Watch the Trailer for the New Live-Action Disney Pinocchio

You may – or may not – be a fan of Disney’s habit of making new live-action versions of their animated classics. Yet this Robert Zemeckis' all-new live-action Pinocchio, starring Tom Hanks (which streams on September 8 – no need to say which service!) looks like it may be a winner.  It looks very familiar, yet also very different – and the key is the casting.

Released today, the trailer sees Hank fully made up as Geppetto, Pinocchio’s father and the similarity between him and the original animated version looks remarkable.  That still didn’t stop a commenter from admitting “If Tom Hanks doesn't yell "YOU ARE A TOY!!!!" to Pinocchio, I'd be so disappointed” under the YouTube video, but the chances of Mr Hanks channeling Woody are pretty slim, I would say!  Nevertheless, the fact that Tom Hanks is in it reassures me because his good films far outweigh his bad ones. 

There’s a gorgeous new version of “When You Wish Upon a Star” playing (sorry don’t know who sings it as yet) as the Blue Fairy makes her entrance.

This is where things begin to look very different from the original.  Played by the striking Cynthia Erivo, she is something of a departure (looks wise) from Disney’s 1940 classic but only catching a glimpse of her in the trailer it is yet to be seen how she plays the character. But she certainly looks fabulous!

Jiminy Cricket looks fantastic (voiced by Joseph Gordon-Levitt – another reason to trust this will be a great version – and we even get a tiny look at Pinocchio himself.

There’s a lot of “blah blah blah” in the trailer and the actual footage from the film is a disappointingly thin on the ground.  The makers of the trailer seem to want to make sure that everyone knows that this is an EVENT (in capitals) but surely, we all knew that anyway!

Below (thanks IMDB) is a screenshot of the cast.  Joining Hanks, Gordon-Leavitt and Erivo, we also have Lorraine Bracco, Luke Evans, Keegan-Michal Key and Sheila Atim among others.  All told, this looks like it will be a new version well worth watching – I’m already looking forward to the release date of 8 September.