Concept: An old craftsman creates a wooden boy puppet that comes to life and gets into trouble. Based on the 1883 children’s book.

• • A pleasant, imaginative adventure enhanced by beautiful cinematography, lovely Italian locations, the lively performance of Roberto Benigni as the craftsman, and the convincing special effects/makeup/CGI.
  • About those special effects, none of it looked “over the top” and most of it seemed quite realistic. There were times I was wondering, “Is that makeup or CGI?” Pinocchio comes across quite convincingly as an enchanted but real wooden puppet (reportedly that was prosthetic make-up and not CGI). And there were times I was thinking, “That looks real but I hope that’s CGI,” like when certain perilous events happen to children and animals in the story.
  • Although it’s a children’s story, it may not be for children under 8. The movie stays authentic to the source material and therefore, some of the scenes may be a little traumatic for younger ones, particularly a scene with Pinocchio hanging from a noose on a tree.
  • The music impresses for being so poignant and evocative, and the excellence of the sound stands out more here than in most movies. You can just hear the woodenness of Pinocchio, squeaking as he moves around. Also, the directionality of the sound is clear; when somebody opens a door to the side, you can really hear it to one side.
  • See the movie in its original Italian with English sub-titles.
  • Viewed on an Optoma HD28DSE projector, 92” screen, Amazon Prime on Amazon Cube. I liked the movie but wasn’t impressed with the projection. Then after fiddling with the projector settings, I found that I had the contrast setting way too high (like +53 or something like that), washing out many of the details. By lowering the contrast to a more normal setting (8) and increasing the color intensity a tad, I was able to get a very nice picture. Too bad that was after I had watched the move. Oh well, for next time then.

Pinocchio (2019) 80%