Carlo Collodi's original 1883 fantasy novel is a cautionary tale about disobedience, while Disney’s 1940 musical fantasy is a sanitized coming-of-age adventure. There’s Robert Zemeckis’ jarring live-action version that is as soulless as it gets, and Guillermo Del Toro’s breathtaking stop-motion animation that turns Pinocchio into a complex source of chaotic desires. In a sense, the story of Marvel's Vision, stretched across multiple movies and shows from Avengers: Age of Ultron to VisionQuest, is a riff on the classic tale as well.
No matter the differences, Pinocchio works because it taps into the universal desire to belong. At its core, it's the story of a puppet who longs to be a real boy, but this desire comes with its own set of challenges. Steven Spielberg’s criminally underrated 2001 sci-fi fantasy, A.I.
Artificial Intelligence, which he worked on with Stanley Kubrick and completed after Kubrick's untimely death, is an atypical retelling of Pinocchio. Set in the 22nd century, the film unfolds in a world that has been destroyed by a deadly climate crisis. There are no wooden puppets here, but an artificial boy, or mecha (humanoid robot) named David (Haley Joel Osment), longs to be a “real” boy as he yearns for the love of his mother.
If you’re interested in this bleak Spielbergian tale, you’ll be pleased to know that A.I. Artificial Intelligence is currently streaming on Peacock. Monica (Frances O'Connor) and Henry (Sam Robards) are devastated parents.
Their son, Martin (Jake Thomas), is in a long-term coma due to a rare disease. To ease their pain, Henry brings home a prototype mecha child that is capable of experiencing unconditional love once its imprinting protocol is activated. This android child, David, seems both naive and creepy, but shows tenderness towards Monica, who activates a line of code that triggers his programming to love her forever.
David cannot participate in everyday human activities like sleeping or eating, but does his best to mimic and integrate. David also befriends Martin’s robotic teddy bear, aptly named Teddy. Martin is unexpectedly cured some time later, and his return home creates a host of problems for David.
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