Pinocchio Review: 4 Ups & 6 Downs
4. The Uneven Pacing
The 1940 movie itself has a relatively lazy, unfussed pace despite its seemingly reasonable 88-minute runtime, yet Zemeckis' remake commits the same sin as so many recent Disney remakes, of needlessly bloating itself out.
This new version is roughly 20 minutes longer than the animation, and given the relatively basic nature of Pinocchio's journey, you certainly feel that length by film's end.
The saggy, uneven pacing is most egregiously felt in the second act, once Pinocchio joins Stromboli's (Giuseppe Battiston) puppet show and things more-or-less grind to a halt.
Conversely, the third act feels like a frantic, rushed sprint, with nowhere near enough time being spent on the Monstro sequence, in turn undermining the tension and ultimate payoff.