Geppetto

Geppetto is a lonely woodcarver who longs for a child of his own. He carves a puppet he names Pinocchio, and when a magical Blue Fairy brings the wooden boy to life, Geppetto finally has the son he wanted. The bond between them soon breaks down, though, and Pinocchio runs off to join a travelling puppet show. Geppetto sets out to find him, learning along the way what it means to be a father.

The 2000 American television film was directed by Tom Moore, whose only other feature credited here is the 1986 drama 'night, Mother. Drew Carey stars as Geppetto, with Julia Louis-Dreyfus as the Blue Fairy, Brent Spiner as Stromboli, René Auberjonois as Prof Buonragazzo, Usher as the Ring Leader, and Seth Adkins as Pinocchio. It runs 89 minutes and was produced by Disney Branded Television with Karz Entertainment and James Pentecost Productions on a budget of 13 million dollars.

Audience response has been modest: on IMDb it holds a rating of 5.3 from 845 votes, while on TMDB it scores 6.2 from just 18 votes, a small sample that makes that higher figure less telling than the larger IMDb poll. The film belongs to the family and fantasy genres and retells the Pinocchio story with an emphasis on the father's side of it.