Why Changing This Part Of Disney’s Original Pinocchio Made Sense In The 2022 Remake

First, so that everyone’s working with the same basic information, let’s walk through the original ending from almost 100 years ago (check the math, we’re not wrong). When Geppetto and Pinocchio escape the bowels of Monstro the whale, they speed towards the shore in the tattered remains of a raft, desperate to achieve freedom. Monstro, for his part, is having none of this, and chases them with a rage that quite literally whips up a storm in his wake. The tinkerer and his puppet son make it to dry land, but only barely. Upon the sand, Geppetto discovers that the effort was too much for Pinocchio, who lays lifelessly, face down, in a puddle. It’s very dark. 

Gepetto takes Pinocchio home and, clearly in denial, puts him to bed. Shortly thereafter, the Blue Fairy (Cynthia Erivo in the new film) simultaneously revives Pinocchio and grants his wish to become a real boy.  Now a tiny, breathing human being, Pinocchio and Geppetto celebrate this new phase in the journey of their little family, and then the movie ends with a swell of beautiful music. 

This is not how the new movie comes to a close. 

Rewind to Geppetto and Pinocchio’s escape from Monstro who, in the new movie, is less of a whale and more of a many-tentacled whale-shaped sea beast. It’s all very “Final Fantasy.” In the 2022 film, the pair escape from Monstro in much the same manner but it’s not Pinocchio who dies … rather, it’s Geppetto. Pinocchio finds him upon the sand, unresponsive and still. When he realizes what that means, Pinocchio begins to cry. He also begins to sing, humming the tune of “When You Wish Upon a Star” as a single tear falls on Geppetto’s cheek.