Pinocchio on Netflix has a MUCH BETTER Rotten Tomatoes rating than the Disney version.
Just a few months apart, Netflix and Disney each published their own versions of Pinocchio, and their ratings on Rotten Tomatoes couldn’t be more dissimilar. How do the Pinocchio films by Robert Zemeckis and Guillermo del Toro, both with stellar casts and on Disney+ and Netflix respectively, compare in terms of Rotten Tomatoes reviews?
The Adventures of Pinocchio, a children’s novel by Italian author Carlo Lorenzini, served as the basis for the tale of Pinocchio. Although the narrative has seen many versions over the years, the 1940 Disney animated picture is probably the one that made it most well-known. While Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio is a stop-motion reinterpretation that places the puppet in the world of 1930s Italy with the advent of fascism, both Pinocchio films that were released in 2022 included Zemeckis’ live-action reproduction of the classic Disney animation. The two films’ contrasting Rotten Tomatoes ratings reflect their divergent approaches to the subject matter.
Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio Beats Disney Live-Action Version in Every Way According to Rotten Tomatoes
With a Rotten Tomatoes rating of 97 percent, Robert Zemeckis’ Disney+ Pinocchio’s 28 percent score is outperformed by 69 points by Guillermo del Toro’s Pinnochio on Netflix. The disparity is even more pronounced, according to Rotten Tomatoes’ hand-picked “Top Critics,” with the Disney+ version receiving a 15 percent rating compared to the Netflix version’s 94 percent rating.
When it comes to the Rotten Tomatoes audience score, the disparity is just as big. Audiences gave the Guillermo del Toro/Netflix version of Pinnochio an 89 percent score so far, while the Zemeckis/Disney Pinocchio just 29 percent, 60 points lower. The del Toro version only has a few audience-submitted reviews in Rotten Tomatoes so far, so that score could still change quite a bit, but it’s highly doubtful it’ll fall remotely close to the Rotten Tomatoes score of the Disney+ version.
Why The Netflix Version of Pinocchio’s Rotten Tomatoes Score is So Much Better Than Disney’s
The majority of the Netflix Pinocchio reviews were definitely counted as Fresh and the majority of the Disney+ Pinocchio reviews were plainly counted as Rotten. Rotten Tomatoes scores are merely a reflection of the percentage of a movie’s reviews that are classed as favourable. Given that both Del Toro and Zemeckis are very skilled directors and both films had a strong cast and crew, the difference may ultimately come down to approach. Disney’s live-action adaptations of beloved animated films have frequently come under fire for being too faithful to the original animation, and Pinocchio is no exception. Del Toro’s method, however, is a major departure from the original source material, offering viewers a novel interpretation of a well-known story while introducing new levels of political and emotional significance content to the story.
At the end of the day, all reviews are subjective. Both movies had fresh reviews and both movies had rotten reviews, so the ultimate Tomatometer score shouldn’t be taken as an absolute indication of how everyone will feel about each movie. Having said that, the extreme disparity between the two scores is a strong validation of del Toro’s approach for the Netflix version of Pinocchio, and it’ll be interesting to see if Disney continues with this same live-action adaption strategy for other live-action remakes of their animated films going forward.