Disney has released the first teaser trailer for its live-action remake of beloved animated classic Pinocchio. Check it out above.
The new movie, which was first announced back in 2020, is heading to Disney Plus exclusively on September 8 (aka Disney Plus Day), and will star the likes of Tom Hanks, Cynthia Erivo, Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Beauty and the Beast alumnus Luke Evans.
Oscar-winning director (and frequent Hanks collaborator) Robert Zemeckis is helming the project, whose plot will remain faithful to Carlo Collodi’s famous children’s story about a wooden puppet who embarks on an adventure to become a real boy.
As the brief trailer reveals, both Pinocchio himself and sidekick-cum-conscience Jiminy Cricket will be rendered in CGI in Disney’s new movie, with their voices provided by newcomer Benjamin Evan Ainsworth and Gordon-Levitt, respectively.
Interestingly (and perhaps thankfully), the design of the titular wooden puppet looks near-identical to that used in the studio’s 1940 classic – yellow hat, red feather and all – which further suggests viewers can expect a like-for-like retelling of this centuries-old story (an approach in keeping with Disney's treatment of The Lion King, Aladdin and The Jungle Book in recent years).
Disney’s Pinocchio isn’t the only Pinocchio movie heading to screens in 2022, either. Pan's Labyrinth filmmaker Guillermo del Toro is also reinventing the classic tale in stop-motion form for Netflix, with Stranger Things star Finn Wolfhard and Obi-Wan Kenobi himself, Ewan McGregor, attached to feature as voice actors in the more adult-oriented feature.
Del Toro’s take on Pinocchio isn’t expected to arrive until December 2022, mind, so Disney’s own adaptation will hit Disney Plus two months prior.
