Pinocchio’s live-action trailer makes him look less like a real boy than ever

Disney’s never-ending parade of live-action remakes continues with an adaptation of 1940’s animated movie Pinocchio headed to Disney Plus later this year. In the latest trailer for the new movie, we get a look at Tom Hanks’ Geppetto, and a lot of CGI. The movie was also directed by Robert Zemeckis, who is reteaming with Hanks for the first time since 2004’s Polar Express. Pinocchio is set for release on “Disney Plus Day,” the company’s annual day of previews and release news. This year, it falls on Sept. 8.

The trailer should certainly look familiar to anyone who remembers the original animated movie. Toymaker Geppetto (who got his own disturbing movie musical in 2000) creates a wooden puppet named Pinocchio, though he looks a lot more like plastic in this trailer. Then Pinocchio comes to life, and dreams of being a real boy. The puppet then goes on adventures, including but not limited to: hanging out with a cricket named Jiminy, getting sold to a circus, and getting swallowed by a whale.

Disney’s string of live-action adaptations of its animated classics started in earnest after the success of Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland in 2010. Since then, the effort has resulted in movies of varying quality but undoubtable box-office success, with Aladdin, The Lion King, The Jungle Book, and Beauty and the Beast all crossing a billion dollars globally. The last several live-action remakes have gone straight to Disney Plus, just like Pinocchio will. They include Mulan, Lady and the Tramp, and the hybrid release Cruella.

Along with Hanks’ Geppetto, Pinocchio will also star Cynthia Erivo (Bad Times At the El Royale, The Outsider) as The Blue Fairy, who sings the classic Disney song “When you Wish Upon a Star” in this trailer. Other cast includes Luke Evans (Beauty and the Beast) as the Coachman, Keegan-Michael Key (Key and Peele) as the voice of Honest the fox, and Joseph Gordon-Levitt (The Dark Knight Rises) as the voice of Jiminy Cricket.

Surprisingly, this is the third Pinocchio project currently on the way in one form or another. Along with Zemeckis’ Disney movie, there’s also an adaptation of the original Carlo Collodi children’s novel coming from Guillermo del Toro at Netflix, and a baffling video game called The Lies of P, which combines Bloodborne-style combat with the story of wooden doll with the growing nose.