Written for RAF News July 2023

Pinocchio A Tue Story is a confused adaptation of the popular fairytale, a janky Russian animation that makes little sense, but has gained online notoriety for its particular American dubbing.

Evidently the story of Geppetto and his living doll have become public domain, and so we have had a number of versions released in the past couple of years. From Disney’s updated live-action with CGI, to Guillermo De Toro’s comic but darkly twisted stop-motion, and now this: a much smaller scale, no-thrills animation, that appears to be geared toward a much younger audience, and apparently those watching ironically for the memes.

The plot is much like the others, or at least it uses some of the same ideas (though notably excluding Jiminy Cricket or his growing nose). Pinocchio (Pauly Shore) is a wooden boy who comes to life and longs to see the world, along with his trusty talking horse Tybalt (Jon Heder) he joins a travelling circus and falls in love with the shifty proprietor’s daughter Bella (Liza Klimova). Now he wishes to become human so that they may share a love together, but her father’s schemes, and the thieving animals under his employ, threaten to interfere.

Despite being cemented into public consciousness through its many retellings, this instalment is pretty non-sensical, with drama arising out of nowhere and then being resolved just as casually. The score is generic whilst the animation is ropey and unexciting. The American dub is where the film has garnered much attention, largely due to Pauly Shore’s flamboyant delivery, causing a wave of TikToks celebrating the perceived sexuality of Pinocchio.

A suitably bizarre fate for this strange film, that isn’t nearly as funny as the reactions it has provoked.