Wish granted: Disney+ has revealed first-look images from its live-action Pinocchio. A remake of Walt Disney's 1940 animated classic, the straight-to-streaming movie is coming to life for Disney+ Day 2022. From director Robert Zemeckis (Back to the Future, Forrest Gump), Disney+'s Pinocchio follows the wooden puppet (voice of Benjamin Evan Ainsworth) on his daring journey to become a real boy as wished by father Geppetto (Tom Hanks). The new movie — which joins a lineup of recent Disney live-action re-imaginings that includes Dumbo, Aladdin, The Lion King, and Lady and the Tramp — is available to stream September 8 on Disney+.
New images show the characters the wooden boy will encounter on his adventure, including his guide and "conscience" Jiminy Cricket (Joseph Gordon-Levitt); the kind and magical Blue Fairy (Cynthia Erivo); the scheming "Honest" John (Keegan-Michael Key); and the villainous Coachman (Luke Evans). Also in the cast are Kyanne Lamaya as Fabiana, Jaquita Ta'ie as the marionette Sabina, Giuseppe Battiston as Stromboli, Lewin Lloyd as Lampwick, and Academy Award nominee Lorraine Bracco as Sofia the Seagull, a new character.
"Walt Disney was really clever. He always looked for stories to make movies of that were pretty much impossible to do as live-action movies," said Zemeckis. "They could be done very wonderfully as animation because he was able to do animated stories about talking animals and puppets, fairies and dwarves, and things that would be impossible to do in live-action."
Disney's Pinocchio is "one of the most, if not the most, beautiful animated features that was ever made," added Zemeckis, whose credits include Disney's Who Framed Roger Rabbit and the animated A Christmas Carol. "I loved it so much. But now, since digital cinema has emerged, the puppet could be very much three-dimensional. It occurred to me that you could do a very plausible version of Pinocchio as a live-action movie. And so even though I was concerned I was standing on hallowed ground, I thought that was a worthwhile project to do."
See the images in the gallery below. Disney's Pinocchio is streaming September 8 on Disney+.
For the full list of Disney+ Day 2022 premieres, click here. See everything streaming on Disney+ in September 2022. Disney+ Day is September 8; try the Disney+ streaming service here.
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