Pinocchio was the second animated feature film from Walt Disney, and one of its songs, "When You Wish Upon a Star," has become the the theme song for the entire company, so it's almost surprising that it's taken this long for the puppet with no strings to get the live action remake treatment. The first trailer for the Disney+ movie is now here, and it looks absolutely lovely, but something is oddly missing. Check it out above.
With the exception of a brief shot of Pinocchio's arm, and then his hat, seen when our focus is actually on Cynthia Erivo as the Blue Fairy, the title character isn't actually seen in the trailer. Tom Hanks has the only dialogue and while we see plenty of CGI Jiminy Cricket, and even other puppets, there's no Pinocchio here.
It would be one thing of the movie really wanted to hide the character from us, keep us from seeing what this version of Pinocchio will look like, and hold that for some later trailer release, but we've seen him. We've seen the new Pinocchio in still images, so we know he looks nearly identical to his animated original self.
Including Pinocchio in a piece of art but not the first trailer gives the impression that maybe the reason for keeping the little wooden boy out of the trailer may be more of a technical issue than a marketing one. A couple weeks ago, Marvel Studios released a trailer for She-Hulk: Attorney At Law and a lot of fans were critical of the state of the CGI in that trailer, one wonders if maybe Pinocchio might be in a similar state, and so the decision was made not to show the puppet moving without strings just yet.
She-Hulk is set to debut in mid-August and Pinocchio will be hitting Disney+ on September 8, just a couple weeks later, so the state of the CGI, which is almost certainly not finished in either case, is likely in a similar state. Whatever the reason, there's still plenty of time to see this version of Pinocchio in all his glory. Maybe the next trailer will be a full rendition of "I've Got No Strings."
While Pinocchio may not be there, what is there looks like a lot of fun. Pinocchio has an incredible cast and we get to see several of them here. Tom Hanks look perfect as the aged Geppetto. Jiminy Cricket, who will be voiced by Joseph Gordon-Levitt, looks very much like a CGI version of the original hand drawn concept. Cynthia Erivo looks stunning as the Blue Fairy.
There's a lot we knew about Pinocchio before today but one thing we didn't know was when we'd see the film. Now, September 8 is looking to be a big day as this trailer also reveals that the day Pinocchio comes to Disney+ is Disney+ Day, meaning there's probably a lot more planned. It's hard to imagine it getting bigger or better than Tom Hanks starring in a Robert Zemeckis movie based on one of Disney's absolute classics.
