Pinocchio (2022) review

You should know the gist by now (and if not, where have you been?): lonely woodworker Geppetto (Tom Hanks) crafts a male puppet and names it Pinocchio (voiced by Benjamin Evan Ainsworth), he makes a wish upon a star and it comes to life, upbeat Jiminy Cricket (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) is appointed as his "conscience" and then Pinocchio gets into a series of misadventures in a quest to become a "real boy" (including getting swallowed by Monstro!).  The Mouse is, for the umpteenth time, rooting through its own cupboards to "update" one of its old classics - instead of hiring the best and brightest and coming up with new storylines - and while the visuals are quite nice (particularly the Disney-themed cuckoo clocks and the entire Pleasure Island sequence) it feels mechanically plotted out, and the message about avoiding fame to acquire knowledge is accurate but this is definitely the wrong messenger (especially when you have Mr. Hanks in your movie).  If it encourages the little ones to watch the considerably better 1940 animated version, well ... Missione Compiuta!