Pinocchio (2002 film)

A magical log falls off a wagon and rolls through an Italian town, causing considerable damage and some injuries. It comes to rest in front of the house of Geppetto, a poor wood carver who carves, from the log, a puppet named Pinocchio. To Geppetto's surprise, the puppet comes to life and becomes very mischievous. Pinocchio runs away from home and along the street, turning the town upside down. The old carpenter is blamed for the damage, who is taken to prison by the carabinieri, while Pinocchio runs away.

Back home, Pinocchio finds a talking cricket, who reproaches him for the treachery committed, warning him several times to behave well; but Pinocchio, considering him annoying, throws a hammer at him to shut him up. Tired and hungry, Pinocchio falls asleep with his feet on the brazier. Shortly afterwards, Geppetto returns home, and saves Pinocchio from the flames with a bucket of water. Understanding his mistakes, Pinocchio decides to be forgiven, and promises his father that he will go to school and study: due to his economic condition, Geppetto sells his only coat to provide schoolbooks for Pinocchio. However, the rambunctious puppet goes on several adventures, dreading school.

Pinocchio joins a puppet theater, and is almost eaten by the gigantic puppet master Mangiafuoco. Pinocchio lies to get out of the situation, and the puppet master gives him five gold coins. He then meets The Fox and the Cat, two crooks who trick him out of his money, telling him to plant the coins in the ground to grow a 'money tree' in the Meadow of Miracles, outside of Grabadimwit. The watchful Blue Fairy, who encourages Pinocchio to give up his obnoxious ways, saves him from a hanging by the disguised crooks, with the help of her servant Medoro. She gives Pinocchio medicine and when he refuses it, coffin-bearing rabbits dressed as Undertakers appear. Pinocchio immediately consumes the medicine, lying that he wanted to drink it in the first place, but that the Fairy would not let him.

When the Blue Fairy asks Pinocchio about the gold coins he had, Pinocchio lies to her and says he lost them, causing his nose to grow. Knowing of his constant fibbing, the Blue Fairy tells him that there are two types of lies: those with short legs, and those with long noses. Pinocchio promises the Fairy that from there on, he will try his best to be good.

Pinocchio encounters the Fox and the Cat again, who remind him of digging his coins in the Meadow of Miracles outside of Grabadimwit. While Pinocchio is away waiting for the tree to grow, the Fox and the Cat dig up the coins and run off. Pinocchio finds that the coins have been dug up, as the Talking Cricket is told about it. Pinocchio brings up the Fox and the Cat's crimes to a gorilla judge and his fellow judges, and is sentenced to five years in jail for crimes of foolishness. While in jail, Pinocchio meets Lucignolo (Leonardo in the English dub), another truant thief who is let out soon after Pinocchio is admitted in. Geppetto continues his search for Pinocchio. Four months later, as part of a celebration for the birth of a King's son, Pinocchio is set free with the other inmates when he convinces the warden that he is a crook. He stumbles across the grave of the Blue Fairy, who supposedly died of grief because of his antics. A dove tells Pinocchio that she has seen his father, heading out to sea to look for him. Pinocchio arrives at the shores where he finds Geppetto on his ship.

After nearly drowning in an attempt to save his father, Pinocchio washes up on the shore of a city where he helps a lady carry her pitchers. Upon arriving at her house, Pinocchio discovers that she is actually the Blue Fairy in disguise. She states that she faked her death in order to forgive Pinocchio. Once again starting anew, he is on his way to school when he gets into a fight with his peers. One of them tries to throw a book at him, but when he ducks, the book instead hits Eugenio, who is knocked unconscious. Thinking that he is dead, the others run away, leaving Pinocchio at the scene. The carabinieri arrive, where they have Eugenio taken to the hospital while Pinocchio is arrested. Upon nearing the Blue Fairy's house, Pinocchio escapes from the carabinieri. He ends up in a trap that is placed by a grape farmer to take the place of his late guard dog Melampo, in order to guard his crops. Pinocchio is later freed by Lucignolo, and returns to the Blue Fairy's house where he ends up having to admit that he did not go to school. The Blue Fairy forgives Pinocchio for what has happened. The next day, the people at the school arrive at the Blue Fairy's party where the schoolmaster presides over this. Pinocchio leaves to look for Lucignolo.

Pinocchio is told by Lucignolo where he is on a trip to 'Fun Forever Land', where all is play and no work or school, after Lucignolo explained to Pinocchio about it. Later that night, Pinocchio and Lucignolo board a stagecoach bound for Fun Forever Land. When at Fun Forever Land, Pinocchio has some fun while the Talking Cricket is trying to find Pinocchio. When the Talking Cricket does find him, he tries to warn every boy present that they will turn into donkeys if they do not leave Fun Forever Land. The next day, Pinocchio awakens to find that he has sprouted donkey ears, and goes to find Lucignolo. The Talking Cricket arrives and tells Pinocchio that boys turn into donkeys who are sold for hard labor. Pinocchio soon changes into a donkey, and is sold to a circus under its ringmaster. During his performance, Pinocchio injures himself and is thrown into the sea by the Ringmaster's clowns. When the Blue Fairy appears on the shore, upon Pinocchio emerging from the water in his normal form, he vows to make up for his misdeeds, as Blue Fairy starts to warn Pinocchio that a giant shark is pursuing him. Pinocchio starts to swim, but is swallowed by the shark. Upon being reunited with Geppetto, inside the shark, and with Pinocchio apologising to him, they work together to escape from its belly.

Pinocchio walks Geppetto to a farm owned by Farmer George, in order to help Geppetto recuperate. While working on the farm, Pinocchio finds Lucignolo's donkey form dying in a stable on the farm. As Pinocchio is mourning his death, the farmer asks Pinocchio how he knows the donkey. While weaving the baskets outside that night, Pinocchio is visited by the Blue Fairy, Medoro, and the Talking Cricket, who are just passing by. As a reward for his efforts to strive for moral prudence, the Blue Fairy finally reforms Pinocchio and he becomes a real boy. The film ends with Pinocchio going to school at last, while his shadow - in the shape of a puppet - chases a butterfly into the countryside.

In making the film, Benigni tried to be as faithful as possible to Collodi's work, and in fact, there are few differences between them.

• Geppetto finds the piece of wood on the street, whereas in the book, it is given to him by Master Ciliegia (who does not appear in the film). Furthermore, in the film, it is specified that the piece of wood is pine. In the book, it is not specified which tree the log comes from.
• In the film, Mangiafuoco, angry with Pinocchio for spoiling his puppet show, shows his intention to eat him for lunch. In the book, he would like to use him as firewood to cook a mutton roast.
• In the book, the Fox pretends to be lame and the Cat pretends to be blind while. In the film, they do not have disabilities.
• In the book, Pinocchio had to defend himself from the killers who tried to open his mouth to take the gold coins; he bites off the hand of one of the two and then, spitting it on the ground, realizes that it is actually a cat's paw. In the film, this detail is omitted.
• In the film, Pinocchio met Lucignolo for the first time in prison when he was arrested by the Carabinieri of Acchiappacitrulli, accusing the Cat and the Fox for the theft of gold coins. In the book, he met him at school, when he moved to the Country of the Industrious Bees.
• The King of Acchiappacitrulli decides to free the prisoners from prisons to celebrate the birth of his son - not for a military victory, as in the book.
• When Pinocchio is arrested by the Carabinieri, who believe that he has hit Eugenio, he escapes from the Carabinieri (upon seeing the Blue Fairy) and then ends up in the field of the farmer who hires him as a guard dog (where in the book, he tries to steal the grapes, which he does not do in the movie). Pinocchio also escapes from the farmer, thanks to Lucignolo (who wants to steal chickens instead of martens). In the book, Pinocchio regains his freedom by completing the aforementioned task. Furthermore, in the film, the kidnapping by the master of Melampo replaces that by the Green Fisherman. In the book, the first occurs after his ordeal in Acchiappacitrulli, and before Pinocchio finds the alleged tomb of the Blue Fairy.
• In the film, after the misfortune with the farmer who forces him to watch over him, Pinocchio returns home still chained and full of shame and, when the Blue Fairy asks him how the day went, the puppet's nose grows long due to the lies he tells. However, in the book, after running away from the Green Fisherman (who had stripped and floured Pinocchio to fry him), Pinocchio obtains a dress from a bag for the lupins and, returning home, is left out in the cold all night because the snail - whom he asks to open it - takes nine hours to reach the door.
• When Pinocchio and Lucignolo realize that they are being turned into donkeys, in the Land of Toys, the Talking Cricket speaks to Pinocchio of his ignorance; while in the book, the puppet is warned by his roommate the dormouse. In addition, the Talking Cricket also replaces the Parrot, who warns Pinocchio of the theft of the coins by the Cat and the Fox.
• When Pinocchio is transformed into a donkey, he is led to a circus and injures himself by jumping a circle of fire, and the circus director, when he realizes that the donkey has broken his leg, sends his clowns to drown him in the sea. But in the book, the circus director decides to sell Pinocchio to a drum seller, who himself drowns the puppet - not the clowns.
• When Pinocchio returns to being a puppet, the Fairy - aware of the giant shark that was chasing him - maintains her human aspect in the film, instead of becoming a goat as in the book.
• When Pinocchio meets Geppetto in the shark's mouth, the puppet brings his father to safety by irritating him by taking his wig. In the book, they flee on the back of a tuna, already met by Pinocchio as soon as he is swallowed (who does not appear in the film) while the shark sleeps. Whereas in the film, when Pinocchio meets Geppetto he pretends to be a tuna but after a while, he reveals his true identity to the father because Geppetto is initially angry with him. (A similar scene also happened in the 1947 film adaptation of the same book).

To promote the film's release, McDonald's sold Happy Meals containing toys that each resembled a character of the film.[5]

In the United States and Canada, Miramax released the film on Christmas Day with no advance screening. Miramax said that this is because they needed to do post-production looping to insert the English dub for its English-speaking release. Edward Guthmann, a film reviewer for the San Francisco Chronicle, thought that this was because Miramax knew the film would not be well-received, and sought to have it released before critics placed their opinions on the film.[6] The English version includes some differences, such as changed dialogues, some shortened scenes and narration by David Suchet added. After the English dubbed version was poorly received, Miramax reissued the film in Italian with English subtitles on February 7, 2003.[7]

The original version was nominated for six David di Donatello Awards (winning two) and three Nastro d'Argento (winning one):[17][18]

• David di Donatello:
  • Best Sets and Decorations (Danilo Donati) — won
  • Best Costumes (Danilo Donati) — won
  • Best Actor (Roberto Benigni)
  • Supporting Actor (Kim Rossi Stuart)
  • Best Cinematography (Dante Spinotti)
  • Best Score (Nicola Piovani)

• Nastro d'Argento:
  • Nastro d'Argento for Best Score (Nicola Piovani) - won
  • Best Supporting Actor
  • Best Producer (Nicoletta Braschi)

The English dub was nominated for six Golden Raspberry Awards (a first for a foreign-language film) and won one:[19]

• Worst Picture
• Worst Director
• Worst Screenplay
• Worst Actor (Roberto Benigni "Dubbed Godzilla-style" by Breckin Meyer) — won
• Worst Remake or Sequel
• Worst Screen Couple (Roberto Benigni and Nicoletta Braschi)

• Pinocchio - another adaption (from 2019) that Roberto Benigni starred in, but this time in a different role (as Geppetto).

• Pinocchio at IMDb
• Pinocchio at Box Office Mojo
• Pinocchio at Rotten Tomatoes
• Pinocchio at Metacritic
• Kyle Kallgren of Brows Held High's review of the 2002 dubbed version