Pinocchio

The movie has very obvious casting choices meant to show diversity. The Blue Fairy is played by Cynthia Erivo, a bald black actress. In the original 1940 cartoon, she was a white woman with blonde hair. Many viewers saw this as a forced change. The movie also adds a new female character named Fabiana. She is a disabled, mixed-race puppet worker. She was made just for this film to add more female presence, which felt unnatural to many people.

There is almost no political talk in the movie. The characters do not speak about modern political issues. They do not lecture the audience. Some lines talk about being true to yourself. However, these lines do not cross into modern left-wing political speech.

The film changes the main lesson of the original story. In the classic version, Pinocchio must earn the right to be a real boy by being good and brave. In this version, he never actually turns into a human. Instead, Geppetto tells him that he is perfect just the way he is. Many viewers and critics felt this promoted modern self-identity ideas. They saw it as a message that you can just declare who you are without having to earn it or change.

The movie does not criticize Western institutions, capitalism, or traditional values. It makes a few small changes, like making Pleasure Island gender-neutral so girls can go there too. In the old film, it was only for bad boys. This change is minor and does not hurt core Western traditions or values in a major way.

There are big changes to the classic characters and story. The Blue Fairy was changed from a blonde white fairy to a bald black woman. A new disabled female character named Fabiana was added. Pleasure Island was changed to include girls. Most importantly, Pinocchio does not turn into a real boy at the end. Geppetto just tells him he is a real boy anyway. This removed the original moral ending of the story.

Many online viewers and conservative critics were very unhappy with this remake. They complained about the race-swapped Blue Fairy. They also strongly disliked the new ending. Critics argued that Disney removed the Christian themes of moral growth, death, and rebirth. They said Disney replaced those values with modern ideas about self-identity.

The creators have a mixed history. Cinematographer Don Burgess, who is credited as the director here, has a score of 0. Writers Robert Zemeckis and Chris Weitz have low scores of 24 and 29. However, producer Paul Weitz has a high score of 75 for his progressive work. Casting director Scot Boland has a score of 50 for working on LGBTQ+ films.