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A14 PEOPLE / ARTS
Friday 9 September 2022
Review: Jiminy Cricket! A live-action ‘Pinocchio’

By JAKE COYLE Dee (An Actor’s Life For
AP Film Writer Me)” has a different reso-
After a string of live-action nance in a movie where
remakes, from “Beauty actors compete with CGI
and the Beast” to “The Lion creations for oxygen.
King,” the Walt Disney Co. The best reason to see “Pi-
has finally gotten around nocchio” is, unsurprisingly,
to “ Pinocchio.” Along Hanks, who brings a soulful
the way, there have been melancholy to Geppetto.
some nice performances, It’s a corollary to Hanks’
enormous heaps of CGI performance as another
and, lest anyone forget, European-accented per-
one very blue Will Smith. formance as Presley man-
Whether any of these mov- ager Tom Parker in “Elvis.”
ies have done much to im- Only in that film, Hanks was
prove the originals is very the one pulling the strings
much up for debate, and on a big-tent star. Or when
undertaking “Pinocchio” Pinocchio’s nose shoots out
poses even more particular This image released by Disney shows Tom Hanks as Geppetto in Disney’s live-action film and Jiminy teeters on it like
challenges. Most pressing: “Pinocchio.” how Gordon-Levitt, as high-
What you do with Pinoc- Associated Press wire artist Philippe Petit, did
chio? Nice kid and all. A is no real boy, at all. Wish Upon a Star,” Jiminy keeps much of the 1940 at a higher altitude in “The
little wooden. But if we’re It’s also one of two ad- Cricket (voiced by Joseph film’s narrative shape but Walk.”
being honest here, he’s al- aptations of the fairy tale Gordon-Levitt) floats down maintains little of its tension If I’m picking a modern
ways been a bit of a dud. coming this fall. Zemeckis’ under an umbrella to stake as a morality tale. Pleasure marionette to dance with,
Do you cast a young actor “Pinocchio” premieres claim to the studio theme Island feels too much like it’s “Annette,” Leos Carax’s
to play the puppet once Thursday on Disney+. Later song. “Isn’t that a catchy where rafts of financially 2021 wild and wonderful
brought to life? Alongside comes a stop-motion ver- little tune?” he asks. motivated remakes like (and not so family friendly)
some live performers (Tom sion by Guillermo del Toro. But aside from any poi- “Pinocchio” might prop- musical opus with a simple,
Hanks, Cynthia Erivo) and The directors are magi- gnant corporate lineage, erly reside. This time, the hand-crafted puppet at
some CGI characters, di- cians both, and they will the original “Pinocchio” story penned by Zemeckis the center of another op-
rector Robert Zemeckis surely have radically differ- remains about as pure an and Chris Weitz feels like era about art and parent-
has used computer imag- ent takes on the old Italian example of Disney at its ar- it’s lurching from one set hood. In that film, what was
ery to render Pinocchio tale. In a few months, we’ll chetypal best as anything. piece or song-and-dance incongruous between the
(voiced by Benjamin Evan be able to compare them, Maurice Sendak once apt- number to another, with actors and the puppet was
Ainsworth) much in the nose to nose. Zemeckis’ ly described it as possessing cameos from Erivo (in the part of the film’s strange
style and vocal pitch of the film opens with a reminder “the golden glamour of a flesh, as the Blue Fairy and drama. It was fitfully ridicu-
1940 cartoon. The effect is of how foundational “Pin- lost era; it is a monument to “Wish Upon a Star” singer) lous and emotionally dev-
an awkward fusion of fake occhio” has been to the an age of craft and quality and Keegan-Michael Key, astating, and a reminder
and real that strains to find Disney myth-making ma- in America.” Zemeckis’ film, as the voice of the decep- that real boy, or not, it
any magic in between. This chine. As the familiar castle in its ways just as represen- tive red fox Honest John. makes no difference who
“Pinocchio,” unfortunately, logo plays with “When You tative of its cinematic era, Certainly, “Hi-Diddle-Dee- are you.q

Bernard Shaw, CNN’s 1st chief anchor,

dies at 82

By DAVID BAUDER when the U.S. led its inva- in 1980.
AP Media Writer sion of Iraq in 1991 to liber- He moderated a presi-
NEW YORK (AP) — Bernard ate Kuwait, with CNN airing dential debate in 1988
Shaw, CNN’s chief anchor stunning footage of air- between George W. Bush
for two decades and a pio- strikes and anti-aircraft fire and Michael Dukakis. His
neering Black broadcast in the capital city. first question to the Demo-
journalist best remembered “In all of the years of pre- crat Dukakis, an opponent
for calmly reporting the be- paring to being anchor, of the death penalty, was
ginning of the Gulf War in one of the things I strove for whether he would want
1991 as missiles flew around was to be able to control that sentence applied to
him in Baghdad, has died. my emotions in the midst someone who raped and
He was 82. of hell breaking out,” Shaw murdered the candidate’s CNN anchorman Bernard Shaw appears on set at the network’s
He died of pneumonia on said in a 2014 interview with wife. Atlanta headquarters on Friday, Nov. 10, 2000.
Wednesday at a hospital in NPR. “And I personally feel His striking on-the-scene Associated Press
Washington, according to that I passed my stringent work in Baghdad, with cor- sion news. King paid tribute to Shaw’s
Tom Johnson, CNN’s former test for that in Baghdad.” respondents Peter Arnett “He put CNN on the map,” “soft-spoken yet booming
chief executive. Shaw was a former U.S. and John Holliman, was said Frank Sesno, a former voice” and said he was a
Shaw was at CNN for 20 Marine who worked as a crucial in establishing CNN CNN Washington bureau mentor and role model to
years and was known for reporter at CBS and ABC when it was the only cable chief and now a professor many.
remaining cool under pres- News before taking on the news network and broad- at George Washington Uni- “Bernard Shaw exemplified
sure. That was a hallmark chief anchor role at CNN cast outlets at ABC, CBS versity. excellence in his life,” John-
of his Baghdad coverage when the network began and NBC dominated televi-
On Twitter, CNN’s John son said.q