Pinocchio (2002) Rated G Starring: Roberto Benigni, Nicoletta Braschi, and Carlo Giuffré Rating: out of

Benigni, who's also known for his uncontrollable enthusiasm at the 1999 Academy Award ceremony, decided it would be a good idea to remake the classic children's tale of Pinocchio, the puppet who wanted to be a boy but got into a lot of trouble along the way. Maybe not a bad idea. Casting his 50 year old self as the puppet was a bad idea. Bringing this film, originally shot in its native Italian tongue, to America with a dubbed-in-English dialogue track was an even worse idea.

Benigni, who co-wrote the screenplay and also directed, constantly overacts as the puppet Pinocchio. His mannerisms seem even more disturbing with the voice of Breckin Meyer (Rat Race) emanating from his mouth. Because there's a need to match the movements of Benigni's mouth with English dialogue, Meyer never shuts up. (Which isn't his fault.) The result is Benigni flailing around with the high-pitched voice of Meyer providing a running account of every on-screen action. In a word, this is annoying.

A children's movie, especially an adaptation of a classic fairy tale, should prove itself able to keep its audience's attention. Frankly, there's not much for little ones to grab onto here. Aside from Benigni's intolerable performance, there's very little going on in Pinocchio that would count as attention-getting. I will say, however, that the special effects, most notably the CGI monster shark and the rats leading the Blue Fairy's carriage, are very well done and provide the only real magic in this otherwise soulless film.

Trivia: Roberto Benigni's wife, Nicoletta Braschi, plays The Blue Fairy. Her English voice is provided by Glenn Close. (Source: The Internet Movie Database)