The Adventures of Pinocchio (1972)

Excellent, Without a doubt!!

It's not great by any means, but it's a pretty good movie that didn't leave me filled with regret for investing time in it.

While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

One of the film's great tricks is that, for a time, you think it will go down a rabbit hole of unrealistic glorification.

It is always tricky and very hard to turn a (great) novel into a movie with good results. So many times the result is quite bad. But in this case this rendition of Carlo Collodi's wonderful novel (read it! And have your kids read it!) by one of the greatest Italian directors will leave you totally delighted and moved. The actors are superb and the atmosphere is absolutely perfect. Andrea Balestri (Pinocchio) is... well... THE perfect Pinocchio. Geppetto (the great Manfredi) is unforgettable, and so Lollobrigida, and so Franco Franchi e Ciccio Ingrassia and... well, try and find a copy: every effort you will make is worth, trust me. I have to say that Disney's version (after all a cartoon. A great one, but a cartoon) disappears if compared to Comencini's Pinocchio. I watched Comencini's Pinocchio when I was a kid and many times since then (I am Italian so I have had more opportunities to watch it) and I do think that this version is a masterpiece.

An Italian mini-series (but co-produced by several European TV stations) shot in the 1970s that tells the story of Pinocchio. This is a film faithful to the novel, with life actors, that goes far beyond the sweetened heartless and childish versions that Hollywood has been producing since the 1940s, as if all kids were simple-minded, and all children stories empty of meaning.The film/mini-series has all the elements of the best Italian Neorealism, and, in fact, the background is an unsweetened sad and poor 1860s Italy, in which, however, magic and hope are everywhere, in the poorest of the settings, in the saddest most lonely heart. This magic and this hope carry the viewer along the harshness of Pinocchio and Geppetto's despair, separation, dramas, failure, and final success.The characters, the mood of the movie, the dresses, the music are all fabulous, superbly constructed and presented. Most importantly, the characters are superbly played, very heartfelt, by all actors. Andrea Balestri and Nino Manfredi are unforgettable as Pinocchio and Geppetto, respectively, as well as Gina Lollobrigida in her tiny but important role as a the Fairy Azzurra.This is a Pinocchio with heart, real heart. The story and the acting being heartfelt, the character of Pinocchio becomes real, believable, unquestionably human despite its wooden body.This Pinocchio is not just for kids, although kids will like it, but for adults interested in new approaches to film making and to old stories being true to the original, not a pre-masticated version of the same.If you haven't watched this, you should, because this is a fabulous piece of TV history and film making. In fact, the best Pinocchio ever made to the date. Forget even Begnini, still a pre-masticated version of the original for Hollywood.

This is the 300 minutes version of the best TV-adaption ever made of "Pinocchio", a co-production of several European public TV-networks. Directed by Luigi Comencini, with Nino Manfredi as Gepetto, Andrea Balestri as Pinocchio and Gina Lollobridgida as the fairy. Great actors and a subtle poetry make this adaption a real masterwork of Italian television. The mini series consists of 6 episodes, each about 55 minutes long. See also "Avventure di Pinocchio, Le" (1972), there you have the very much edited one part-movie version, which in Italy (for example via internet) is available on VHS and DVD.

This is a charming, funny yet dark adaptation of Carlo Collodi's story of Pinocchio. The basic plot will be familiar to anyone who's seen Disney's version, but the story is much richer than the cartoon format allowed for. The actors in this version are superb, particularly Manfredi as Gepetto and Franchi and Ingrassia as the cat and the fox. It's well worth renting, if you can find it -- and it's probably better for adults to watch with older kids, given that some of the villains in the story are portrayed in a pretty scary way that the Disney cartoon glossed over.