Pinocchio Trailer: Robert Zemeckis Remakes The Disney Classic In Live-Action

At some point in everybody's life, there comes a time when one has to choose sides. In moments as uncertain as these, it's never been more trendy to draw imaginary battle lines in the sand and die on ultimately meaningless hills. So, on that note, I ask you: Where do you find yourself landing in the ongoing debate over Disney's live-action remakes of their own beloved animated classics? No matter how much fake internet ink has been spilled either defending or deriding this rather blatant cash-grab practice over the years, one thing's for certain — these movies make money, and Disney is very much in the money-making business.

The latest film to be dragged out of the Disney vault and reimagined in live-action form will be "Pinocchio," the timeless tale of the wooden puppet on strings who's granted a unique opportunity to live out his dreams as a real boy. As with all of Disney's recent remakes, the studio has spared no expense in terms of recruiting top-notch talent and pulling together all the resources that a remake of "Pinocchio" could ever need. Will that be enough to make this a worthwhile event, on par or even vaguely close to the greatness of the original? That question won't be answered for another few weeks but, in the meantime, check out the newest trailer!

Unfortunately, despite all that talk about wishing upon a star, the song failed to broached the topic of being careful what you wish for, sometimes. I'm not saying that Disney's new take on "Pinocchio" is doomed because of yet another trailer that seems unaware of its own uncanny valley VFX work (no doubt affected by the industry's continued mistreatment of artists), uninspired direction, and a pervasive feeling that the mandate for this film was to reinforce the notion that content remains king ... but I'm not not saying that, either.

"Pinocchio" certainly appears promising on paper, written and directed by filmmaking legend Robert Zemeckis, along with a screenplay credit by Chris Weitz. Casting America's dad Tom Hanks as the lovable and down-on-his-luck Geppetto was also a stroke of genius, though we shouldn't neglect the rest of the A-list cast made up of names such as Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Jiminy Cricket, Cynthia Erivo as Blue Fairy, Keegan-Michael Key as "Honest" John, Luke Evans is The Coachman, and even the esteemed Lorraine Bracco as a new character named Sofia the Seagull. And yet, something can't help but feel off about the whole affair.

Are the doubters just being paranoid and cynical or will this latest in a long line of live-action remakes end up surprising us all? We'll find out when the film debuts straight to streaming exclusively on Disney+ September 8, 2022.