I watched this because on Whose Line is it Anyway they always brought it up to mock it. Before I finally sat down to see it, I read the reviews here on IMDb and was surprised to find that virtually everyone seemed to love it so much. I had no idea what to expect going in.
The story is essentially the plot of the 1940 Pinocchio except told from the point of view of his father, Geppetto. It's a parable about the hardships of parenting, which isn't as easy as the toymaker had hoped it would be once he gets a son of his own. Believing Pinocchio is somehow defective since he doesn't listen to the rules or wish to be exactly like him, he tries to get the Blue Fairy to correct her "mistake", causing the puppet to run away. The rest of the plot concerns Geppetto's quest to find him and make things right, learning about parental love along the way.
It's not a bad premise; actually, it's quite interesting, however, I just didn't care for the execution. If the 1940 animated film was a watered down version of Collodi's original book, then Geppetto is a watered down version of the 1940 animated film. It felt rather cloying to me.. I didn't find the musical numbers that memorable save for a scene where Geppetto and the Blue Fairy seem to be channeling Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, though I will admit Drew Carey has a pretty good voice. It's not technically perfect, but he lends the right amount of emotion. Most of the acting was quite good too, though I did find Julia Louis-Dreyfus as the Blue Fairy to be grating. The production values are wanting, but I didn't expect anything too elaborate as this is a television movie after all.
Geppetto is not a terrible movie; it's a cute little musical that's not too elaborate, and judging from everyone else's reactions, they really enjoyed it. I'm just probably missing something.
