Disney’s quest to create live-action remakes for all its animated classics takes another step forward with Pinocchio, which hits Disney+ on September 8 as part of the streamer’s anniversary celebration. Today’s new trailer — equal parts fantastical and sentimental, as expected — gives us our best look yet at the Robert Zemeckis tale, starring the director’s old pal Tom Hanks as Geppetto.
Quite obviously, “live action” in this case means “live action but a lot of CG characters,” which is really no surprise. If you’re wondering why you feel like you have Pinocchio-related déjà vu, that’s because Guillermo del Toro also has a version of the story coming to streaming soon — a stop-motion labour of love titled The Adventures of Pinocchio that’ll be on Netflix in December.
But first, we’ll see Zemeckis’ take, which not only stars Hanks as Geppetto, it also features The Haunting of Bly Manor’s creepy-kid breakout Benjamin Evan Ainsworth as Pinocchio; Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Jiminy Cricket; Cynthia Erivo as the Blue Fairy (Erivo will also perform a new version of “When You Wish Upon a Star” for the movie’s soundtrack); Keegan-Michael Key as “Honest” John; Lorraine Bracco as a new character named Sofia the Seagull; and Beauty and the Beast’s Luke Evans as the Coachman.
Pinocchio premieres on Disney+ Day, September 8.
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