TrueJoshNight Truly Dreadful Film

Keeley Coleman The thing I enjoyed most about the film is the fact that it doesn't shy away from being a super-sized-cliche;

Kamila Bell This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

Walter Sloane Mostly, the movie is committed to the value of a good time.

kikkapi20 This Comencini version of the adventures of Pinocchio is the most fateful to the original novel and also perhaps the best, including some of the biggest names in Italian comedy of the seventies, like Manfredi, Lollobrigida and Vittorio de Sica. The score of the film (by Nino Rita) is FANTASTIC: the themes are airy, elegant and memorable. The slow carillon in "Fata turchina", the coupled piano-harpsicord motif of "Birichinata" or the magic, slightly psychedelic mood of "Trasformazione di Pinocchio e Lucignolo", the askance tango "Il Gatto e la Volpe": just a few of the excellent episodes giving the LP its old-fashioned countryside charm. Fun for all family, and undeservedly little known of outside of Europe. A children classic with a subversive undertone that adults can appreciate.

Imdbidia An Italian mini-series (but co-produced by several European TV stations) shot in the 1970s that tells the story of Pinocchio. This is a film faithful to the novel, with life actors, that goes far beyond the sweetened heartless and childish versions that Hollywood has been producing since the 1940s, as if all kids were simple-minded, and all children stories empty of meaning.The film/mini-series has all the elements of the best Italian Neorealism, and, in fact, the background is an unsweetened sad and poor 1860s Italy, in which, however, magic and hope are everywhere, in the poorest of the settings, in the saddest most lonely heart. This magic and this hope carry the viewer along the harshness of Pinocchio and Geppetto's despair, separation, dramas, failure, and final success.The characters, the mood of the movie, the dresses, the music are all fabulous, superbly constructed and presented. Most importantly, the characters are superbly played, very heartfelt, by all actors. Andrea Balestri and Nino Manfredi are unforgettable as Pinocchio and Geppetto, respectively, as well as Gina Lollobrigida in her tiny but important role as a the Fairy Azzurra.This is a Pinocchio with heart, real heart. The story and the acting being heartfelt, the character of Pinocchio becomes real, believable, unquestionably human despite its wooden body.This Pinocchio is not just for kids, although kids will like it, but for adults interested in new approaches to film making and to old stories being true to the original, not a pre-masticated version of the same.If you haven't watched this, you should, because this is a fabulous piece of TV history and film making. In fact, the best Pinocchio ever made to the date. Forget even Begnini, still a pre-masticated version of the original for Hollywood.

rodeoclown I'm a little afraid to watch Benigni's Pinocchio, because I think that Luigi Comencini has already reached the top in the human versions of this story. Great acting (especially the great Nino Manfredi, Franco Franchi and Ciccio Ingrassia and the superb little boy Andrea Balestri), great photography (just look at the wonderful still image of the final scene, with Pinocchio and Geppetto on the beach), and great costumes by Piero Gherardi (Oscar for Fellini's La Dolce Vita and 8 1/2). I think this movie is better to watch for grown-up people, who can fully understand the philosophical and moral implications of this representation. Definitely, a story that will touch you, and make you somehow richer inside. I expect wonderful things from Benigni, or maybe I just hope it, because this time I don't think he can do the best.

dhb8 This is a charming, funny yet dark adaptation of Carlo Collodi's story of Pinocchio. The basic plot will be familiar to anyone who's seen Disney's version, but the story is much richer than the cartoon format allowed for. The actors in this version are superb, particularly Manfredi as Gepetto and Franchi and Ingrassia as the cat and the fox. It's well worth renting, if you can find it -- and it's probably better for adults to watch with older kids, given that some of the villains in the story are portrayed in a pretty scary way that the Disney cartoon glossed over.