Pinocchio

Roberto Benigni directs and stars in this Italian family comedy based on Carlo Collodi's classic tale. Geppetto, a woodcarver who longs for a son, shapes a puppet from an enchanted piece of wood, and a magical fairy brings it to life. The wooden boy, mischievous and easily led, wants nothing more than to become a real child. His path there is full of distractions: a puppet theatre run by the fearsome Mangiafuoco, a pair of swindlers after his gold coins, and the promise of endless play. The film places Benigni's Pinocchio at the centre of a large-scale production filled with talking animals and fantastical characters.

Benigni took the lead role himself, with Nicoletta Braschi as the Blue Fairy and Carlo Giuffrè as Geppetto. He wrote the screenplay with Vincenzo Cerami, his collaborator on Life Is Beautiful, and the film followed that Oscar-winning feature in his directing career, arriving before The Tiger and the Snow. It was a costly Italian production, made for around 40 million dollars and released in October 2002.

The response from audiences was muted. On IMDb the film holds a rating of 4.3 from many thousands of votes, while on TMDB it sits at 5.7 from a smaller number. A critics' rating of 2.8 from over fifty reviews points to a similar reception. Its worldwide box office of roughly 41 million dollars fell short of its budget.