September 14, 2020
This new version of the tale is much more faithful [to the original story... but the director's tenth film doesn't offer much more than a largely superb makeup job. [Full review in Spanish]
Full Review
| Original Score: 3/5
September 1, 2020
PINOCCHIO stands apart from previous adaptations, and most definitely from versions of the story familiar to English-language audiences. [In] doing so, it has an authentic 'fascino' that is unlikely to be bettered by a Hollywood-led live-action version.
August 26, 2020
Garrone's adaptation may be episodic in nature and lacking a dramatic throughline, but its rich imagery and loyalty to the original must rank it as the definitive screen version of the classic tale.
Full Review
| Original Score: 4/5
August 20, 2020
The film is beautifully imagined, atmospherically shot in what looks like natural lighting, with unobtrusive special effects: the well-known growing-nose incident is strikingly handled here. It's genuinely fascinating.
Full Review
| Original Score: 4/5
August 20, 2020
The film is strikingly well-made, with a loose sense of physicality, strongly idiosyncratic characters and a willingness to get properly dark and nasty. Not only will kids love this, but it makes the happy moments that much more evocative.
Full Review
| Original Score: 3.5/5
August 20, 2020
Pinocchio is unafraid to be dark and unusual, precisely because the man at the helm loves and understands the material more than most.
Full Review
| Original Score: 4/5
August 18, 2020
Garrone's take on this tale of a wooden child's quest to become a real live boy is macabre in a way that might appeal to older kids who like their fantasies a little on the darker side...
Full Review
| Original Score: 3/5