Poor Pinocchio, it seems, is something of slow learner. He skips school to go to a puppet show, gets kidnapped by the ringleader and is taken far away from home he gives his coins to two very sketchy strangers who claim they can magically multiply it, and those coins are predictably stolen. Whenever Pinocchio makes a bad choice, he always suffers the consequences for it. The story may sound familiar, but don’t let that fool you-this version of the classic tale is much more Grimms’ Fairy Tales than it is Disney. So begins Pinocchio’s long journey back to his village and to Geppetto, amidst constant setbacks due to his irresponsibility and bad decisions. When Geppetto takes his new son to school, Pinocchio sneaks across the street to a puppet show instead and is kidnapped by the owner, who’s looking to add some new performers to his collection. The Adventures of Pinocchio was originally intended as a cautionary tale for young children about the dangers of disobeying their parents, a theme which carries through to Garrone’s adaptation. Watching over Pinocchio as he gets used to his new surroundings is the Talking Cricket, who dispenses numerous pearls of wisdom that Pinocchio refuses to follow, and a Fairy, who guides him as he suffers the consequences of his poor decisions.Īnd many, many poor decisions there are. Pinocchio follows the titular puppet as the carpenter Geppetto carves him out of a piece of magical wood and adopts him as his son. The most recent, Pinocchio, is a live-action Italian-language film (with English overdubs in the version reviewed here) that strips back the gloss of Disney’s classic in favor of a story much more faithful to its darker, grittier source material. While the 1940 Disney animated classic is undeniably the most famous version of this beloved tale, Carlo Collodi’s 1883 novel The Adventures of Pinocchio has spawned myriad adaptations. And Italian director Matteo Garrone wants to make sure you know it.

Well, that’s not exactly the whole story-at least, not according to the original novel. A poor carpenter longing for a child carves a wooden puppet in the shape of a young boy that is magically brought to life, and the puppet goes on a journey to learn responsibility and become a real boy.

Pinocchio story explained