Disney’s ‘Pinocchio’ Image Reveals First Look at Tom Hanks As Geppetto

A live-action adaptation of Disney‘s Pinocchio is directed by Robert Zemeckis (Back To The Future, Forrest Gump, The Witches) and casts Tom Hanks as Geppetto alongside a cartoon-accurate Pinocchio doll.

Zemeckis’ adaptation is said to rely more on Disney’s animated Pinocchio film from 1940, than on the original 1883 novel The Adventures of Pinocchio by Carlo Collodi. The iconic doll will be voiced by Benjamin Evan Ainsworth in the film, and the rest of the cast that includes Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Jiminy Cricket, Cynthia Erivo as the Blue Fairy, Keegan-Michael Key as “Honest” John, Luke Evans as The Coachman and Lorraine Bracco as a new character, Sofia the Seagull.

Pinocchio will be the fourth collaboration between Tom Hanks and Zemeckis, who have previously worked together on Forrest Gump, Cast Away, and The Polar Express. Today, Disney+ has finally released a first-look image and fans are already impressed by the faithful reproduction of the original movie.

In the image, we can see Hanks’s Geppetto looking at Pinocchio in his workshop and the first thing we notice is the immaculate resemblance Hanks bears to the beloved wood-carver. The whole shot looks like it has been taken straight out of the 1940’s version of the story and it is incredible how nostalgia-awakening and effective such a simple image can be:

Netflix is also releasing a stop-motion animated version of the story this year, directed by Guillermo del Toro (Pan’s Labyrinth, Hellboy, The Devil’s Backbone). This version will vastly differ from Zemeckis’s movie, as it aims to offer a new interpretation of Collodi’s novel, instead of relying on an existing Disney hit.

Zemeckis’ Pinocchio marks the director’s second feature film debut on streaming, the first one being The Witches – a story of a young boy and his grandmother who have a run-in with a coven of witches and their leader. 

The film is planned to be released on Disney+ in September 2022.